Actor who became a prolific TV director
Peter Hammond, who has died aged 87, moved from acting to become a prolific TV director, contributing to series including The Avengers, Granada's Sherlock Holmes series and Inspector Morse. It was with The Avengers in 1961 that he first made his mark. Hammond and his colleague Don Leaver directed 19 of the opening 26 episodes of the series between them and were largely responsible for creating its distinctive look in its pre-film days.
Hammond established himself as a quick worker who still managed to bring flair to his episodes. He developed a trademark style in which the confines of the small studio spaces would be enlivened by "foreground interest" and scenes would be distorted or heightened by being shot through glass or caught in the reflection of a mirror. This distinctive visual effect would reappear in productions as diverse as the studio-bound Three Musketeers (1966) and Dark Angel, the BBC's 1987 version of Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle Silas. Peter Neill, a colleague who worked with Hammond on various productions of the time, remembers him as "very efficient, yet creative, with a friendly manner and sense of humour". He also had a good rapport with actors, perhaps due to his own background in that area.
He was born Peter Hammond Hill in Victoria, central London. His father, Charles, was an art restorer and his mother, Ada, a nurse. After attending Harrow School of Art, he became a scenic artist before turning to acting, under the name Peter Hammond, notably in the postwar Gainsborough film studio rep company, appearing as a regular in their famous Huggett series of films. Later he became a regular in the ITV series The Buccaneers (1956-57) and a semi-regular in The Adventures of William Tell (1958-59), before joining the BBC in 1959 as a trainee producer.
When his original Avengers' producer Leonard White ? who had moved on to take over ITV's flagship drama anthology, Armchair Theatre ? decided to push the barriers of that series by mounting an improvised play, he had no hesitation in offering the directing chores to the fast, but flamboyant, Hammond. The result was Ambrose (1965), a distinctive half-hour drama which starred Donald Pleasence and Elizabeth Begley and went out under the Armchair Mystery Theatre banner. This was one of the productions that resulted in Hammond receiving the 1965 Guild of Television Producers and Directors award (later known as Baftas).
He continued with The Avengers, working on the show when Honor Blackman was brought in. In a rare interview (conducted just a few months ago), Hammond noted: "I thought Pat Macnee was rather feminine, so I wanted Honor to be the more masculine one, hence the leather trouser suit."
Following his stint on The Avengers, Hammond was in great demand and worked on a long and diverse list of dramas (including Out of the Unknown, Theatre 625, The Wednesday Play and Tales of the Unexpected) before he contributed to the Sherlock Holmes series featuring Jeremy Brett as Holmes. The episodes he directed were some of the favourites among the show's vocal fans, with the feature-length The Sign of the Four (1987) and The Eligible Bachelor (1993) particularly singled out for praise. Around the same time he was also contributing to another ratings heavyweight, directing episodes of Inspector Morse.
In 1970 he made his feature-film debut (as a director) with Spring and Port Wine, based on Bill Naughton's stage play and starring James Mason. But his biggest contribution would be to the small screen, despite the fact that he often referred to himself as "just a television hack". His friend and collaborator, the composer Paul Lewis, said: "His work was always visually brilliant ? he was a visual poet and his work was deeply sensitive and deeply personal. He was a private man, strangely contrary to the image of gregarious bonhomie he gave whilst working. He came alive when he worked."
Peter married the actor Maureen Glynne in 1948; she died in 2005. He is survived by their five children, Nicky, Juliette, Tim, Hugo and Will, and four grandchildren.
? Peter Charles Hammond Hill, actor and television director, born 15 November 1923; died 12 October 2011
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/jan/01/peter-hammond-obituary
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