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Television director with a wicked, sparkling wit whose eclectic list of credits showcased a complete film-maker
The television director Diarmuid Lawrence, who has died aged 71, approached the small screen not as an auteur, but as a master craftsman. He perfected his craft over a lifetime of storytelling, first in the theatre and then, for the greater part of his long career, in television drama, where his name on the titles brought a stamp of quality. His eclectic list of credits showcased a complete film-maker whose unifying purpose was to bring life to stories of all kinds, to surprise and delight an audience.
His last film, Peter and Wendy (2015), which reimagined JM Barrie’s classic as a modern allegory of the Neverland between life and death, and for which Diarmuid created a magical world where Great Ormond Street hospital and the Jolly Roger became one. He had a wicked, sparkling wit, which he used gleefully on Steve Pemberton’s Mapp and Lucia in 2014, giving Miranda Richardson’s Mapp and Anna Chancellor’s Lucia all the headroom they needed to coruscate with abandon in the drawing rooms of Tilling. Continue reading...