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Paddy Russell
Highgate, London, England, UK
Patricia "Paddy" Russell (4 July 1928 – 2 November 2017) was a British television director. She was among the earliest female directors at the BBC. She was the first female floo…
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Patricia "Paddy" Russell (4 July 1928 – 2 November 2017) was a British television director. She was among the earliest female directors at the BBC. She was the first female floor manager to work for the BBC, her non-gendered credit being a means of avoiding problems with prospective technical crews. Although she appeared in the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment (1953), her main role was a production assistant for television director Rudolph Cartier. She worked on the later Quatermass science-fiction serials, as well as the 1954 adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the Studio 4 series, she appeared on screen in the Cartier-directed Holocaust drama Doctor Korczak and the Children (1962), instructing the actors on the roles they were to perform. The production was made in the unadorned studio without sets or the actors in costume. She progressed to becoming a director herself, one of the first two women directors in BBC television, along with Julia Smith. She directed many television programmes from 1962. She became the first woman to direct episodes of Doctor Who when she directed The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966). She directed three further Doctor Who serials: Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974), Pyramids of Mars (1975), and Horror of Fang Rock (1977). The last two Doctor Who serials featured Tom Baker in the title role. Her other work included Out of the Unknown (1965), Pere Goriot (1968), The Moonstone (1972) and The Omega Factor (1980).
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2026
No Such Thing as a Vampire
Movie Director
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1983
First Tuesday
TV show Director
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1980
The Squad
TV show Director
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1979
The Omega Factor
TV show Director
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1978
3-2-1
TV show Director
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1978
The Standard
TV show Director
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1977
Doctor Who: Horror of Fang Rock
Movie Director
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1975
Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars
Movie Director
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1974
Slater's Day
Movie Producer
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1974
My Old Man
TV show Producer
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1974
Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Movie Director
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1974
Within These Walls
TV show Director
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1972
Crown Court
TV show Director
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1972
Harriet's Back in Town
TV show Director
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1972
Emmerdale
TV show Director
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1972
Full House
TV show Director
More credits
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1972
The Man Outside
TV show Director
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1972
The Moonstone
TV show Director
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1971
Fathers and Sons
TV show Director
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1971
Pere Goriot
TV show Director
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1970
Little Women
TV show Director
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1969
The Doctors
TV show Director
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1969
Imperial Palace
TV show Director
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1968
The Corpse Can't Play
Movie Director
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1968
Late Night Horror
TV show Director
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1967
Angel Pavement
TV show Director
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1966
Quick Before They Catch Us
TV show Director
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1966
Doctor Who: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
Movie Director
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1966
Softly, Softly
TV show Director
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1965
The Late Arrival of the Incoming Aircraft
Movie Director
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1965
Come Buttercup, Come Daisy, Come......?
Movie Director
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1965
Thirty-Minute Theatre
TV show Director
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1965
The Newcomers
TV show Director
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1965
Out of the Unknown
TV show Director
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1965
Heiress of Garth
TV show Director
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1965
The Mind of the Enemy
TV show Director
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1965
Reluctant Bandit
TV show Producer
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1965
Hit and Run
TV show Director
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1965
Treasure Island
Movie Director
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1964
The Massingham Affair
TV show Director
