TV pioneer had eye for hit dramas
APIONEERING television producer, Irene Shubik had the uncanny knack of spotting a winner but had a hard job convincing executives her instincts were right. While at the BBC she asked barrister and author John Mortimer to write six scripts for a legal drama, only for the project to be put on hold.
However, when she later joined ITV she took the idea for Rumpole Of The Bailey with her.
Thames Television was delighted and, with Leo McKern playing Horace Rumpole, 44 episodes were eventually made.
For Granada Television she persuaded Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson to take leading roles in Staying On, set in the expat community in India.
The stars from Brief Encounter, shot 35 years earlier, ensured a winner, which then persuaded Granada to make The Jewel In The Crown, one of the most successful television dramas ever.
By the time of filming for Jewel, she had been hired by Columbia Pictures to work on the screenplay for Girl In A Swing.
Born in Hampstead, north London, her father Joseph Shubik was a Russian emigre who had found work in textiles.
During the Second World War Irene, her mother Sara and her younger brother Martin lived in Canada. On her return, she studied English literature at University College London.
Her first job in television was as an assistant story editor for ABC in Manchester, where she worked on Armchair Theatre. She came up with a sci-fi take on the concept called Out Of This World, presented by Boris Karloff.
When her boss Sydney Newman joined the BBC in 1962 he took her with him. As well as bringing futuristic works by JG Ballard and John Wyndham to the small screen she had a soft spot for stories by Isaac Asimov.
Play For Today was another huge
success but she also produced dramas such as 1971 hit Edna, The Inebriate Woman, regarded even today as one of the greatest British television programmes of all time.
But there was controversy at Bafta in 1992 when she chaired the jury panel, giving the best serial prize to Granada’s Prime Suspect.
Other judges said they voted for Channel Four’s GBH with Robert Lindsay and she resigned her position, although the award stood.
Although she never married she was devoted to her two brothers.
Looking back on her career she once said: “We didn’t know it at the time, but it was a golden age.”
Irene Shubik Television producer BORN DECEMBER 26, 1929 – DIED SEPTEMBER 26, 2019, AGED 89