Julia Cave, who has died aged 82, was one of the women who in the late 1950s and early 60s began to break down the barriers that had prevented women from establishing creative careers in BBC television. Although she went on to do distinguished work as a producer and director, perhaps the most enduring legacy of the talent, charm and dedication she brought to all her work came in those early days.
The launching of BBC2 in 1964 coincided with the 50th anniversary of the first world war. Alasdair Milne was the producer of the 26-part series The Great War, and Julia was given the responsibility of tracking down and interviewing survivors of the conflict. Displaying tenacity and warmth, she gained their trust and coaxed out of them the stories of fear, suffering and camaraderie that many had suppressed for years.
Those interviews humanised the jerky, silent black and white film footage from the time and the formal narration spoken by Michael Redgrave. They form one of the most important records of that terrible war, and proved no less telling when the series was shown again for its centenary.
Also in the 1960s, Julia was involved with the Sky at Night, sometimes directing it live, sometimes producing it and sometimes serving as the designated minder of the presenter, Patrick Moore. A marvellous communicator of all things astronomical, Moore was extremely eccentric. Every month he drove from his home in Selsey, on the West Sussex coast, to the TV centre in London. One day he missed most of rehearsal and arrived with hair on end and eyebrows twitching. “Why are you so late?” Julia asked. “My compass broke, I got lost,” he answered, clutching the smashed object.
David Attenborough, controller of BBC2, commissioned a new archaeological series, Chronicle, under the editorship of Paul Johnstone, who had been The Sky at Night’s founding producer. Johnstone asked Julia to join the team, and there she learned her trade as a film director.
She made more than a dozen films on various subjects, ranging from The Treasures of Priam (1966) and the Last Days of Minos (1967) to Abu Simbel Reborn (on the moving of two Egyptian temples, 1968) and The Plunderers’ Treasure Trail (on the illegal digging up and trading of antiquities, 1975). Throughout she brought the ancient stones, relics and myths to life with her skilful storytelling and imaginative filming.
In the 1970s Chronicle was absorbed into BBC TV’s music and arts department. It was a hotbed of talent, nurturing the creative ambitions of Ken Russell, Jack Gold, Jonathan Miller, Leslie Megahey and many more. There was no complex hierarchy: heads of department gave directors the freedom to develop ideas and carry them out, however idiosyncratic.
Julia’s independent spirit thrived and she was able to capitalise on her love of contemporary art and artists. With Robert Hughes she made films on contemporary American artists for the series American Visions (1997). She relished setting up teams of young directors for series she produced such as Seven Artists (1979), whose number included Edward Ruscha, Antoni Tàpies, Victor Pasmore and Roy Lichtenstein. Five Sculptors (1988) showed off the work of Anish Kapoor, Richard Wentworth, Alison Wilding, Bill Woodrow and Antony Gormley.
While running Omnibus I commissioned Julia to make a film on censorship and the arts in the crumbling Soviet Union; the result was a superb investigative piece and the start of our long friendship. For earlier Omnibus series she directed Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death, a programme about the American civil war presented by the controversialist actor and historian Kenneth Griffith. In collaboration with Malcolm Brown she wrote a book, A Touch of Genius (1988), on TE Lawrence, and directed an insightful film, Lawrence and Arabia (1986).
Born in the Forest of Dean, she was the daughter of Mervin Mcleod-Cary, an engineer with the Royal Navy, and Marjorie (nee Ryan), an actor. Julia and her sister, Roberta, had a peripatetic childhood. The family constantly moved, living in places as contrasting as Bombay and Belfast, experiences that left her with a restlessness, a desire to travel and sense of adventure that remained with her all her life.
As a teenager, Julia enrolled in the Central School of Drama in London, but her godmother, a governor of the BBC, told her to “get a job at the BBC, dear”, so she did.
At the age of 19 she joined the Arab section of the World Service just in time for the Suez crisis, with her experience there giving her an admiration for the culture of the Middle East and an abiding interest in the history and politics of the region. In 1960 she transferred to television, starting as a researcher on the job-guessing panel game What’s My Line?, and graduating to studio director.
After she left the BBC, Julia continued to make films, including The Fake Van Goghs (1997), presented by Geraldine Norman, for the Arthouse documentary series on Channel 4.
Retirement did not dim Julia’s creative energy and curiosity. She wrote articles for her local paper, Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today, devoured books, films and exhibitions, and her second home was the Chelsea Arts Club. Though she could be stubborn, argumentative and contrary, clashes with her never ended in animosity: she was a loyal and valued friend.
Julia’s marriages, the first, in 1958, to the producer Willie Cave, and the second, in 1967, to the GP David Cowper, both ended in divorce. She is survived by the two children, Dermot and Miranda, of her second marriage and her grandchildren, Jasper and Maddie.
• Julia Cave, television director and producer, born 1 June 1937; died 21 October 2019
