Haldane Duncan

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Haldane Duncan
Born	Haldane Duncan July 25, 1945 (1945-07-25) (age 62) Edinburgh, Scotland
Occupation	Television producer and director
Known for	Director: Take the High Road (1980–88) Taggart (1986–90) Brookside (1996–2000) Emmerdale (1999–2007) Coronation Street (2000–04)

Haldane Duncan (born July 25, 1945, Edinburgh, Scotland^[1]) is a television producer and director, best known for his contributions to soap operas.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Early years 1.2 Expanding his horizons 1.3 The 1990s and a new century 1.4 Eight years in Emmerdale 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Early years

After gaining experience from about 1963 in Glasgow's Close Theatre, Duncan went to London in 1966, occupying a bed-sit in White City, and working as a "holiday relief" assistant floor manager for the BBC, on programmes such as Top of the Pops, the popular music television show which ran from 1964 to 2006, and the children's show, Crackerjack, hosted by Eamonn Andrews. He then worked on shows starring Dusty Springfield, recorded at the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd's Bush.^[2]

In the late 1960s, they sent Duncan back to work in his native country, for BBC Scotland, although he still spent "an inordinate amount of time in London" on training courses.^[3] Whilst with them, he was involved in the production of Dr. Finlay's Casebook, which starred Andrew Cruickshank, Bill Simpson and Barbara Mullen.^[4]

He eventually moved to Scottish Television, the ITV regional station, where he began producing and directing. From 1977 to 1981 he was in charge of their In Concert productions, beginning with one featuring Barbara Dickson on February 7, 1977.^[5] By 1979, he was making documentaries^[6] and in 1980 began adding drama to his output.^[7] It was around this time that "ITV wanted a daytime soap from Scotland but had no interest in Garnock Way, the weekly serial that STV made for local consumption", and so Duncan was set to work on Take the High Road (initially named The Glendhu Factor and then High Road - Low Road, finally settling on the title by which it was known until 1994, when it changed to just High Road).^[8]

He directed the Hogmanay Show in December 1981, which traditionally saw out the old year and brought in the new,^[9] and in 1982 covered an outside broadcast from the Edinburgh Festival of Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde.^[10] In the same year, he directed one of a "[s]eries of plays by new writers" under the banner Preview.^[11]

[edit] Expanding his horizons

In 1982, Duncan returned south of the border briefly to direct episodes of the soap opera Brookside for Channel 4^[12] before returning to Scottish Television in 1983 to make the drama The Old Master, commissioned by London Weekend Television and starring Andrew Keir and Rowena Cooper.^[13] He had continued to direct episodes of Take the High Road well into 1984,^[14] but still found time to make the TV film Midnight Feast, for STV on behalf of Channel 4, in that year. It told the story of "[t]wo public schoolboys [who] gain access to the housemaster's personal files during a midnight feast".^[15]

Duncan produced the three-part story "Murder in Season" from the popular Scottish TV series Taggart in 1985,^[16] and he would go on to direct six complete storylines within the show between 1986 and 1990.^[17] His other major television contribution in 1985 featured the Scottish folk music band The Corries and their regular guests, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, in a six-part series he produced and directed, entitled The Corries and Other Folk.^[18]

Apart from his Taggart work in 1986, he also oversaw a televised Scottish Opera performance of Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio on July 9, 1986.^[19] And from 1986 to 1988, he produced or directed various children's television plays in the Dramarama series which ran from 1983 to 1989 on Scottish Television.^[20] His other major work of that period, broadcast on December 31, 1988, was The Steamie, a "TV version of the stage play by Tony Roper", which he co-produced and directed, and in which a group of Scottish washerwomen try to finish their work in the steamroom before the Hogmanay festivities start.^[21] His contributions to Take the High Road continued in parallel that year,^[22] and in 1989 he directed the 60 minute drama Albert and the Lion, which starred James Ellis and Russell Hunter.^[23]

[edit] The 1990s and a new century

At the beginning of the new decade, Duncan cut his ties with Scottish Television, becoming freelance, and beginning work on various English-based soap operas. From 1992 to 1995, he directed four episodes of the London police drama The Bill for Thames Television,^[24] and in 1993 returned to BBC Scotland to direct two instalments of Strathblair,^[25] the "[t]en part drama series set in Scotland during the 1950s".^[26]

With the success of "emergency services" television drama series, such as The Bill and Casualty, in the United Kingdom, Duncan spent most of 1994 and early 1995 in Germany, where he had been commissioned by production company Endemol to direct two hour-long instalments of the Bill-style police drama, Die Wache,^[27] for their home market, and for "twice [his] normal fee".^[28] The episodes were filmed in Cologne and North Rhine-Westphalia,^[29] with the police station set being located in the Cologne suburb of Dellbrück.^[28]

Returning to England in 1995, he immediately began work on three episodes of the Nicky Campbell-hosted TV game show Wheel of Fortune,^[30] which ran from 1988 to 2001, and which featured contestants who would gamble for big prizes on the spin of a giant wheel, in conjunction with a word game format.^[31] He directed one further show in 1996.^[30]

1996 was also the year in which Duncan entered the sphere of directing British soap operas in earnest, beginning with 9 episodes of Channel 4's Liverpool-based Brookside, a Phil Redmond brainchild for Mersey Television. Duncan would return to make several more episodes in 1999 and 2000, before moving on. Also in 1996 and on into 1997, he was director for six instalments of the other big Channel 4/Mersey TV hit Hollyoaks.^[30] He then made four editions of the Cockney soap opera EastEnders for the BBC in 1997^[32] - edited clips of these contributions would also be featured in EastEnders: The Mitchells - Naked Truths, a television special focussing on the Mitchell family who feature heavily in the London soap.^[33]

Duncan made a nostalgic return to Scottish Television to direct the one-off sports drama The Game in 1998. This told the tale of "a Rangers fanatic and a Celtic fanatic [who] put aside their differences and unite behind the Scottish team for the 1978 World Cup from the comfort of their couch".^[34] In early 1999, he directed three instalments of the children's television show Hububb, a vehicle for kids' comic Les Bubb.^[35]

In the year 2000, he directed episodes of Coronation Street for Granada Television,^[36] and in 2002 made several of the River City soap opera shows for BBC Scotland,^[37] "set in a fictional West End area of Glasgow called 'Shieldinch' that, whilst looking authentically Glaswegian, follows the template of Albert Square, complete with local shop, café and pub".^[38] He returned to direct six more instalments of Coronation Street in 2003 and 2004.^[39]

[edit] Eight years in Emmerdale

Since 1999, Duncan has worked on the one other major soap opera so far not mentioned - Emmerdale, which airs on the ITV network several times a week. Beginning in 1972 as Emmerdale Farm, it initially centred on just the agricultural base of the Sugden family, with other characters appearing there from the surrounding areas. Over time, the village of Beckindale was included more often, the most famous landmark of the early days being The Woolpack public house, which became a social meeting place for many of the characters. The village changed its name to Emmerdale in 1994, although the change of name for the series happened in 1989.^[40]

Haldane Duncan directed his first episode of Emmerdale for Yorkshire Television on November 8, 1999. The producer was Kieran Roberts and the script was by Bill Lyons.^[41] He devoted much of his time over the next eight years to the programme. The last known contribution to the soap opera from him as director was on October 15, 2007.

This is also his last recorded work of any kind.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Haldane Duncan at the Internet Movie Database
• Complete 11-part interview with Haldane Duncan at the TV Heroes website