Bill Bain (director)

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Bill Bain (18 December 1929 in Wauchope, New South Wales, Australia – 21 February 1982 in London, England) was an Australian television and film director.

Biography[]

Australia[]

Bill Bain originally trained as a school teacher but became a pioneer of Australian television after he joined the fledgling Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the 1950s.[1]

In Australia he directed the country's first TV pantomime for Christmas in 1959.[2]

He also directed the TV plays Corinth House (1961) and Funnel Web (1962).

Britain[]

He directed numerous episodes of British television series, including Emerald Soup, The Avengers, Redcap, Enemy at the Door, The Brack Report, The Duchess of Duke Street and Armchair Theatre.[3] For Amicus he directed a feature film What Ever Happened to Jack and Jill?.[4]

Bain returned to Australia briefly in 1973 where he lamented the quality of local television.[5] He came back in 1975 to attempt to set up a $1 million feature about opal mining. "For too long we've been raped by other people who have come in, made a film and then left."[6]

He won an Emmy Award in 1975 for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for his work on the Upstairs, Downstairs episode "The Sudden Storm".[7]

In 1968 he married the British actress Rosemary Frankau and they had two sons Matthew and Sam Bain.[8]

He left Australia in 1963 but returned for three months in 1979 to be a consultant at the Film and Television School. He died in St Stephens Hospital in London aged 52.[9] The cause of his death was melanoma.

Select filmography[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Introducing Bill Bain". ABC Weekly. p. 44.
  2. ^ "No Ill Will at Christmas". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 30 December 1959. p. 42. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  3. ^ "DID YOU KNOW?". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 22 April 1964. p. 16. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  4. ^ Vagg, Stephen (28 June 2020). "Ten random Australian connections with Hammer Films". Filmink.
  5. ^ "Cueing in the Cucumbers". Sydney Morning Herald. 19 March 1973. p. 53.
  6. ^ "Director in Talks on $1 m Aust film". Sydney Morning Herald. 3 November 1975. p. 2.
  7. ^ "'Upstairs chap'down under Bill Bain home with an Emmy". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 24 November 1975. p. 3. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  8. ^ "SOCIAL ROUNDABOUT". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 29 May 1968. p. 10. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  9. ^ "Film director found success in England". Sydney Morning Herald. 23 February 1982. p. 10.
  10. ^ "TV serial a multi-nation affair". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 23 October 1963. p. 17. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  11. ^ "TELEVISION Miss Jones' new format". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 29 March 1968. p. 13. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.
  12. ^ "Kangaroo Valley' play on BBC". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 7 November 1969. p. 17. Retrieved 5 February 2020 – via Trove.

External links[]


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