Peter Moffatt, tv director R.I.P.

[julian_craster]

The Times
November 16, 2007


Obituary: Peter Moffatt
Actor and director who was responsible for some of television's most popular dramas

In a career spanning nearly 30 years Peter Moffatt directed some of television's most popular dramas. They included Doctor Who, on which he was responsible for 19 episodes between 1980 and 1985, guiding three different doctors in Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker.

He also directed Doctor Who: The Five Doctors, a feature-length special for the show's 20th anniversary in 1983. Davison went on to play Tristan Farnon in the country vet series All Creatures Great and Small, on which Moffatt became a regular director in the late Eighties.

Although he directed television adaptations of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane and the Frederick Lonsdale comedy, On Approval (both in 1968), Moffatt worked mainly on series with established formats rather than on single plays.
He was essentially a reliable craftsman who could turn his hand to a variety of work, from the science-fiction fantasies of Doctor Who to the grim realism of the prison drama, Within These Walls, always doing a professional job.

Moffatt was born in Newington, Kent, and attended Bootham School in York. He joined the RAF during the Second World War but was shot down and captured and spent three and a half years in the German prison camp, Stalag Luft III, made famous by The Great Escape. During this time he helped to stage more than 100 productions of plays for fellow prisoners.

After the war he became an actor, joining the Colchester repertory under Joan Kemp-Welch. They began a long relationship and eventually married. When she took over the Wilson Barrett company in Edinburgh he went with her, writing revues as well as acting.
In 1955 Kemp-Welch moved into television, where she was to have a distinguished career, and helped Moffatt, never more than a competent actor, to make the switch to direction.

He started to make his mark in the 1960s when he worked on the popular ITV shows, Crane, starring Patrick Allen as a Morcocco-based adventurer, and No Hiding Place, the Scotland Yard series with Raymond Francis.
In the early 1980s he directed episodes of the police series The Gentle Touch and Juliet Bravo, both of which were notable for the time for featuring a woman as the central character.

He married Kemp-Welch in 1959. Although she was older by 17 years, it was a successful union which lasted until her death in 1959. There were no children.

Peter Moffatt, actor and television director, was born in April 15, 1922. He died on October 21, 2007, aged 85

[batman]

His work on The Huggetts and the Brett Sherlock Holmes series gave me a lot of enjoyment.

RIP Peter.

Bats.

[JamesM]

Huggetts? Don't you mean Peter Hammond?

[batman]

You're right .... I am getting him mixed up with Peter Hammond. You're a mod JamesM, please delete my posts in this thread.

Bats.

[Nick Dando]

"You're a mod JamesM, please delete my posts in this thread"

He might be a rocker for all you know!

Nick

[batman]

Originally Posted by Nick Dando "You're a mod JamesM, please delete my posts in this thread" He might be a rocker for all you know! Nick

Very good.

Bats.

[Aaryk Noctivagus]

Originally Posted by julian_craster He also directed Doctor Who: The Five Doctors, a feature-length special for the show's 20th anniversary in 1983. Davison went on to play Tristan Farnon in the country vet series All Creatures Great and Small, on which Moffatt became a regular director in the late Eighties.

Just a correction. 'All Creatures Great and Small' came mostly BEFORE Peter Davison's stint on 'Doctor Who' and, to a lesser extent, after.

Peter Davison's birth name was actually Peter Moffett!!!