Piers Haggard

Piers Inigo Haggard, OBE (18 March 1939 – 11 January 2023) was a British director who worked in film, television, and theatre.

Early life

A member of the Haggard family, he was born in London, the son of Morna Gillespie and the actor, poet, and novelist Stephen Haggard.<ref name="Yossman">Template:Cite news</ref> He was the great-great-nephew of the writer Sir Henry Rider Haggard.<ref name=":1" />

At the age of one, Haggard was evacuated with his mother and older brother Paul to New York where his paternal grandfather Godfrey Haggard was the British consul-general.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Shortly after they left, his father wrote his sons a letter, which later that year was published in the Atlantic Monthly as "I'll Go to Bed at Noon: A Soldier's Letter to His Sons".<ref name="bed">Template:Cite book</ref> Haggard and his mother returned to Britain after his brother's death from diphtheria. There a younger brother, Mark, was born.<ref name=":0" />

His father was a captain in the British Intelligence Corps.<ref name=":0" /> Sent to Egypt, he had an affair with a married woman, and when she broke off the affair, he committed suicide in 1943. In 1946, Haggard’s mother remarried and the family moved to Muckhart Mill Farm in Clackmannanshire, Scotland.<ref name=":0" /> He attended school at Dollar Academy, and between 1956 and 1960 studied English at Edinburgh University. While there, he was active in the dramatic society as an actor and director, and helped found the Festival Fringe Society in 1958.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Career

Haggard began his career as an assistant director at the Royal Court in 1960.<ref name="Yossman" /> In 1961, he was director of productions at the Dundee Rep including directing the pantomime Cinderella which was described by The Stage as “the best pantomime Dundee has seen in many years”.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1962, he moved to the Glasgow Citizens, where productions included Albert Finney as Luigi Pirandello's Henry IV.<ref name=":2" /> He joined the first National Theatre company in 1963,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref> where he co-directed with John Dexter and Bill Gaskill<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and assisted Laurence Olivier (1963 on Uncle Vanya, starring Michael Redgrave) and Franco Zeffirelli (1965 on Much Ado About Nothing, with Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens).<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":2" />

In 1965, he moved to BBC Television, directing plays for the anthology drama series Thirty-Minute Theatre <ref name = Yossman/><ref name=":3" /> and episodes of series such as The Newcomers, and Play for Today for the BBC, as well as Armchair Theatre, Callan, Man at the Top and Public Eye for ITV.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> He directed for a variety of programmes throughout the 1970s, such as The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Churchill's People,<ref name=":1" /> The Love School,<ref name=":1" /> Love for Lydia and Play of the Month: The Chester Mystery Plays (1976).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1978, Haggard was hired by producer Kenith Trodd to direct Dennis Potter's BBC drama serial Pennies from Heaven, which received a BAFTA..<ref name = Yossman/><ref name=":0" /> The following year, he directed the science-fiction serial Quatermass, a Euston Films production for Thames Television, which was shown on the ITV network.<ref name=":1" />

Returning to the National Theatre in 1981, he directed Tom Taylor’s play The Ticket-of-Leave Man and the next year, at the Piccadilly Theatre, directed the Norwegian ‘opera-musical’ Which Witch, for which he worked on the libretto.<ref name=":2" /> For television, he directed two Alan Bennett plays Marks and Rolling Home (1982), Treasure Island (1985), Dennis Potter's Visitors (1987), and Jack Rosenthal’s Eskimo Day (1996) and Cold Enough for Snow (1997).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" />

In 1966, Haggard began his film career working as an interpreter for Michelangelo Antonioni on the British-Italian film Blowup.<ref name=":4" /> His feature film debut was Wedding Night (1970).<ref name=":3" /> The producers of The Blood on Satan's Claw (1970) attended a screening of Wedding Night and offered the job of director to him.<ref name="Yossman" /><ref name=":0" /> He also directed the cinema version of Quatermass (1980); Summer Story (1988); The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980), Peter Sellers' last film; and Venom (1982).<ref name=":0" /> Haggard's audio commentary on Venom is well known for its forthrightness, and some hilarious anecdotes on the competitive antics of stars Oliver Reed and Klaus Kinski.

Later television work included Mrs Reinhardt (1986); a number of US TV Specials with stars such as Liza Minnelli, Cheryl Ladd and Judge Reinhold; the Gerry Anderson science-fiction series Space Precinct (1994); and various one-off TV dramas such as The Hunt (2001). The Canadian prairies-set Conquest (1998) was his last feature film. He directed Academy Award winners Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell in the 2006 mini-series The Shell Seekers.<ref name=":3" />

Haggard campaigned for directors' rights. He was president of The Association of Directors and Producers in 1976; he founded and was first chairman of the Directors Guild of Great Britain (DGGB),<ref name="Yossman" /> formed in 1982 at a meeting of over a hundred film, theatre, and television directors at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. He started the Directors’ and Producers' Rights Society (DPRS, 1987), serving on its board for 20 years, until it transmuted in 2007 into Directors UK, where he served on the board until 2017.<ref name = Yossman/> He was also vice president and chairman of FERA, the Association of European film directors, from 2010 to 2013.<ref name="Yossman" />

It has been claimed that Haggard invented the term 'folk horror'.This appears not to be the case (though the term was invented in regard to his film Blood on Satan's Claw), but his use of it in a 2004 interview in Fangoria magazine does appear to have popularised the term.

Personal life

Haggard had four children by his first marriage, to Christiane Stokes.<ref name="Yossman" /> The couple married in 1960 and later divorced.<ref name = Gilbey>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1972, Haggard married stained glass artist Anna Sklovsky, with whom he had two children, including Daisy Haggard.<ref name="Yossman" /><ref name = Gilbey/>

Haggard was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to film, television and theatre.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref><ref name="Yossman" />

Haggard died on 11 January 2023, at the age of 83.<ref name="Yossman" />

Selected filmography

• Wedding Night (1970)
• The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)
• The Love School (1975)
• The Quatermass Conclusion (1979)
• The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980)
• Venom (1981)
• A Summer Story (1988)
• Four Eyes and Six Guns (1992)
• Conquest (1998)

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0353592

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