1961–1963: Northampton Repertory Theatre Shortly after returning from his US study tour in November 1961, 22-year-old Bayldon began a one-year apprenticeship on an Arts Council Scholarship at the Northampton Repertory Theatre, as an assistant to the long-serving regular designer Thomas Osborne Robinson. The design team included John Page, also 22, who had joined Robinson in 1959. In early 1962, Bayldon designed and produced
banners for St Mary's Church, in
Glenfield, a village to the west of Leicester. In September 1962, Page and Bayldon—who was about to start his second year at the Repertory, now as a designer—stood in for Robinson when he took a
sabbatical to teach at
Vanderbilt University until late 1963. They maintained Robinson's high design standards, and Bayldon was credited, for costumes or settings, on the playbills of:
Guilty Party and
Murder at Quay Cottage (both 1962),
Babes in the Wood (1962–1963),
The Shiny Surface,
Write Me a Murder, and
Go Back For Murder (all 1963). Bayldon would also act for the Repertory Theatre; he played one of the "Gentlemen, Dancers and Guests" in the 1961 Christmas season pantomime of
Cinderella, and "Ranjit, Fielding's servant" during the run of
A Passage to India (17–29 September 1962) which included
Ken Loach as "Mr Burton-Fletcher, a Civil Servant". It was Loach—on a trainee director's course backed by an ITV company at the time—who turned Bayldon's attention towards television. On 23 February 1963, Bayldon launched a month-long exhibition, entitled
Costume and Theatre Designs, at the
Museum and Art Gallery, Northampton.
1963–1995: BBC Television and Royal Academy of Music When Bayldon's second year at the Northampton Repertory Theatre was coming to an end, he received an advertisement from BBC Television to apply for a design assistant post for the forthcoming opening of a second BBC channel,
BBC Two, a post he secured. By early December 1963, he had already worked on programmes such as
Compact, ''
Dr. Finlay's Casebook, and other drama presentations. On 4 December, one of his poems, "A man in a crowd", was broadcast on BBC radio (Midland Region) in the programme Midland Poets
. During an interview with the Stamford Mercury'' on 6 December, Bayldon commented on his appointment at the BBC: "Looking back, I think I was very fortunate in getting the right sort of grounding from Mr. Walter Douglas at Stamford School." On 20 March 1964, another of his poems was read in the
BBC Home Service's
Midland Poets, at 9 pm. In December of that year,
The Stage announced that Durwell Productions Ltd. were planning a March or April 1965 presentation of a new musical,
Cupid & Psyche, with book and lyrics by
Glyn Idris Jones and music by
Kenny Clayton, and that Bayldon was scheduled to be the designer. He drew up sets and costumes for this show, which was never staged. In March 1965, Bayldon released his first book of verse,
The Paper Makers Craft, published by Twelve by Eight Paper Mill & Private Press in Leicester, the only place in England where paper was still made by hand. The collection included his own free translation of a 17th-century Latin poem, "Papyrus", by Father Imberdis S.J. of
Ambert, the papermaking district of the Auvergne in France.
