Director Claude (Harold) Whatham died 4 January 2008. Born in Manchester, England, on 2 December 1927, he attended art school, and learned stage and costume design at the Old Vic Theatre School starting in 1948. His first stage work came in 1950, but he moved into television in 1954, as an assistant designer at the BBC, and then decided to switch to directing.
Most of his work was for British television—first live programs, and then features—although he also directed occasional stage plays and feature films. He received Bafta nominations for both A Voyage Round My Father (which he later directed as a stage play) and Cider with Rosie. He also directed That’ll Be the Day (1973), which starred David Essex as a rebel drifting through life as he dreams of becoming a pop star, and All Creatures Great and Small (1974), starring Simon Ward and Anthony Hopkins.
His genre work included the film Murder Elite (1985); three episodes of the series Tales of the Unexpected (“Galloping Foxley,” “The Umbrella Man,” and “The Man at the Top”), all of which aired in 1980; and one episode of Supernatural (1977).