John Crockett (director)

John Angus Basil Crockett (31 January 1918 – 11 October 1986) was a stage and television director.

John Crockett
Born31 January 1918
Hampshire, England
Died11 October 1986 (aged 68)
Newlyn, Cornwall, England
OccupationTheatre director

He directed the Doctor Who story The Aztecs in 1964, one of the most highly regarded of the black and white stories. In the 2002 DVD release the actor John Ringham was effusive in his praise for Crockett. He also directed episode 4 of Marco Polo, which is entitled The Wall of Lies.

Education and training

Crockett was the second son of Colonel Basil Crockett DSO. He was educated at Bryanston School.[1]:89 In 1938 he was a student of art at Goldsmiths' College, New Cross, London, UK.[2]:286 He also attended the Slade School to study theatre design, along with classes at the London Theatre Studio.[1]:89

In 1940 he married Anne Marguerite Stern.[2]:363 She was the first daughter of Dr. William Joseph Stern OBE, an eminent physicist.

Professional theatre

In 1944, partnered with his wife, he established a theatre company called The Compass Players.[1]:89 It was a travelling company that intended to perform a repertoire of high quality to audiences who would not normally have access to it. Their base was Crockett's own home, an old house on an estate in Gloucestershire.[3] Crockett resigned as artistic director in 1951 and the company formally closed in the following year.[1]:107 In the late 1950s and early 1960s he produced a number of plays for both the Birmingham and Dundee Repertory Theatres.

From September 1969[4] until December 1976 he was a teacher of Art and Drama at Downside School, Somerset UK, where one of his sons was educated.

Personal life

The Crocketts were parents to eight children. The years of birth of those are from 1954 to 1966[notes 1] and they include a daughter, Mary,[5][6] and a son, Antony. They were resident in Gloucestershire, then Somerset, before retiring to West Cornwall.

Devoutly Catholic, Crockett and his wife Anne were oblates of Prinknash Abbey where both are buried.

Notes
  1. These are not definitive but are based on what would appear to be reasonable deduction.

References
  1. Theatre of Conscience 1939-53: A Study of Four Touring British Community Theatres Peter Billingham. Routledge Harwood Contemporary Theatre Studies 2001.
  2. Indirections: A Memoir 1909-1947 Charles Brasch, Oxford University Press 1980.
  3. V&A Museum, London, UK.
  4. The Raven Downside School 1970 Vol. LXI No. 251 p. 1.
  5. Mary Crockett Prints & Paintings.
  6. Penwith Gallery.

Book
  • Plays Without Theatres: Recollections of the Compass Players Travelling Theatre, 1944-52, edited by Pamela Dellar - Highgate Publications (Beverley) Ltd (8 Oct 1989) ISBN 978-0-948929-27-4.
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