Derek Martinus

Derek Buitenhuis 4 April 1931 27 March 2014 known professionally as Derek Martinus was an English television and theatre director Originally an actor he directed episodes of ZCars and Doctor Who for which he was best known He also had a long career directing stage productions For the BBC he directed several Doctor Who serials Galaxy 4 1965 Mission to the Unknown 1965 The Tenth Planet 1966 The Evil of the Daleks 1967 and The Ice Warriors also 1967 His final serial for the programme Spearhead from Space 1970 was also the first to be made in colour His period working on the programme spanned the eras of the first three actors to play the lead role Martinus also directed the Blakes 7 episodes Trial and The Keeper both 1979 and over 50 episodes of ZCars He worked on classic serials too What Maisie Knew 1968 The Black Tulip 1970 A Little Princess 1973 and A Legacy 1975 plus the dramatisation of a 1970s historical fiction best seller Penmarric For ITV he directed The Paper Lads in 1977 winner of the Pye Award for best childrens drama In addition Martinus directed the army drama series Spearhead and several series of the childrens drama Dodger Bonzo and the rest in 1985 which also won the Pye Award For Swedish television he directed a twohour political thriller by Jan Guillou The Wolf After having learnt Swedish he directed several plays in civic theatres in Sweden many of them translated or adapted by his wife Among others The Homecoming by Harold Pinter Volpone by Ben Jonson The Shoemakers Holiday by Thomas Dekker The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists the version by Stephen Lowe and Mad Forest by Caryl Churchill At the Gate Theatre in London he directed the British premieres of some rarely performed Strindberg plays translated from the Swedish by his wife Eivor