Bill Sellars

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Bill Sellars

Born	William Sellars 5 June 1921 Brighton, England^[1]
Nationality	England
Occupation	Television producer
Employers	BBC
Known for	Producing several long-running programmes, including, The Newcomers, The Doctors (1969), The Brothers, and several short series, such as The Chinese Puzzle. Perhaps most famous for his production of All Creatures Great and Small throughout its entire run. Infamous for creating and producing Triangle, a soap opera cited as amongst the worst television had to offer on TV Hell.

Bill Sellars was a prolific British television producer, most active from the 1960s to the 80s. His entire career was spent working on projects made and broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Of these, the show that was his biggest success was undoubtedly All Creatures Great and Small, which he produced for its entire run. Conversely, his biggest critical failure was likely Triangle, a soap opera set on board a ferry in the North Sea.

[edit] As director

Sellars' first significant creative work for the BBC was as a director. From 1962-1965, he was periodically assigned to some of the more daring shows then on television, such as the upscale soap, Compact, and the then-new Doctor Who. For this latter programme, he helmed the The Celestial Toymaker.^[2] He also directed episodes of United! and 199 Park Lane during this period. However, due to the BBC's policy of wiping and reusing videotape, very little of Sellars' directorial work survives. The only remnant of his work commercially available on DVD as of 2008 may be an episode of Toymaker.

[edit] As producer

After a three-year stint as a contract director, Sellars shifted into production. His first job as full producer was as Verity Lambert's successor on The Newcomers.^[3] From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, he moved through a quick succession of soap operas, including The Doctors and The Brothers. By 1973, he had entered a five-year period of directing shorter-form dramas. Most of these endeavours were, like The Chinese Puzzle and a portion of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, far afield from his usual work in soap opera.

By 1978, however, he found himself back to regular series work. This time, however, he was handed All Creatures Great and Small. Although he would produce other shows in the downtime from All Creatures — such as the notorious Triangle and the Creatures-clone, One By One — he would work on Creatures until the close of his active career in 1990. Indeed, it was for Creatures that he received his only two significant awards nominations: a BAFTA nomination for Best Drama Series in 1979, and a Primetime Emmy nomination for Best Children's Series in 1990.^[4]