THE
UNMUTUAL WEBSITE - VILLAGE PEOPLE
CAST & CREW PROFILES
DON CHAFFEY - DIRECTOR. Profile by Howard Foy.
Chaffey worked on four of the first five episodes to be produced -"Arrival",
"Dance Of The Dead", "Checkmate" and "The Chimes Of
Big Ben" (Patrick McGoohan, of course, directed "Free For All",
although Chaffey was responsible for some sequences) - and hence played a major
role in setting the distinctive style of the series. He will also be remembered
by Prisoner fans for his contribution to the 1984 Channel 4 documentary, "Six
Into One: The Prisoner File", in which he recalled how PMcG got him to
direct the initial episodes even though he was busy, at the time, working on
a film in Ireland.
Patrick, who had worked extensively with Chaffey on the one-hour "Danger
Man" stories, was so keen to secure his services on "The Prisoner"
that he gave some scripts to the director's daughter in the hope that she could
persuade him! Chaffey also recalled having arguments with the landlord and regulars
in his local pub about "The Prisoner" while it was being first screened.
They told him the programme was "rubbish", but Chaffey's simple reply
was on the lines of- "Why do you watch it, then?"
Chaffey, who was born on 5th August 1917, began his career as a director on
a children's film, "The Mysterious Poacher", which won a medal at
the Venice Festival in 1950. After further work on children's films, he graduated
to "adult' projects with the 1957 movie "The Flesh Is Weak",
starring John Derek, and "A Question Of Adultery", featuring Julie
London and Anthony Steel, which was made a year later. His next two films were
both made for British Lion and starred Richard Attenborough - "The Man
Upstairs" and "Danger Within", a 1959 POW drama. The beginning
of the 1960s saw Chaffey directing two long-forgotten comedy films, "Dentist
In The Chair", with Bob Monkhouse, and "Nearly A Nasty Accident",
with Jimmy Edwards, but in 1961 he also began an association with Disney for
which (apart from "The Prisoner"!) he may well be best remembered.
The film was "Greyfriars Bobby", the true story of a loyal little
Skye terrier who refused to leave his master's grave. Filmed largely on location
in Edinburgh with a Scottish cast, the film was a big children's hit, and Chaffey
went on to make "A Horse Without A Head" and "The Three Lives
Of Thomasina" in 1963. The latter, of course, starred Patrick McGoohan.
The same year, he directed what is perhaps his most successful movie, "Jason
And The Argonauts", featuring superb special effects from American wizard
Ray Harryhausen. In a similar genre, Chaffey also directed the prehistoric "One
Million Years BC" for Hammer, starring Raquel Welch.
More recently, in 1977, Chaffey worked on another Disney movie, the partly-animated
feature "Pete's Dragon", starring Jim Dale and Mickey Rooney. As well
as "The Prisoner", Chaffey's other TV work included, as already mentioned,
directing no less than 14 of the hour-long episodes of "Danger Man",
nine episodes of another ITC series, "The Protectors", and five stories
in the final series of "The Avengers". He also worked on "Charlie's
Angels" in America. Don Chaffey died in November 1990 at the age of 73.