1966–1973 In 1966, Bayldon stage designed four episodes in the BBC television series
Quick Before They Catch Us, which aired in September. He also designed episodes 99 and 100 of
The Newcomers, and seven episodes of
Meet the Wife. The following year, he designed three episodes each for
Thirty-Minute Theatre and
Room at the Bottom, one episode, "Hughie", for
Comedy Playhouse (
Series 6), and one episode, "
Bohuslav Martinů 1890–1959", for BBC2's
Workshop programme (replayed on BBC1's
Omnibus programme the following year). In 1968, he designed five episodes for
Till Death Us Do Part, three for
Beggar My Neighbour, seven for
The Railway Children, and one episode on
Sir Tyrone Guthrie for
An Evening with.... In 1969, he designed one episode, "These Men Are Dangerous: Mussolini", for the
Thirty-Minute Theatre programme, three episodes each for
The Troubleshooters and ''
Dad's Army'', all six episodes of
The Gnomes of Dulwich—for which he and his colleague
Peter Brachacki had to create giant-size scenery to surround the two garden gnomes portrayed by
Terry Scott and
Hugh Lloyd—and three episodes of
The Battle of St. George Without. In 1970, Bayldon designed one episode of
Not in Front of the Children, four episodes each for
Oh Brother! and
The Troubleshooters, and two episodes each of
Comedy Playhouse (
Series 10) and
Z-Cars. In 1971, he designed one episode, "Waugh Plays Cops and Robbers", for
Thirty-Minute Theatre, and eight more episodes of
Z-Cars. In October 1971, the BBC began broadcasting the first series of
The Onedin Line, for which Bayldon had designed six episodes, as well as another six episodes for the second series, aired in 1972. The filming in
Exeter and
Dartmouth involved many dramatic incidents at sea, for one of which he created a specially constructed
steam pinnace, a period steamship complete with a 13-foot high funnel and a large boiler. Other scenes included a storm at sea and a ship on fire. The creation of bustling Victorian markets and docks presented many problems for the designer because any modern additions had either to be removed or hidden. This meant the complete removal of street signs, the covering of shop fronts, and even, on one occasion, the repainting of an entire house façade. In February 1972, Bayldon was nominated in a short list of four television designers for the
BAFTA award of Best Design of the Year for his work on
The Onedin Line series. During this time, Bayldon also designed 17 individual costumes (plus nine design studies, each with several costume sketches) for the Goths and Bulgars in
Donizetti's
Belisario, which was produced by the
Royal Academy of Music on the occasion of its 150th anniversary celebrations and performed at the
Sadler's Wells Theatre, on 8 to 11 March. From 25 August to 17 September, he presented illustrations of his set and costume designs—including stage sets for
Il Trovatore and
The Magic Flute—in an exhibition entitled
Stage and Television Designs at the
Herbert Art Gallery,
Coventry. In February 1973, Bayldon and the entire BBC Design Team were nominated for a second
BAFTA Television Design Award for
The Onedin Line. In June, the BBC broadcast one episode, "Three's One", with Bayldon's design for the programme
Play for Today, followed, in September and October, by four episodes of ''The Dragon's Opponent''.
1974–1979 In early 1974, the BBC broadcast four episodes of
The Liver Birds, with sets designed by Bayldon. In March and April 1975, BBC2 aired
The Fight Against Slavery, a six-part dramatised documentary co-produced with
Time Life, written by
Evan Jones and directed by Christopher Ralling, with sets designed by Bayldon. This series was filmed on location in the
West Country,
West Africa and
Jamaica. Between October 1975 and January 1976, BBC1 showed the first series of
Poldark, based on the novels by
Winston Graham and starring
Angharad Rees and
Robin Ellis, for which Bayldon designed all sixteen episodes. Over fifty sets had to be built for the programme, and a large section of copper mine had to be constructed in the film studios for scenes which occur in later episodes. Bayldon also designed sets for the television film version of
D. H. Lawrence's
The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd, shown on 5 May 1976. In late 1976, he produced designs for four episodes in the second series of
When the Boat Comes In, for which he was once again nominated for a BAFTA award. In 1977, Bayldon worked on the
Velvet Glove series of dramatised biographies and designed those of
Edith Cavell,
Elizabeth Fry and the play on
Lilian Baylis. In an interview with the
Leicester Daily Mercury on 14 March 1977, Bayldon stated: "The research for these is often almost as interesting as the programmes themselves. It was somehow strange to be poring through boxes of Edith Cavell's private possessions or to search through treasured photographs at Lilian Baylis' original desk. The greatest challenge in these plays was to build a complete theatre in the studios, and also to recreate the horrors of
