Paddy Russell
Paddy Russell (born 4 July 1928 in Highgate, London[1], died 2 November 2017[2]) was a television director who worked on episodes with the First, Third and Fourth Doctors. She was the first female director to work on Doctor Who.
Before becoming a production assistant, she wanted to become an actor and went to Guildhall School of Music and Drama for her studies.[1]
In the 1950s, she worked as a BBC production assistant to famed director Rudolph Cartier. She worked on all three Quatermass serials as well as the 1954 adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
In 1965, she directed "Come Buttercup, Come Daisy, Come...?", an episode of Out of the Unknown, a science-fiction series. In 1966, she directed her first Doctor Who story, The Massacre. Following this, she directed episodes of Pere Goriot, Little Women, Softly, Softly: Taskforce, Z-Cars and The Moonstone before returning to Doctor Who with Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Pyramids of Mars and Horror of Fang Rock, in 1974, 1975 and 1977 respectively, to direct the Third and Fourth Doctors.
She was the original choice to direct The Edge of Destruction, but she was unavailable. (INFO: "The Edge of Destruction") According to Barry Letts, she refused to direct any stories with "tin cans" in it. (DCOM: More than 30 Years in the TARDIS)
