Dennis Vance

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Dennis Vance (March 18, 1924 – October 12, 1983) was a British television producer and director.

Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, he began his career as an actor in the late 1940s, appearing in small parts in various films before switching to become a producer with BBC Television in the early 1950s. There he oversaw dramas such as The Scarlet Pimpernel (1954), before leaving in 1955 to become the first Head of Drama at the ITV contractor Associated British Corporation (ABC), who went on air in 1956, serving the Midlands and the North of England at weekends.

At ABC, Vance oversaw the creation of the anthology drama series Armchair Theatre, which was networked nationally across the ITV regions on Sunday evenings. It became an important landmark in British television drama series, running for twelve years and inspiring similar efforts such as the BBC's later The Wednesday Play. Vance, however, left the Head of Drama role in 1958 for a promotion within ABC, being replaced by Sydney Newman.

Also produced and directed The Misfit and The Bass Player and the Blonde for ATV. He had been a Fleet Air Arm pilot during the Second World War, and was married six times with one child from the first three marriages.

Later in his career he returned to producing and directing work, helming episodes of programmes such as ABC's The Avengers (1961) and Thames' The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1971). He died in Wimbledon, London in 1983, at the age of fifty-nine.

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