Newgate prison in the 1800s." In April 1977, he produced designs for "A Choice of Evils", as part of
Play for Today, followed, in October, by "Able's Will", for
BBC2 Play of the Week. On 2 October,
Gordon Burn interviewed Bayldon in an article for the
Sunday Times Magazine entitled "All his own work – Ollie's living room sets the scene for the TV viewers", which explained Bayldon's approach to designing a living room for "Able's Will". During this period, he also designed costumes and sets for three short operas produced by the Royal Academy of Music for the Gala Opera Performance organised for the opening of the
Sir Jack Lyons Theatre on 26 October 1977, inaugurated by HRH
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, President of the RAM. These three pieces were:
Henry Purcell's
The Fairy Queen Act IV: The Masque of the Seasons,
Gavin Ewart &
John Gardner's
Tobermory, and
Gilbert & Sullivan's
Trial by Jury, the latter after an interval. This performance was repeated on 28 and 31 October, and 1 November. At the end of the year, Bayldon created designs for all five episodes of the BBC's adaptation of
Frederick Marryat's
The Children of the New Forest, which aired in November and December. In 1978, Bayldon made designs for "The Legion Hall Bombing", which aired in August for
Play for Today, and worked on three episodes of
Happy Ever After, starring
Terry Scott and
June Whitfield, shown in September and October. He designed
The Dancing Princesses, broadcast in December, as a significantly modified television adaptation of the
Brothers Grimm's fairy tale, directed by Ben Rea and featuring
Jim Dale,
Freddie Jones, and
Gloria Grahame. During the latter part of 1978, Bayldon designed sets for the serialised TV adaptation of
George Eliot's
The Mill on the Floss, directed by Ronald Wilson and starring
Christopher Blake,
Pippa Guard,
Judy Cornwell,
Ray Smith and
Anton Lesser; these eight episodes were broadcast from December 1978 to February 1979. In her review for
The Stage on 4 January 1979, Jennifer Lovelace stated: "(...) So far,
The Mill On The Floss is well up to standard. The quality of design (Oliver Bayldon) and costume (Caroline Maxwell) is sound and a little quickening of pace in future episodes will ensure that the traditions of the BBC Classic Serial are maintained."
1980–1985 On 22 March 1980,
BBC2 Playhouse broadcast
Rottingdean, with designs by Bayldon. It was written by Richard Crane, produced by Anne Head, and directed by Mark Cullingham, starring
Pat Heywood,
Trevor Peacock and
Roger Brierley. From March to June 1980, BBC2 aired the TV series
A Question of Guilt, with two cases set in the 1800s, "
Constance Kent" and "
Adelaide Bartlett" (eight episodes each), for which Bayldon designed Victorian sets. During an interview with the
Stamford Mercury on 16 May 1980, he said: "It was a problem to recreate locations which either no longer existed, or had been totally changed in the name of redevelopment. We took immense pains to be as accurate as possible even to reconstructing an 1860 railway compartment in a gutted carriage, and building a realistic Victorian
earth privy among the bushes. I believe we have been faithful to the facts as they were recorded". He also designed the production of Shakespeare's
The Merchant of Venice, directed by
Jack Gold and produced by
Jonathan Miller, which BBC2 aired on 17 December. On 20 March 1981,
BBC2 Playhouse broadcast
Unity, a play by
John Mortimer depicting
Unity Mitford's time in Berlin, based on the biography by
David Pryce-Jones. Produced by Louis Marks, directed by James Cellan Jones, and designed by Bayldon, it starred
Lesley-Anne Down in the role of Mitford. Later in 1981, Bayldon produced designs for the TV serial adaptation of
Rudyard Kipling's
Stalky & Co., directed by
Rodney Bennett and produced by
Barry Letts. Starring
Robert Addie and
David Parfitt, it was broadcast on BBC1 in a series of six weekly episodes from 31 January to 7 March 1982. On 12 February 1982,
BBC2 Playhouse broadcast
A Shilling Life, written by Guy Meredith, produced by Rosemary Hill, directed by Michael Heffernan, and designed by Bayldon. It starred
Eric Porter and
Julie Covington. Bayldon contributed elaborate sets for Shakespeare's first tetralogy (the
Henry VI plays and
Richard III) directed by
Jane Howell and produced by Jonathan Miller, with costumes by John Peacock. Among the well-known television actors featured were:
Julia Foster,
Annette Crosbie,
Frank Middlemass,
Tenniel Evans,
Trevor Peacock, and
Bernard Hill. This project delivered four films aired on BBC2 as part of the
BBC Television Shakespeare series, on successive Sundays throughout January 1983. About his decision to use a modern parquet floor as a deliberate violation of illusionist representation, Bayldon explained: "It stops the set from literally representing; it reminds us we are in a modern television studio."
