Graeme Harper



Graeme Harper was born on 11 March 1945 in London, and has directed several Doctor Who stories, being the only director of episodes in the classic 1963-1989 series of Doctor Who and the revived series.

Before becoming a director, he was assistant floor manager for Colony in Space, Planet of the Daleks (with John Cook and Sue Hedden) and Planet of the Spiders. He was also production assistant for The Seeds of Doom and Warriors' Gate. His directorial credits include episodes of the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. The first Doctor Who story that he directed was The Caves of Androzani.

He had an uncredited on-screen appearance in The Brain of Morbius as one of the faces appearing during the mind-bending contest between the Fourth Doctor and Morbius.

He has written about his experiences in directing Doctor Who in his book, Calling the Shots, co-written with Adrian Rigelsford.

The "Harper treatment"
Graeme Harper has a penchant for including a distorted image of a main character in most of the stories he has directed for BBC Wales. It has occurred often enough for it to be considered something of a directorial "signature". Characters are seen through magnifying glasses in Rise of the Cybermen, Army of Ghosts, The Unicorn and the Wasp and Utopia, reflected in a series of mirrors in Turn Left and through a curved window that gives a fish-eye effect in Journey's End.

Doctor Who

 * Warriors' Gate (uncredited) (DWM 380)
 * The Caves of Androzani
 * Revelation of the Daleks
 * Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel
 * Army of Ghosts / Doomsday
 * 42
 * Utopia
 * Time Crash
 * Planet of the Ood
 * The Unicorn and the Wasp
 * Turn Left
 * The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
 * The Waters of Mars

The Sarah Jane Adventures

 * Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?
 * The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
 * Enemy of the Bane

Unproduced stories

 * Yellow Fever and How to Cure It