She wrote articles for her local paper, Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today, devoured books, films and exhibitions, and her second home was the Chelsea Arts Club. Retirement did not dim Julia’s creative energy and curiosity. In 1960 she transferred to television, starting as a researcher on the job-guessing panel game What’s My Line?, and graduating to studio director.Īfter she left the BBC, Julia continued to make films, including The Fake Van Goghs (1997), presented by Geraldine Norman, for the Arthouse documentary series on Channel 4. The family constantly moved, living in places as contrasting as Bombay and Belfast, experiences that left her with a restlessness, a desire to travel and sense of adventure that remained with her all her life.Īs a teenager, Julia enrolled in the Central School of Drama in London, but her godmother, a governor of the BBC, told her to “get a job at the BBC, dear”, so she did.Īt the age of 19 she joined the Arab section of the World Service just in time for the Suez crisis, with her experience there giving her an admiration for the culture of the Middle East and an abiding interest in the history and politics of the region. Julia and her sister, Roberta, had a peripatetic childhood. In collaboration with Malcolm Brown she wrote a book, A Touch of Genius (1988), on TE Lawrence, and directed an insightful film, Lawrence and Arabia (1986).īorn in the Forest of Dean, she was the daughter of Mervin Mcleod-Cary, an engineer with the Royal Navy, and Marjorie (nee Ryan), an actor. For earlier Omnibus series she directed Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death, a programme about the American civil war presented by the controversialist actor and historian Kenneth Griffith. While running Omnibus I commissioned Julia to make a film on censorship and the arts in the crumbling Soviet Union the result was a superb investigative piece and the start of our long friendship. Five Sculptors (1988) showed off the work of Anish Kapoor, Richard Wentworth, Alison Wilding, Bill Woodrow and Antony Gormley. She relished setting up teams of young directors for series she produced such as Seven Artists (1979), whose number included Edward Ruscha, Antoni Tàpies, Victor Pasmore and Roy Lichtenstein. With Robert Hughes she made films on contemporary American artists for the series American Visions (1997). Julia’s independent spirit thrived and she was able to capitalise on her love of contemporary art and artists. There was no complex hierarchy: heads of department gave directors the freedom to develop ideas and carry them out, however idiosyncratic. It was a hotbed of talent, nurturing the creative ambitions of Ken Russell, Jack Gold, Jonathan Miller, Leslie Megahey and many more. In the 1970s Chronicle was absorbed into BBC TV’s music and arts department. Throughout she brought the ancient stones, relics and myths to life with her skilful storytelling and imaginative filming. She made more than a dozen films on various subjects, ranging from The Treasures of Priam (1966) and the Last Days of Minos (1967) to Abu Simbel Reborn (on the moving of two Egyptian temples, 1968) and The Plunderers’ Treasure Trail (on the illegal digging up and trading of antiquities, 1975). Johnstone asked Julia to join the team, and there she learned her trade as a film director. “My compass broke, I got lost,” he answered, clutching the smashed object.ĭavid Attenborough, controller of BBC2, commissioned a new archaeological series, Chronicle, under the editorship of Paul Johnstone, who had been The Sky at Night’s founding producer. One day he missed most of rehearsal and arrived with hair on end and eyebrows twitching. Every month he drove from his home in Selsey, on the West Sussex coast, to the TV centre in London. A marvellous communicator of all things astronomical, Moore was extremely eccentric. They form one of the most important records of that terrible war, and proved no less telling when the series was shown again for its centenary.Īlso in the 1960s, Julia was involved with the Sky at Night, sometimes directing it live, sometimes producing it and sometimes serving as the designated minder of the presenter, Patrick Moore. Those interviews humanised the jerky, silent black and white film footage from the time and the formal narration spoken by Michael Redgrave.
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