Jim Goddard was an English film and TV director who was born in Battersea, London. He directed episodes of many UK TV series such as Public Eye, Callan, Special Branch, The Sweeney, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, The Bell and Holby City. He may be best known outside England for the TV series Kennedy starring Martin Sheen or directing the film Shanghai Surprise as a vehicle for newlyweds Sean Penn and Madonna.
Jim Goddard
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| Born | February 2, 1936
Battersea, London, United Kingdom
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| Died | June 17, 2013
United Kingdom
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| Occupation(s) | Film and Television director |
Born James Dudley Goddard in Battersea, 1936, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and then became a set designer.[1] Following a short period at the Royal Opera House, contributing to productions by Zeffirelli and Visconti, he moved into television work.[2] In 1959 he joined the ABC Television design department as a production designer where he could be working one week on a kitchen-sink drama for Armchair Theatre[3] or the next on a children's sci-fi series.[1] Significantly he worked on The Avengers series which ran on ITV from 1961 to 1969.[4]
He first achieved recognition as a director for his work on five episodes of ABC TV's Tempo (1965–67), an arts magazine show, which led to his close friendship with Trevor Preston and Mike Hodges.[5] Preston and Hodges were influential in establishing Euston Films.[5] Goddard, Preston and Terry Green, whilst at ABC in 1965, produced a detailed proposal for a specialist production unit that shot dramas on 16mm film, rather than the then usual larger videotape cameras.[6] This smaller film unit became the standard for Euston Films, a company that played an important role in Goddard's future career.[5]
Winner – Kennedy – Andrew Brown, Jim Goddard