Derek Bailey
Producer - Director

Educated Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen's University, Belfast, (BSc. Econ.) and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Before entering television he made many broadcasts as an actor and narrator for BBC Northern Ireland, played Hamlet at University and directed a production of 'Tiger and the Gates' which won the 2nd National Union of Students Drama Award. He sang and danced as Prince Danilo in the Ulster Operatic Company production of 'Merry Widow' and directed productions of Marriage of Figaro, Italian Girl in Algiers, Dido and Aeneas and Cosi Fan Tutte (singing second cast Don Alfonso) for the Studio Opera Group, and acted in Summer rep ,with the West of England Theatre Company. 

He started television career with Ulster Television in Belfast as Programme Director 1960 - 1968. Moved to London and to London Weekend Television 1969 - 1977. He was Senior Director on LWT's network arts series Aquarius, edited by Humphrey Burton; when Humphrey left to go to the BBC he took over as Editor with Peter Hall as Presenter. During his years on Aquarius he made many full-length documentaries including:- (Seamus) Heaney in Limboland 1970, The Other Belfast 1971, Blarney & Bellini (Wexford Opera Festival), Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) in New Orleans, the first Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Israel, the Traditional Arts of Iran with H.R.H. Empress Farah, Twyla Tharp’s ‘Eight Jelly Rolls, Edna O’Brien's Mother Ireland and Profiles of Peter Hall, the Amadeus Quartet and the City of Nuremberg. Also for LWT in 1976 from the Royal Albert Hall he directed the concert to celebrate the American Bi-Centennial with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic; in 1977 Your National Theatre, a 90 minute documentary to celebrate the opening of the theatre, featuring Olivier, Gielgud, Richardson, Tynan, Thorndike et al and narrated by Albert Finney. In 1977 for the new South Bank Show he produced and directed MacMillan's Mayerling a performance documentary about the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; for this programme he was awarded ITV's first (Music) Prix Italia.

In 1977 Derek went freelance with colleagues and formed Landseer Film & Television Productions. Since then among his major credits have been:-

Documentaries on: The Hermitage in Leningrad with Peter Ustinov and Natalie Wood, the French Chanson, Northern Irish Writers, J.R.R.Tolkien, the Kirov Ballet, the Russian Church, Russell Harty's Grand Tour (x5) and profiles of Natalia Makarova, Alan Ayckbourn, James Galway, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Franco Zeffirelli, Dame Joan Sutherland, Petula Clark, Tony Hancock, Elizabeth Frink and Bing Crosby.

Performance Documentaries include: Music in Time - 16 part history of music with James Galway for Polytel/ZDF Channel 4, Ballerina - 4 part series with Natalia Makarova and Dancer - 4 part series with Peter Schaufuss for BBC; writer and director of programmes on Haydn and Mendelssohn with Peter Ustinov for EuroArts.

He has also directed studio recordings of Billboards with the Joffrey Ballet, The Upper Room with Twyla Tharp, Kenneth MacMillian's Seven Deadly Sins and Winter Dreams with the Royal Ballet, Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni and Harrison Birtwhistle’s Yan Tan Tethera with Opera Factory and the Nutcracker with the Bonn Ballet.

Derek Bailey has directed many live and recorded opera and ballet relays from Royal Opera House, Covent Garden - Mayerling, Prince of Pagodas, Isadora, Fidelio, Mitridate, Salome, Coppelia and the live closing down Gala 1997; The Bolshoi - Boris Godunov, A Life for the Tsar; La Scala Milan - Aida (with Pavarotti), Madama Butterfly; Glyndebourne - La Traviata (twice), Katya Kabanova, Jenufa, Don Giovanni, and the live Gala Opening of the new theatre in 1994 with Marriage of Figaro; London Coliseum - La Sylphide, Gloriana, Rusalka, Semele; La Fenice, Venice - La Traviata; The Music Theatre, Amsterdam – L’Italiana in Alghier, dir Dario Fo; and Welsh National Opera – Faust;

Since 1991 for Landseer/BBC Northern Ireland he has directed more than twenty Concerts with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast featuring artists such as James Galway, Barry Douglas, Dame Cleo Laine and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, and in a wide ranging repertoire ranging from Rhapsody in Blue to Tippett’s Child Of Our Time

He has also directed the epic 18 hour Chinese Opera The Peony Pavilion at la Villette, Paris for RM Arts and Arte and Bill Bryden's The Mysteries, the cycle of medieval mystery plays at the Royal National Theatre.

Choreographers and directors whose work Derek Bailey has directed for TV include:- Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Bill Bryden, Sir Peter Wright, Luca Ronconi, Per Luigi Pizzi, David Freeman, Deborah Warner, Christopher Alden, Sir Peter Hall, Nicholaus Lehnhoff and Dario Fo. 

Awards

1978 (Music) Prix Italia for MacMillian's Mayerling

1979 Golden Hugo, Chicago Festival for Makarova

1986 American Ace Award for Dancer

1987 American Ace Award for Ballerina

1987 BP Arts Journalism Award for After the Gold (Pianist Barry Douglas)

1989 BP Arts Journalism Award for Playing Belfast (Belfast Arts Festival)

1995 Prime Time Emmy Nomination for Billboards (Joffrey Ballet)

1997 Gold Medal for Cultural Programmes at New York Festival for Ustinov’s Haydn

1999 London Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement in Ballet

| about us | credits| biographies | contact us|