Born: 11th March 1945 (as Graeme Richard Harper)
Episodes Broadcast: 1983

Graeme Harper was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire. While taking elocution lessons as a child, his red hair led to his recruitment for a 1952 television adaptation of The Pickwick Papers. Several juvenile roles followed over the next decade, including the children's movie Noddy In Toyland and programmes such as The Silver Sword and The Secret Kingdom. Harper also acted on the stage, and began to work as a stage manager. As he moved into adulthood, Harper decided that his future lay in television -- but behind the camera, not in front of it. After a period as a driving instructor, he joined the BBC as a floor assistant in 1965. His first experience with Doctor Who came the next year, uncredited on The Power Of The Daleks, Patrick Troughton's first serial as the Second Doctor. In 1967, he worked on After Many A Summer under director Douglas Camfield, who was a cherished mentor to Harper.

In 1969, Harper became an assistant floor manager. In addition to shows like Z Cars, he worked on three Doctor Who serials featuring Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor: Colony In Space, Planet Of The Daleks, and the actor's swansong, Planet Of The Spiders. A promotion to production assistant brough Harper his first Doctor Who credit, on 1976's The Seeds Of Doom with Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Camfield directing. This also led to Harper providing one of the images representing a past incarnations of the Doctor in the preceding serial, The Brain Of Morbius. Other work followed on programmes like Angels, The Nightmare Man and Bergerac. In 1980, Harper returned to Doctor Who for Warriors' Gate, at the tail end of Baker's era. The fraught production took its toll on director Paul Joyce, and Harper assumed an increasingly prominent role in the studio as recording progressed.

Harper was expected to direct “Yellow Fever And How To Cure It” for Doctor Who's 1986 season

Shortly thereafter, Harper completed the BBC's internal directors' course, and returned to Angels in this capacity. He then went freelance and made The Caves Of Androzani, Peter Davison's final serial as the Fifth Doctor in 1984, and 1985's Revelation Of The Daleks for Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor. Harper was expected to direct “Yellow Fever And How To Cure It” for Doctor Who's 1986 season, before all plans for the year were scuppered by the BBC's decision to place the show on hiatus. Amongst Harper's other credits during the Eighties were episodes of The District Nurse, Juliet Bravo, Star Cops and Howards' Way.

In 1993, Harper was attached to direct “The Dark Dimension”, a planned straight-to-video multi-Doctor special celebrating Doctor Who's thirtieth anniversary. This project, too, was eventually cancelled. Harper stayed busy nonetheless, directing for programmes such as The Bill, The New Statesman, The Detectives and Babes In The Wood. Never averse to children's drama, Harper worked on Grange Hill and Byker Grove after the turn of the century, in addition to adult fare like EastEnders and The Royal. Then, following the triumphant return of Doctor Who to television screens in 2005, Harper became the only classic-era director to work on the revived programme when he made Rise Of The Cybermen / The Age Of Steel and Army Of Ghosts / Doomsday for David Tennant's first season as the Tenth Doctor in 2006. Not only did Harper revive the Cybermen for the twenty-first century, but he also brought them face-to-face with the Daleks for the first time ever.

Harper would make nine more installments of Doctor Who, including the Children In Need special Time Crash featuring both Davison and Tennant, the guest-star-laden 2008 season finale The Stolen Earth / Journey's End, and finally 2009's The Waters Of Mars, the Tenth Doctor's penultimate adventure. He also stood in for Colin Teague on 2007's The Sound Of Drums / Last Of The Time Lords when his colleague was injured towards the end of production. At the same time, Harper directed three serials for spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. He also contributed to Robin Hood, Casualty and Dani's House, while handling the first of more than forty episodes of Coronation Street. Harper remained active during the ensuing decade, with credits on everything from House Of Anubis to Evermoor to Holby City to Inside No. 9. His career continued into the Twenties, with episodes of Hollyoaks.