June Wyndham Davies is a British television producer and director. For her work as Co-Producer of the film August starring, and directed by Sir Anthony Hopkins, she won the BAFTA Wales award for Best Drama in 1997. She is also a writer, having written several short stories and plays, including ‘Green Shutters’.
Life
June Wyndham Davies was born in Cardiff in 1929 to Mervyn and Despina Wyndham Davies of Llandaff. Her father served as an officer in WW2, and her mother, eldest daughter of the engineer and inventor James Wyndham, had been a ballet dancer. She attended Elm Tree House convent before moving to London to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Wyndham Davies entered the industry as a BBC Director in 1965, when most television drama was transmitted live from the studio. She directed 30 Minute Theatre, Sunday Afternoon Theatre, and Out of Town Theatre, as well as single plays such as The House Mouse, Why Me?The Heart Grows Cold and The Lariat. She also devised, wrote, and directed the 6-part documentary series Why Would You Believe It? based on the idea of truth often being stranger than fiction. Going freelance in 1969, Wyndham Davies continued her career with BBC, Anglia, Granada, and Yorkshire Television, directing Boy Meets Girl, Love Story, The Dolly Spike, The Folly, and Don’t Shoot the Cook. She moved into directing episodes for long-running television series and serials, such as Coronation Street, Castle Haven, Kate, Crown Court, and children’s television adaptations of classics, such as Pollyanna and Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, which received an EMMY nomination in the United States for best television serial in 1975. From 1976 onwards, Wyndham Davies worked almost exclusively for Granada Television, producing dark and thought-provoking dramas, often dealing with the supernatural as with the series Shades of Darkness, as well as Victorian crime themes, such as the ground-breaking Sergeant Cribb series with Alan Dobie in the title role. With a knack for spotting talent, Wyndham Davies gave the young Michael Caine his first chance in theatre, along with early opportunities for Rhys Ifans and Hugh Grant. Her inspired casting ideas whilst working for the Drama department at Granada included the suggestion of the late Jeremy Brett for the part of Sherlock Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. To this day, Brett is still widely considered to have given the definitive portrayal of Conan Doyle’s detective. Wyndham Davies went on to produce the second series: The Return of Sherlock Holmes, as well as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in 1994, and several feature-length television films including: Sherlock Holmes – The Sign of Four, also starring Jenny Seagrove.
