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

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 Date1962-08-16

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count9

Vote Count2

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 Date1985-09-01

DepartmentCreator

JobCreator

Vote Count8

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 Date1960-10-31

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count39

Vote Count11

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 Date1977-09-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count11

King of the River

A completely lost BBC1 drama series centred on the King family, who love, live, fight and work around a harbour in the Thames estuary.

Release Date1966-07-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

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 Date1967-03-28

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Episode Count27

Vote Count1

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 Date1968-07-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count1

Moonstrike

An anthology 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.

Release Date1963-02-21

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Episode Count27

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 Date1970-04-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

The Fourth Arm

Starring Paul Shelley in a role reminiscent of his Secret Army character in all but name, this 12-part serial follows a team of secret agents parachuted into occupied Europe during World War II, exploring their recruitment, training, and first mission behind enemy lines.

Release Date1983-01-07

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Episode Count12

Vote Count1

The Men From Room 13

Release Date1959-11-02

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

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 Date1972-09-25

DepartmentCreator

JobCreator

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 Date1972-10-19

DepartmentCreator

JobCreator

Vote Count12

Buccaneer

Buccaneer is a short-lived television series, made by the BBC in 1979–80, and broadcast over 13 weeks in April–July 1980. The series, about a developing air freight business, starred Bryan Marshall, Pamela Salem and Clifford Rose, and was produced by Gerard Glaister. The aircraft that "starred" in the series was a Bristol Britannia of Redcoat Air Cargo, registration G-BRAC, which wore the markings of "Redair", the name of the fictional airline in the series. Only one series was produced due to the Bristol Britannia G-BRAC crash near Boston, Mass., on 16 February 1980, shortly after the completion of filming. Of the eight passengers, seven were killed, and only one survived, albeit seriously injured.

Release Date1980-04-27

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Episode Count13

Vote Count1

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 Date1981-11-13

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Episode Count6

Vote Count4

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 Date1975-08-26

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count1

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 Date1963-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Share Out

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

Release Date1962-02-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

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 Date1959-08-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Partner

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

Release Date1963-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Clue of the Silver Key

The police investigate the murder of a wealthy old man.

Release Date1961-08-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

Cold Warrior

Head of SIS, Capt. Aubrey Percival (Blood Money and Skorpian) has put a team together to stop the arms industry selling secretly to the USSR.

Release Date1984-09-12

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Episode Count8

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 Date1986-10-27

Episode Count1

Vote Count2