Roy Oxley

Roy Oxley (9 March 1905 - 1980) was a production designer at BBC television who became famous after the BBC chose him to model for a photo to be shown during their adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty Four.

Oxley began working in set design in 1948, as an art decorator in the movie London Belongs to Me. He would also oversee the art decoration of the 1949 movie, Passport to Pimlico.

Oxley had been working for some years as set decorator for BBC when he was chosen, as an in-house joke, to model for the character of "Big Brother" in Nineteen Eighty-Four. "Big Brother" was not actually a participating character in the program; his face was only shown on various posters and billboards seen during the adaptation.

Oxley worked at several other productions as a production designer with the BBC, including seven episodes of the Douglas Wilmer version of Sherlock Holmes and various episodes of Z-Cars. In 1969, he won a BAFTA Award for the design of the BBC play The Portrait of a Lady.