Gerard Glaister

One of Britain's foremost television producers, Gerard Glaister was responsible for a string of top rating hit series including Dr Finlay's Casebook, Secret Army, Colditz, The Expert and Howard's Way. Glaister was born in 1915, the son of a Royal Navy surgeon. He studied acting at RADA and made his West End acting debut in 1939 before serving in the RAF. During the war he was the skipper of a Blenheim bomber and then became a photo reconnaisance pilot in the Western Desert, where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. After being demobbed he worked in repertory before joining the BBC as a director in 1957. He worked for nine years on BBC's Dr Finlay's Casebook, the Scottish medical drama which starred Bill Simpson and Andrew Cruickshank. In 1968 he produced the BBC2 drama series, The Expert, which featured Marius Goring as a pathologist helping police with their investigations. Glaister produced more than 30 television series and in his later career he both produced and devised the air freight company series Buccaneer (1980) and Trainer (1991), a BBC weekly drama in which a young trainer tries to succeed in the competitive world of horse racing. Shortly after Trainer finished Glaister retired from television.

Works

Open Air

Open Air was BBC1's flagship programme for their new daytime service which began on 27 October 1986. It discussed all aspects of television and also tried to answer any questions which viewers had.

Release Date: 1986-10-27

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 2

Howards' Way

The BBC's answer to Dynasty, Howards' Way was launched in 1985 with an enormous 1 million pound budget. The main characters in the show were 'best boat designer in the world' Tom Howard, his boutique running wife Jan Howard, 'I'll have a drink' Jack Rolfe and a nasty man called Ken Masters. It starred Maurice Colbourne.

Release Date: 1985-09-01

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 7

The Fourth Arm

The twelve-part serial dealt with secret agents parachuted into occupied Europe during the Second World War, following their progress through initial recruitment and training, and finally their first mission in enemy territory.

Release Date: 1983-01-07

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Episode Count: 12

Vote Count: 1

Kessler

Drama series about the attempts to unmask Ludwig Kessler, the fictional head of the Gestapo in Belgium from the series SECRET ARMY, who escaped punishment, changed his name to Manfred Dorf, and became a successful businessman.

Release Date: 1981-11-13

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Episode Count: 6

Vote Count: 4

Secret Army

World War II drama about covert organisation Lifeline helping allied airmen escape after being shot down in occupied Europe, working with the Resistance and hiding from the Gestapo.

Release Date: 1977-09-07

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 10

Oil Strike North

Oil Strike North is a BBC television drama series produced in 1975. The series was created and produced by Gerard Glaister and dealt with life on Nelson One, a North Sea oil rig owned by the fictional company Triumph Oil. Eschewing the corporate power struggles of Mogul / The Troubleshooters and concentrating on more personal storylines, Oil Strike North was essentially a character study of how workers faced life on the rig and the impact it had on the lives of their families and loved ones. The scenario was later revived by the BBC for the mid-1990s drama Roughnecks. Oil Strike North lasted for one series of thirteen episodes. The leading cast members included Nigel Davenport, Glyn Owen, Barbara Shelley, Angela Douglas, Andrew Robertson, Richard Hurndall, Sean Caffrey and Maurice Roëves. Gerard Glaister later moved onto to produce the Second World War resistance drama Secret Army, the air freight series Buccaneer and then onto the boating soap serial Howards' Way. Two of the leading actors in Oil Strike North, Nigel Davenport and Glyn Owen, also later appeared in Howards' Way.

Release Date: 1975-08-26

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 1

Colditz

Colditz is a British television series co-produced by the BBC and Universal Studios and screened between 1972 and 1974. The series deals with Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle when designated Oflag IV-C during World War II, and their many attempts to escape captivity, as well as the relationships formed between the various nationalities and their German captors.

Release Date: 1972-10-19

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 12

The Long Chase

Tom Corby and his son John are bird watching, by the cliffs, when he spots a number of strangers. John goes to help a girl cut off from land. When he returns his dad has vanished.

Release Date: 1972-09-25

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Codename

Codename, which premiered in April 1970, was about the secretive MI17 Spy Organisation of the same name based in the residential hall of a Cambridge College. Eventually the series attained a more international flavour, although its base was always in Great Britain. Primarily Codename dealt with the themes of espionage and counter-espionage at the time of the Cold War of the sixties. Its cast contained many of Great Britain's most versatile and talented actors.

Release Date: 1970-04-07

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

The Expert

The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by actors such as John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.

Release Date: 1968-07-05

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 2

The Revenue Men

The Revenue Men is a British television series, produced and transmitted by the BBC between 1967 and 1968. The series dealt with cases handled by the Investigation Branch of Customs and Excise such as the illegal import of goods, illegal immigration and business transactions amongst travellers. The Revenue Men was produced by Gerard Glaister. The series lasted for three series and 39 episodes in total. In spite of this fact, all of the episodes were later wiped, with no episodes extant in the BBC archives as of 2009.

Release Date: 1967-03-28

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Episode Count: 27

Vote Count: 1

King of the River

King of the River is a British television series transmitted by the BBC between 1966 and 1967. The series centred around the King family and their efforts to maintain their sail-driven barge transport business.

Release Date: 1966-07-06

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 2

Moonstrike

Moonstrike is a British television series produced by the BBC in 1963. The series was an anthology programme: a collection of self-contained stories about acts of resistance in occupied Europe during the Second World War. Producer Gerard Glaister drew upon his own wartime experiences, having served as a pilot in the RAF. Most of the music for the series was provided by composer Dudley Simpson, and was some of his first work in the field of composing 'incidental music'.

Release Date: 1963-02-21

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Episode Count: 27

The Set Up

Arthur Payne, recently out of prison, meets a stranger, Theo Gaunt, on a train and explains his situation. A few days later another stranger makes a curious proposition. Arthur should participate in a fake robbery and remove some imitation jewellery from the stranger's own safe.

Release Date: 1963-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

The Partner

A tax avoidance scheme by a film producer leads to murder and the theft of £300,000.

Release Date: 1963-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Dr. Finlay's Casebook

Dr Finlay's Casebook is a television series that was broadcast on the BBC from 1962 until 1971. Based on A. J. Cronin's novella ‘Country Doctor’, the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the late 1920s. Cronin was the primary writer for the show between 1962 and 1964.

Release Date: 1962-08-16

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 9

Vote Count: 2

The Share Out

A gang of high class corporate thieves use blackmail to induce their victims to sell property at knock-down prices.

Release Date: 1962-02-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1

Clue of the Silver Key

The police investigate the murder of a wealthy old man.

Release Date: 1961-08-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1

Maigret

BBC series based on the novels by Georges Simenon which starred Rupert Davies as Inspector Maigret, a French police detective who preferred to watch and listen in order to solve crimes. The series ran from 1960-63 on British television.

Release Date: 1960-10-31

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 39

Vote Count: 11

The Men From Room 13

Release Date: 1959-11-02

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 3

The Traitor

In wartime, an English spy must go into neutral territory to murder a fellow-Englishman who has been working for the enemy.

Release Date: 1959-08-07

Department: Directing

Job: Director