Bill Bain (director)

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

This article is about the film director. For other uses of this name, see Bill Bain (disambiguation).

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.


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