CHRISTOPHER MORAHAN

(9 July 1929 - 7 April 2017)

Noted mainly for his superior work for television, director-producer Christopher Morahan trained as an actor but became a TV director, initially on Emergency – Ward 10, Probation Officer and adaptations of John Gabriel Borkman and Arsenic and Old Lace. In his time Morahan was Head of Plays at the BBC and also directed at the RSC, the National and Chichester Festival Theatres. He will be especially remembered for producing and co-directing The Jewel in the Crown (earning him Bafta and Primetime Emmy Awards), which introduced the then relatively unknown Tim Pigott-Smith. For the cinema Morahan directed Marcello Mastroianni  in Diamonds for Breakfast, as well as All Neat in Black Stockings, Clockwise, Paper Mask and Element of Doubt. He is survived by his second wife, the actress Anna Carteret with whom he had two children, Rebecca, a theatre director, and the actress Hattie Morahan. He also had three children from his first marriage to the late Joan Murray. Morahan died on the same day as his Jewel in the Crown star Tim Pigott-Smith (q.v.). He was awarded the CBE in 2011.

MICHAEL DARVELL