Donald Wilson

Donald Boyd Wilson (11 September 1910 – 5 March 2002) He attended the Glasgow School of Art, following which his first jobs were as a newspaper cartoonist and sketch writer.

His initial career was in the film industry, including working for MGM at Elstree Studios, where he was Assistant Director of such films as Jericho (1937) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).

Wilson was responsible for much of the early development work on the show, although he did strongly attempt to dissuade producer Verity Lambert from using writer Terry Nation's script featuring a race of aliens named Daleks. Once the script had been made and transmitted to great success, he called Lambert into his office to tell her that she clearly knew the show better than he did and that he would no longer interfere with her decisions.

Later career

In 1965, Wilson gave up his position as Head of Serials to concentrate on realising a long-held ambition of bringing The Forsyte Saga to the screen. Acting as both adapter and producer, Wilson created one of the BBC’s most popular and successful drama serials of all time, which was a huge hit on its eventual screening on BBC Two in 1967, and was quickly repeated on BBC One. He later acted as adapter and producer again on such prestigious costume dramas as The First Churchills (1969) and Anna Karenina (1977), and also worked for Anglia Television on their series Orson Welles Great Mysteries in 1973.

Personal life and death In 1938, Wilson married actress Helena Taylor; they had two daughters and were married until her death in 2000.

In retirement, Wilson lived in Kingscote, Gloucestershire, and died from bronchopneumonia and heart failure at Standish Hospital in Standish, Gloucestershire, on 5 March 2002, at the age of 91.