Stanley Wells commended this aspect of the production: "Jane Howell has dared to encourage us to remember that the action is taking place in a studio." In May 1983, Bayldon designed the BBC's TV adaptation of
J.B. Priestley's
Dangerous Corner for the programme
Play of the Month. In February and March 1984, Bayldon was the designer for the last seven (of thirteen) episodes of the TV adaptation of
C. P. Snow's
Strangers and Brothers. Later that year, he designed the set for BBC1's
Review of the Year 1984, presented by
Frank Bough and
Selina Scott on 27 December. In March 1985, Bayldon designed the three-part adaptation of
Oscar, starring
Michael Gambon as
Oscar Wilde during his trials and time in prison. Bayldon designed episode 9, "Windfall", for the second series of
Big Deal, which aired in October, and also worked on the adaptation of
Noël Coward's
Star Quality: Me and the Girls, directed by
Jack Gold and starring
Tom Courtenay and
Nichola McAuliffe, broadcast on 1 December 1985.
1986–1991 In 1986, Bayldon was made a Fellow of the
Chartered Society of Designers. That year, he designed two consecutive episodes for the programme
ScreenPlay: "The Mozart Inquest" and "The Marlowe Inquest", directed by
Anthony Garner, which aired on 27 August and 3 September. In 1987, he designed the second of three episodes of
Gaudy Night, starring
Edward Petherbridge,
Harriet Walter, and
Richard Morant, and directed by Michael Simpson from Philip Broadley's adaptation of
Dorothy L. Sayers's
Lord Peter Wimsey novel
of the same name; this second episode was broadcast on 20 May 1987. In January 1989, BBC2 aired
The Dark Angel, a three-part television adaptation of
J. Sheridan Le Fanu's
Uncle Silas, starring
Peter O'Toole,
Beatie Edney,
Simon Shepherd, and
Jane Lapotaire. In an article for
Variety Television Reviews (1991–92), the reviewer—"Tone"— wrote: "Oliver Bayldon's rich design gives the production substance and finality." Writing about
The Dark Angel for the
Los Angeles Times, Ray Loynd wrote: "
Don Macpherson's script is wafer-thin, genre period melodrama. But the nightmare is salvaged by O'Toole and production designer Oliver Bayldon's sickly rich decay." In 1990, Bayldon designed sets for
Never Come Back, a three-part
crime drama created by
David Pirie and starring
Nathaniel Parker,
James Fox,
Jonathan Coy,
Suzanna Hamilton, and
Ingrid Lacey, aired on BBC2 over three successive Wednesdays from 21 March 1990. On 20 September, BBC2's
Arena showed "Agatha Christie – Unfinished Portrait" for which Bayldon had designed and illustrated dramatic inserts highlighting incidents in Christie's childhood, including a nightmare sequence and a drawing of the novelist reading to her grandmother from a newspaper in the 1890s. On 12 October, Bayldon won a
Royal Television Society Design Award for his work on
Never Come Back, and was presented with his award by news presenter
Sue Lawley at the
London Hilton Hotel. Also in 1990, Bayldon produced sets for all seven episodes of the first series of
On the Up, a
situation comedy written by
Bob Larbey and starring
Dennis Waterman,
Sam Kelly,
Joan Sims,
Jenna Russell, and
Judy Buxton. The first series was shown on successive Tuesdays from 4 September to 16 October 1990. In 1991, Bayldon created designs for "Do Not Disturb", an episode aired on 17 March 1991 in series seven of the BBC2 programme
Screen Two, produced by Simon Passmore and directed by Nicholas Renton, and starring
Frances Barber,
Peter Capaldi, and
Éva Darlan. In 1992, Bayldon was production designer for the BBC's adaptation of
Muriel Spark's novel
Memento Mori, directed by
Jack Clayton and starring Dame
Maggie Smith, Dame
Thora Hird, Sir
Michael Hordern,
Stephanie Cole, and
Zoë Wanamaker. This TV film was first broadcast on BBC2's
Screen Two on 19 April 1992, and was awarded six nominations for the BAFTA Awards, with Bayldon winning in the Best TV Production Design category.
