Sidney Henry Cole (31 October 1908 – 25 January 1998) was a British film and television producer. Earlier in his career he worked as a film editor.
Cole was educated at the London School of Economics (LSE), and entered the film industry as a scenario reader for Stoll Picture Productions, [1] a company founded by Sir Oswald Stoll. [2] A longstanding friend of director Thorold Dickinson, he edited Dickinson's The High Command (1936) and Gaslight (1940) and Alberto Cavalcanti's Went the Day Well? (1942). Cavalcanti was "a joy" to work with and later in his life Cole remained pleased with his work on the film, stating that it was "very tightly edited by me". [3]
The longest portion of Cole's career though was as a producer, initially credited as an associate producer, for Ealing Studios (where he was employed for eleven years) [3] and the television production company ITC. For ITC he produced Danger Man (US: Secret Agent, 1964–67) and Man in a Suitcase (1967–68). Later he supervised The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972–74) and Dick Turpin (1979–82) for London Weekend Television, the latter via the Gatetarn company he founded with Richard Carpenter and Paul Knight. [4]
Sidney Cole was politically engaged through much of his career. He was involved in making documentaries on the Spanish Civil War with Dickinson [5] and employed nearly two-dozen blacklisted American writers on The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–60), a series whose executive producer Hannah Weinstein had herself chosen exile in London because of McCarthyism. [6] With Peter Proud, Cole founded the ACTT union. [5]
Lew Grade, Baron Grade, was a Russian-born British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production began in 1954 when he founded the Incorporated Television Company to distribute programmes, and following the success of The Adventures of Robin Hood decided to focus on bringing them to the American market. Grade had some success in this field with such series as Gerry Anderson's many Supermarionation series such as Thunderbirds, Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, and Jim Henson's The Muppet Show. Later, Grade invested in feature film production, but several expensive box-office failures caused him to lose control of ITC, and ultimately resulted in the disestablishment of ATV after it lost its ITV franchise.
Charles Ainslie Crichton was an English film director and editor.
Dennis Spooner was an English television writer and script editor, known primarily for his programmes about fictional spies and his work in children's television in the 1960s. He had long-lasting professional working relationships with a number of other British screenwriters and producers, notably Brian Clemens, Terry Nation, Monty Berman and Richard Harris, with whom he developed several programmes. Though he was a contributor to BBC programmes, his work made him one of the most prolific writers of televised output from ITC Entertainment.
Man in a Suitcase is a British television private eye thriller series produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. It originally aired in the United Kingdom on ITV from 27 September 1967 to 17 April 1968. ABC broadcast episodes of Man in a Suitcase in the United States from 3 May to 20 September 1968.
Gaslight is a 1940 British psychological thriller directed by Thorold Dickinson starring Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard, and features Frank Pettingell. The film adheres more closely to the original play upon which it is based – Patrick Hamilton's Gas Light (1938) – than does the 1944 MGM remake. The play had been performed on Broadway as Angel Street, so when the MGM remake was released in the United States, it was given the same title as the American production.
Robert Hamer was a British film director and screenwriter best known for the 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets and the now acknowledged 1947 classic It Always Rains on Sunday.
Waterloo Road is a 1945 British film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring John Mills, Stewart Granger, and Alastair Sim. It is based on the Waterloo area of South London. According to the British Film Institute database, it is the third in an "unofficial trilogy" by Gilliat, preceded by Millions Like Us (1943) and Two Thousand Women (1944).
Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti".
Charles Herbert Frend was an English film director and editor, best known for his films produced at Ealing Studios. He began directing in the early 1940s and is known for such films as Scott of the Antarctic (1948) and The Cruel Sea (1953).
Michael Truman was a British film producer, director and editor.
Wilkie Cooper BSC was a British cinematographer.
Arthur Crabtree was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthur Askey and several of the Gainsborough melodramas.
Great Expectations is a 1974 film made for television based on the Charles Dickens 1861 novel of the same name. It was directed by Joseph Hardy, with screenwriter Sherman Yellen and music by Maurice Jarre, starring Michael York as Pip, Simon Gipps-Kent as Young Pip and Sarah Miles as Estella. The production, for Transcontinental Films and ITC, was made for US television and released to cinemas in the UK. It broke with tradition by having the same actress play both the younger and older Estella. The film was shot by Freddie Young. It was filmed in Eastmancolor and it was entered into the 9th Moscow International Film Festival in 1975.
The Green Man is a 1956 black and white British black comedy film directed by Robert Day and starring Alastair Sim, George Cole, Terry-Thomas and Jill Adams. The screenplay was by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, based on the play Meet a Body.
Thelma Connell was a film editor from England. She was known for her work on thrillers and mysteries, and she often collaborated with Frank Launder, Sidney Lumet, and Lewis Gilbert.
Millions Like Us is a 1943 British propaganda film, showing life in a wartime aircraft factory in documentary detail. It stars Patricia Roc, Gordon Jackson, Anne Crawford, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Moore Marriott and Eric Portman.
Thorold Barron Dickinson was a British film director, screenwriter, film editor, film producer, and Britain's first university professor of film. Dickinson's work received much praise, with fellow director Martin Scorsese describing him as "a uniquely intelligent, passionate artist... They're not in endless supply."
Fanny by Gaslight is a 1944 British drama film, directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a 1940 novel by Michael Sadleir.
Stuart Legg was a pioneering English documentary filmmaker. At the 14th Academy Awards in 1941, Legg's National Film Board of Canada film Churchill's Island became the first-ever documentary to win an Oscar.
Edward J. Danziger (1909–1999) and Harry Lee Danziger (1913–2005) were American-born brothers who produced many British films and TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s.