Spencer Campbell

Infobox actor


imagesize = 150px
name= Spencer Campbell
birthdate =
birthplace =
occupation = Television producer
yearsactive = 1980s - present
baftaawards = Best Drama Series
2002 "Cold Feet" (producer)

Spencer Campbell is an English television producer and director.

Career

Campbell's early credits include working as a researcher in the early 1980s on the Granada Television television magazine "Chalkface". At the end of the decade he directed several episodes of "The Krypton Factor" and the soap opera "Coronation Street".

"The Living Soap"

One of his most notable works is the BBC television docusoap "The Living Soap", a year-long series that put a group of students into a purpose-bought house. In a 2000 interview Campbell noted that the series would have worked better if it had followed an existing group of students in a real house, comparing the situation the participants were put in to "Big Brother", but in hindsight would not repeat the experiment: "It was a draining year both for the production team and for the people in the house. We were shooting a week's film and then showing it on TV, which made everything quite fraught." [cite news|first= Carol|last= Midgley|title= A living hell?|work= times2|page= 3|date= 2000-07-17|accessdate= 2007-11-16] In another interview, he said he "should have chosen other people [...] partly because the people in the house were reluctant participants after a while, and chose quite deliberately not to do things after the initial five or six programmes", referring to one girl who would lock herself in her bedroom when the cameras arrived. [cite news|first= Matthew|last= Sweet|title= Winston Smith never had it this bad|url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000709/ai_n14328078/pg_2|work= The Independent (at Find Articles)|date= 2000-07-09|accessdate= 2007-11-16] In an episode of the 2008 Channel 4 documentary series "How TV Changed Britain", Campbell explained how the series pioneered the use of "diary rooms" and public telephone votes long before their use in such series as "Big Brother". [cite video |people= Campbell, Spencer|date2= 2008-06-08|title= How TV Changed Britain|publisher= Channel 4|location= London|accessdate=2008-06-08 ] Reviewing the programme, Thomas Sutcliffe of "The Independent" said of Campbell's interview, "He now wears the faintly rueful look of a man who invented a better mousetrap, but forgot to put the patent forms in the post." [cite news|first= Thomas|last= Sutcliffe|title= When fifteen minutes of fame drags by|url= http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/tv-radio-reviews/the-weekends-tv-how-tv-changed-britain-sun-channel-4br-alexei-sayles-liverpool-fri-bbc2-842649.html| work= The Independent|date= 2008-06-09|accessdate= 2008-06-17]

Other work

Other credits in the 1990s include producing "Jack Dee's Sunday Service", "The Grimleys" (both the pilot and the series) and the sitcom "Sunnyside Farm". In 2000, he became producer of Granada's comedy drama "Cold Feet" after the previous producer, Christine Langan, was elevated to the executive producer position. During his time on the series, Campbell oversaw an increase from six to eight episodes per year, cast Canadian-Australian actress Kimberley Joseph in a lead role when Fay Ripley left during the fourth series, and organised overseas filming in Sydney, Australia. The episode filmed in Australia won "Cold Feet" the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series, which Campbell received along with the writer, Mike Bullen, and the executive producer, Andy Harries. [cite book |last= Smith|first= Rupert|title= Cold Feet: The Complete Companion|year= 2003|publisher= Granada Media|location= London|pages= p. 214|isbn= 023300999X ]

Following "Cold Feets conclusion in 2003 Campbell produced "Donovan", a psychological thriller serial starring Tom Conti, and the comedy drama "Christmas Lights" and its spin-off "Northern Lights", both starring Robson Green and Mark Benton. In 2006 he co-produced ', a dramatisation of the events surrounding the murder of Peter Falconio. Campbell pledged not to deviate from the facts of the case, saying "We've obviously researched it pretty thoroughly, so really it's a story about how difficult it was to bring Murdoch [the killer] to justice." [cite news|first=Roger|last=Maynard|title= Backpacker murder ordeal to be made into TV drama|url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/aug/23/broadcasting.ITV|work= The Guardian|date= 2006-08-23|accessdate= 2007-11-16] In 2007 he developed "Catwalk Dogs", a comedy television film written by Simon Nye and starring Kris Marshall. [cite news|first=Tara|last=Conlan|title=Marshall in ITV doghouse|url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/may/29/itv.broadcasting|work= Media Guardian|date= 2007-05-29|accessdate= 2007-11-16]

References

External links

* [http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/141939 Spencer Campbell] at the British Film Institute
*imdb name|id=0132858|name=Spencer Campbell