Roger Murray-Leach
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Roger Murray-Leach | |
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| Born | 25 June 1943 |
| Occupation | Film & Television production designer |
Roger Murray-Leach (born 25 June 1943) is a British Production Designer possibly best known for his work on British television series' Doctor Who and Blake's 7 in the 1970s, although he later moved into working on major feature films.
Doctor Who
[edit]Initially training to be an architect, he joined the BBC design department in 1966. He began working on Doctor Who when Philip Hinchcliffe took over as producer in late 1974. Hinchcliffe's vision for the series included giving a high priority to set design. Murray-Leach designed several Doctor Who serials under Hinchcliffe's reign.
He has appeared in a number of television and DVD documentaries discussing his work on Doctor Who, including A Darker Side, a retrospective feature included in the 2|entertain/BBC DVD release of Planet of Evil, in which he and Hinchcliffe returned to Ealing studios to discuss the story's design and production.
Blake's 7
[edit]David Maloney, a director who had worked on a number of the Doctor Who serials designed by Murray-Leach, went on to produce Blake's 7 for the BBC and immediately secured the services of Murray-Leach as lead designer, which included both the exterior and interior of the Liberator spacecraft.
In 1980, following his work on Langrishe Go Down, starring Judi Dench and Jeremy Irons, and Speed King starring Robert Hardy as Sir Malcom Campbell, Murray-Leach left the BBC to work on the 1981 series Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years for which he was nominated for a BAFTA award.
Film production
[edit]He then moved into feature films, working as production designer on Local Hero. Following this his credits include A Christmas Carol with George C Scott as Scrooge, Defence of the Realm, Clockwise, A Fish Called Wanda, and Goldeneye. His movie career extended into the 1990s with, among others, Mrs Harris Goes To Paris, The Mighty Quinn, Twenty-One and Fierce Creatures. In 1983 he was also employed as Art Director on The Killing Fields.
In recent years he has worked with film director Norman Stone on productions such as Beyond Narnia, Florence Nightingale, KJV, Whistler and The Most Reluctant Convert - as well as working on the development of further projects.
Other Interests
[edit]In the early 2000s, he co-founded the Fishworks restaurant chain alongside Mitch Tonks.