1992–1995 On 15 September 1992, BBC1's
Omnibus programme broadcast "Angela Carter's Curious Room", a profile of the novelist and writer
Angela Carter, filmed in the last months before her death. Bayldon was the designer, and his drawing of Carter's 1950 living room in
Balham was published in the September 1992 edition of
House & Garden. The following month, Bayldon was the production designer for "Seconds Out", an episode about the world of unlicensed boxing, broadcast on 4 October as part of series four of the BBC's
Screen One anthology drama series. In 1993, Bayldon created sets for two episodes of BBC2's
Scene series for teenagers; the first,
Dear Life, written by
Sue Glover and directed by Jane Howell, was broadcast on 19 March; the second was a play by
Tom Stoppard,
A Separate Peace, which aired a week later. Later that year, Bayldon was production designer for "The Maitlands", the first episode in the third series of BBC2's
Performance programme. It was directed by
Lindsay Posner and produced by
Simon Curtis, and aired on 13 November 1993, starring
Eileen Atkins,
Jennifer Ehle,
Bill Nighy,
Edward Fox, and
Samuel West. In 1994, Bayldon designed sets for "Return to Blood River", the seventh episode in the tenth series of BBC2's
Screen Two programme. It was directed by
Jane Howell and produced by
Peter Goodchild, and aired on 13 April 1994, starring
Kevin McNally,
Warren Clarke,
Frances Barber, and
Samantha Bond. In January 1995, Bayldon was credited as production designer on
The Plant, a
science fiction film shown on BBC1, about an alien visitor to a London suburb; it was written and directed by Jonathan Lewis, and starred
Joanna Roth,
Valentine Pelka, and
Eoin McCarthy. Later that year, Bayldon held his fourth exhibition on design visuals and illustrations for television and film at the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, 195 Piccadilly, London, from 9 October to 11 November.
1996–1997: Freelance After going freelance when the BBC downsized, Bayldon returned as production designer for
Into the Fire, a three-part television
thriller drama mini-series first shown on BBC1 on 14 February 1996 for three consecutive nights; it was written by
Tony Marchant, directed by Jane Howell, and starred
Donal McCann,
David Morrissey,
Sharon Duce, and
Sue Johnston. Two months later, Bayldon held his fifth exhibition, entitled
Arts in the Vaults, at the Royal Society of Arts, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2, from 26 April until 26 July. Bayldon's final project as a production designer was
Wokenwell, a six-part television
crime drama series, broadcast on
ITV from 18 May to 22 June 1997. The series was created by screenwriter Bill Gallagher and produced by
LWT, starring
Ian McElhinney,
Celia Imrie,
Nicholas Gleaves,
Lesley Dunlop,
Jason Done and
Nicola Stephenson.
Writing career Bayldon retired from designing in 1997, and continued to write. Between 1987 and 1991, some of his short stories had already been read on the
BBC Radio 4 programme,
Morning Story: "Moya" (1987), "Model Responses New York Style" (1988), "Introductions à la Mode" (1988), "City Column" (1989), "Away from It All" (1989), "Sideways Promotion" (1989), and "Home from Home" (1991). In addition to the two books already published in the 1960s,
The Paper Makers Craft (1965) and
Enigma I (1969), he wrote two more books:
Acts of Defiance (2013) and
Darkly Blows the Harmattan: Short Stories (2015). In 2013, he contributed illustrations to Mike Sharland's
The Digby Stories. Bayldon also wrote articles for magazines, following on from the four articles published in the
Stamford Mercury (1961), in which he had related his experiences during a 14-weeks study tour in the US. In retirement, he wrote two articles for
The Veteran, summarising his professional experiences:
Creating a Visual Style (2013), and
Filming in Perspective (2014). He also wrote three articles in
Prospero:
Memories: Ealing Studios remembered (2015), as well as obituaries for his colleagues
Peter Hammond, actor and director (2011), and John Hurst, Senior TV production designer (2016). == Selected works ==