Peter Duffell
TV and film director BORN JULY 10, 1922 DIED DECEMBER 12, 2017 AGED 95
PETER Duffell was “the most underrated director we’ve had in Britain for a very long time” according to actor Christopher Lee. He won a Bafta for the Indian Raj mini-series The Far Pavilions and directed horror movie The House That Dripped Blood.
Novelist Graham Greene praised him for the film of Greene’s England Made Me which he described as “excellent”.
Duffell was born at the Sun Hotel in Canterbury, owned by his grandparents which was also known as Dickens Inn as David Copperfield’s Mr Micawber was said to have gazed out of its windows, waiting for “something to turn up”.
He was the only son of a broken marriage and was brought up largely by his grandmother before leaving to study at London University and Keble College, Oxford.
He started as a director on the television series Scotland Yard and worked on The Avengers, as well as the Edgar Wallace Mysteries films in the cinema. The House That Dripped Blood came out in 1971 for Amicus Productions but Duffell turned down subsequent Amicus films as he didn’t want to be known as a horror director.
After England Made Me, Duffell and Greene worked hard to film another of Greene’s novels, The Honorary Consul. Both were dismayed when it ended up being made by another director from another script but the pair remained lifelong friends.
The Far Pavilions, based on an MM Kaye novel, came out in 1984 and actor Omar Sharif said its crowd scenes were equal to David Lean’s. Duffell also worked on many other famous programmes including Inspector Morse and outside of work he was passionate about music.
He also loved cricket and was a member of the MCC. He was married three times and is survived by his third wife of 30 years, Rosslyn Cliffe, and his son from his second marriage to actress Patricia McCarron.