Claude Whatham

Jan 11 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

AFTER The Beatles split up, people considered their possible solo careers. “What will happen to Ringo?” was a question often asked.

Acting seemed to be the most obvious outlet for the man with a naturally lugubrious humour, a point seized on by Claude Whatham when he was casting his film That’ll be the Day (1973), which had a script by Ray Connolly, a former Daily Post journalist.

So Ringo appears as the teddy boy and holiday camp veteran, who introduces the inexperienced David Essex to the joys of chalet sex.

With his enviable sideboards and understanding of ted culture, Ringo was excellent in the film, which also featured his old pal from Liverpool’s Dingle, Billy Fury, as an ageing rock star.

Whatham grew up in Manchester, attending art school, which resulted in his extraordinary assignment of painting the bedrooms of the young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, at Windsor Castle.

He had also worked as scene painter and set designer with the Oldham Repertory Company, which stood him in good stead when Granada TV began in Manchester in 1956.

A great spirit drove the station, which didn’t feel that being financed by adverts meant that it was culturally inferior to the BBC. Sidney Bernstein, the chairman, want- ed to give viewers pro- grammes that were both pop- ular and of a high standard.

For the first time, partly because of the success of writing by the Angry Young Men, working-class culture was being taken seriously – Northern working-class culture, at that.

Against this background, Whatham became a director, having his first major credit for a documentary called An Hour in the Manchester Municipal Greenhouses, which perfectly exemplified Bernstein’s point – interesting but not vulgar.

Then came The Verdict is Yours (1958-59), supposedly set in Birkenhead Assizes, in which actors with advice from legal representatives acted out cases before a jury drawn from the public.

Later, as a freelance, Whatham became one of the country’s top directors. In 1971, he was responsible for both Elizabeth R and Cider with Rosie. Two years before, he had been nominated for a Bafta for John Mortimer’s A Voyage Round My Father, starring Mark Dignam, in the part later played by Laurence Olivier.

His last film was Buddy Song (1990) starring Roger Daltrey, Chesney Hawkes and Sharon Duce.

Whatham is survived by his wife and daughter.

Claude Whatham, TV director; born December 7, 1927, died January 4, 2008.