Ken Grieve obituary (original) (raw)

My friend and colleague Ken Grieve, who has died aged 74, was a film and television director who worked on a range of drama series and plays including Dr Who, Strangers, Peak Practice, Casualty and The Bill, his career perhaps hitting a peak in 1988 with an adaptation of Len Deighton’s Game, Set and Match, starring Ian Holm.

Ken was born and brought up in Edinburgh, the son of Henry Grieve, a plant manager at British Aluminium, and his wife, Lesley, a seamstress. He attended the Edinburgh Academy, where he excelled in geography and history, and won a scholarship to Bryanston school in Dorset.

His first job was as a trainee studio cameraman with Granada Television. He became one of its elite crew, strong and skilled enough to manoeuvre the huge cameras on live pop shows. He later further trained as a director of dramas and documentaries, cutting his teeth on Coronation Street and Crown Court in the mid-1970s.

Actors and crew loved working with him as he was always appreciative of their efforts, ready to listen, approachable and courteous. He relished the magic actors could create – and also made them look good. I worked alongside him as a fellow director on The XYY Man and Strangers with Don Henderson, Mark McManus, Dennis Blanch and John Ronane, and as a producer on Heartbeat, The Royal and The Bill. In all these shows, he seized the day with the enthusiasm of a small child at Christmas.

Ken was a loyal, mildly eccentric and generous friend, and a highly talented colleague. He was politically impassioned, an instinctive socialist with an unshakeable sense of fair play, though wearily dismissive of politicians’ plausible promises of a brave new world.

He received a diagnosis of myeloma eight years ago and determined to carry on working until he was no longer able. When told he could drive no more, he took his pushbike up and down the hills of Edinburgh. When told that too was off-limits, he went walking every day with sticks. He even declined the care of a Macmillan nurse.

He is survived by his partner, Jane, his children, Simon, Ben, Charlotte and Dee, from his marriage to Fiona, who died in 2010, and his brother, Robin.