June Wyndham Davies


June Wyndham Davies is a British television producer and director. For her work as co-producer of the film August, starring and directed by Anthony Hopkins, she won the BAFTA Wales award for Best Drama in 1997. She is also a writer, having written several short stories and plays, including Green Shutters.

Life and career

June Wyndham Davies was born in Cardiff in 1929 to Mervyn and Despina Wyndham Davies of Llandaff. Her father served as an officer in World War II and her mother, eldest daughter of the engineer and inventor James Wyndham, had been a ballet dancer. She attended Elm Tree House convent before moving to London to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, thereafter working for several years as an actress.
Wyndham Davies entered the TV industry as a BBC director in 1965, when most television drama was made almost as-live in the studio. She directed 30 Minute Theatre, Sunday Afternoon Theatre and Out of Town Theatre, as well as single plays such as The House Mouse, Why Me? ''The Heart Grows Cold and The Lariat. She also devised, wrote and directed the six-part documentary series Why Would You Believe It?, based on the idea of truth often being stranger than fiction.
Going freelance in 1969, Wyndham Davies continued her career with several TV companies – among them the BBC, Anglia, Granada, and Yorkshire – directing Boy Meets Girl, Love Story, The Dolly Spike, The Folly and Don’t Shoot the Cook. She also moved into directing episodes for long-running television series and serials, including Coronation Street, Castle Haven, Kate and Crown Court, together with television adaptations of children's classics, such as Pollyanna and Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, which received a 1975 Emmy nomination in the United States for best television serial. From 1976 onwards, Wyndham Davies worked almost exclusively for Granada Television, producing dark and thought-provoking dramas, often dealing with the supernatural, as well as Victorian crime themes, as in the groundbreaking Cribb series, with Alan Dobie in the title role.
With a knack for spotting talent, Wyndham Davies gave the young Michael Caine his first chance in theatre, along with providing early opportunities for Rhys Ifans and Hugh Grant. Her inspired casting ideas whilst working for the Drama Department at Granada included suggesting Jeremy Brett for the title role in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Wyndham Davies went on to produce the second series, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, as well as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in 1994 and several feature-length television films, including Sherlock Holmes – The Sign of Four''.

Awards

Selected filmography

Producer

Send in the GirlsThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Director

Crown CourtHeidi
  • ''Pollyanna''

Actress

  • 1963-1964 - Compact -Radiographer / Mrs. Stenton
  • 1964 - On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen! - Mrs.Stenton
  • 1963 - Shock Tactics - Radiographer
  • 1963 - On the Edge - Radiographer
  • 1964 - Curtain of Fear Secretary
  • 1964 - The Linton Compact - Secretary
  • 1958 - Saturday Playhouse - Secretary to Mrs. Wentross
  • 1958 – Trespass - Secretary to Mrs. Wentross

Director

1986 - Shades of Darkness
  • Agatha Christie's The Last Seance
1980-1981 - Cribb
  • Mad Hatter's Holiday
  • Swing, Swing Together
  • Waxwork
1981 - Christmas Spirits
1979 - Screenplay
1973-1977 - Crown Court
  • One for the Road: Part 1
  • The Personator: Part 1
  • A Case of Murder: Part 1
  • Traffic Warden's Daughter: Part 1
  • A Message to Ireland: Part 3
1975-1976 - Coronation Street
  • Episode #1.1655
  • Episode #1.1481
1974 - Heidi
1973 - Pollyanna
1970-1972 - Kate
  • Back to Square One
  • A Nice Rest
  • Accidents Will Happen
  • The Woman Behind the Man
  • I Belong to Somebody
1969 - Who-Dun-It
  • Don't Shoot the Cook
1967 - Boy Meets Girl
  • Love with a Few Hairs

Producer

1998 -The Cater Street Hangman
1996 - August
1994 -The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
•The Three Gables
1990 - Made in Heaven
1989 - The Heat of the Day
1988 - The Hound of the Baskervilles
1986-1988 - The Return of Sherlock Holmes
1987 - The Sign of Four
1987 - The Death of the Heart
1983-1986 - Shades of Darkness
  • Agatha Christie's The Last Seance
  • The Demon Lover
  • Bewitched
  • Seaton's Aunt
  • The Maze
1981 - The Member for Chelsea
  • Episode #1.3
  • Episode #1.2
  • Episode #1.1
1980-1981 - Cribb
1981 - Christmas Spirits
1978 - Send in the Girls
  • Goosepimples
  • Chickabiddy
  • Beware the Gentle People
  • Away All Boats
  • A Hardy Breed of Girl
1966 - Out of Town Theatre
  • Why Me?