Prudence Fitzgerald

Prudence Mary Fitzgerald (18 January 19306 September 2018) was an English television director and producer. She was known for directing and producing numerous British TV series including Dr. Finlay's Casebook, The Expert, The Shadow of the Tower, 1990 and the 1979 series A Family Affair. She was also a programme co-ordinator for the 1974 BBC TV mini-series Fall of Eagles.

Life and career Prudence Fitzgerald was born in Stafford in 1930 to Kevin Columba Fitzgerald, a chemical company advisor and Vida Lamb. She started working in television in the early 1960s, beginning her directing career at the BBC in 1961. She worked on several TV movies and series there before making her name as a director of the hugely popular Dr. Finlay's Casebook in 1965-1966. She was the most prolific director on the BBC series, The Expert, helming eighteen of the sixty-two episodes. It was the first series to feature a forensic pathologist in the lead role as an investigator, working with police. It had an influence on such later shows as Quincy, M.E. and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Several of the series on which she worked, including The Expert and The Brothers, were created by the prolific producing duo Gerard Glaister and N.J. Crisp. They shared a seventeenth-century house in London's Hampton Court that looked out onto a royal park, before moving to the village of Rushlake Green in East Sussex, where they lived for the rest of their lives. Marius Goring died of cancer in 1998 and Prudence survived him by twenty years, dying on 6 September 2018. They are buried together in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Warbleton, East Sussex.

Filmography

The Big Boys (1961) TV movie – producer Studio 4 (1962) TV series – producer/director of 3 episodes Crying Down the Lane (1962) TV mini-series – producer/director of 6 episodes Moonstrike (1963) TV series - director of 2 episodes Festival (1963–64) TV series – director of 2 episodes First Night (1964) TV series – director of 1 episode Detective (1964) TV series – director of 1 episode Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1965–66) TV series - director of 14 episodes This Man Craig (1966–67) TV series – director of 7 episodes Champion House (1967) TV series – director of 3 episodes The Revenue Men (1967–68) TV series – director of 6 episodes The Expert (1968–1976) TV series – director of 18 episodes Paul Temple (1970) TV series - director of 1 episode The View from Daniel Pike (1971) TV series – director of 2 episodes The Shadow of the Tower (1972) TV series – director of 4 episodes The Brothers (1972) TV series – director of 2 episodes Crown Court (1974) TV series – director of 2 episodes Fall of Eagles (1974) TV mini-series – programme co-ordinator of 3 episodes 1990 (1977–78) TV series – producer of 16 episodes A Family Affair (1979) TV series - producer of 10 episodes/director of 1 episode Juno and the Paycock (1980) TV movie – producer Out of Order (1984) TV movie – producer