Michael Imison
Born: 9th February 1935
Episodes Broadcast: 1966
Michael Imison was born in Hoylake, Merseyside. While attending Oxford
University, he became the director of its Theatre Group, and led the
organisation of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. Imison joined the
BBC as a trainee administrator. He moved to the Script Department in
1961, working on programmes like Storyboard. He served as the
story editor of the soap opera Compact in 1963, but then decided
to switch gears again by completing the BBC's directors' training
course. He returned to Compact in this new capacity, and
subsequently worked on shows like Swizzlewick, Mary Barton
and The Flying Swan.
Imison's preference was to direct adaptations of classics serials but,
in 1966, Imison found himself assigned to the Doctor Who serial
The Ark. He considered this to
be a punishment imposed by Head of Serials Gerald Savory whose wife,
actress Annette Carell, had come into conflict with Imison while they
worked together on Buddenbrooks in 1965. After making Doctor
Who, Imison's contract with the BBC was not renewed, although he did
briefly serve as the story editor for Out Of The Unknown.
Imison then left television altogether, becoming a successful literary
agent with a focus on playwrights. In 1999, he helped found the
Noël Coward Society. He and his wife, the celebrated science
educator Dame Tamsyn Imison, had three children.
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