Jeremy Summers
Jeremy Summers (born 1931 in St Albans) is a retired British television director and film director, best known for his directorship of ITC productions in the 1960s and 1970s, most notably The Saint.
Background
Born in St Albans in 1931, Summers was born into a family of theatrical tradition and his father Walter Summers (1896-1973) was a film director and screenwriter.
He directed nearly 50 different TV programmes between 1960 and 1999, including The Saint and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
Career
Summers began directing in 1960 with a film Depth Charge, the screenplay of which he also wrote, but he immediately turned his attention to television and directed episodes of Desert Hi-Jack, Interpol Calling and four episodes of International Detective between 1960 and 1961.
A sequence of feature films followed, the Tony Hancock feature film vehicle The Punch and Judy Man, Crooks in Cloisters (1964) with Barbara Windsor, Dateline Diamonds (1965) starring William Lucas and Kenneth Cope[1] as well as Gerry and the Pacemakers feature film Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965). Meanwhile, he continued in television with Man of the World and, in 1965, episodes of Court Martial, Gideon's Way and two more films Ferry Cross the Mersey and San Ferry Ann.
In 1966 Summers directed episodes of Danger Man; he also directed some 12 episodes of The Saint from 1964 to 1966. Episodes of The Saint that Summers filmed include "The Lawless Lady", "The Death Penalty" and "The Unkind Philanthropist" (1964), "The Abducters" (1965) and "The Man Who Liked Lions" (1966).
This was followed in 1967 by The Baron and several foreign films of that year The Vengeance of Fu Manchu, Five Golden Dragons and The House of 1,000 Dolls for Harry Alan Towers. He also directed an episode of Man in a Suitcase in 1968.
In 1969, still under contract with ITC, Summers directed a number of episodes of the popular series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), working with actors Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope and Annette Andre.
In the '70s, Summers directed 2 episodes of UFO (TV series) and several for The Protectors, both being Gerry Anderson series.
In the 1990s he even directed episodes of the television soap operas Coronation Street and Brookside before his retirement.