Michael Briant

Michael E. Briant (born in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England on 14 February 1942) is best known as a British television director, but is also a producer, actor, writer and sailor.

When Michael was 21 he joined the BBC as an assistant floor manager in the drama department and a year later became a Production Assistant.

In 1966 he took a Directors Course and he subsequently directed series such as Z-Cars, Doctor Who and Warship, Emmerdale, Treasure Island.

During his time on Doctor Who, he directed six serials, including The Sea Devils, The Green Death and his personal favourite The Robots of Death, which was also his last involvement with the series. He directed several episodes of the first series of Blake's Seven including episode one and won an Emmy for his production of Tale of Two Cities.

He is most proud of his subsequent direction of the BBC drama series Secret Army for which he directed episodes between 1978 and 1979. He later directed four of the six episodes of its sequel, Kessler and the thriller series Blood Money in which he cast many of the actors from Secret Army, before moving to the Netherlands to direct many television productions and winning the 'best drama award' for a sit com!

In the 1980s he went onto working directing episodes of the soap opera EastEnders, One by One, Hideaway, Howard's Way which he also created the original concept.

He completed a circumnavigation in his 36ft Moody 'Bambola Quatre' before moving to La Rochelle on the west coast of France for many years and currently lives in Spain where he indulges his passion for sailing.

He has recently been involved on DVD releases of his Doctor Who episodes, appearing on various documentaries and commentary tracks and has found a new career as an writer hoping shortly to publish his first novel.