Geoffrey Sax

Geoffrey Sax is a BAFTA Award-winning director who helmed Paul McGann's 1996 tele-movie. An active director from 1979 until at least 2011, his long career has afforded him the opportunity to work with some of the most significant figures in Doctor Who — and British tele-visual — history.

Youthful humour
Sax' early carrer was dominated by work in comedy. One of Sax' first jobs was to direct the Rowan Atkinson short, Canned Laughter in 1979. That same year, he directed Cannon & Ball with the famous, eponymous British light entertainers. He then moved on to the somewhat experimental comedy, End of Part One, which garnered him two BAFTA nominations. Around the same time, he directed the television adaptation of Jim Broadbent's two-man play, Messiah. From here, he went on to direct a few episodes of the seminal satire, Spitting Image.

Getting serious
In 1986 came his first movie-length effort, a movie called The Disputation with Christopher Lee. His next major series, however, was The New Statesman. The series — starring Patrick Troughton's son, Michael — was a career highlight. He directed all episodes of the first two series, won a BAFTA for them, then handed over to Graeme Harper, who finished out the rest of the run.

Around this same, roughly 1989-1991, Sax worked on one of the highest-profile shows of theday, writer Robert Banks Stewart's extremely popular Bergerac, which included guest-starring roles for George Baker, Jack Galloway and Louise Jameson, amongst others.

Awards
Sax shared a BAFTA for his work on the second series of The New Statesman