DEREK Bailey was my first boss in Ulster Television, he was the one who arranged I got a precious Pye Black Box record player for my 21st birthday and he was the one who taught me to use my imagination and not to settle for second best, a man whose life in theatre and TV touched so many of our lives here in Northern Ireland and around the world.
At Queen’s University Derek studied economics but his heart was in drama and under his direction the QUB dramatic society won both Irish and UK awards and as a result were invited to perform at Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Although he was gaining management experience at the Pye factory in Larne in the early 1960s, Derek was expected to join the family accountancy firm but the arts were his first love and television was a natural next step as a producer and director.
In Ulster Television he made a name for himself, someone who ‘pushed the envelope’.
In the days before outside broadcasts he wasn’t satisfied to remain in the confines of Studio One so, with great difficulty, camera cables were stretched out the back door, across the little road and into the ‘spit and sawdust’ that was the Havelock Arms so viewers could watch live pictures of Dominic Behan surrounded by the McPeakes, the sun shafting through the smokey air as he sat, Guinness in hand, singing the story of Master McGrath.
Derek saw the opportunity for authenticity and made it work and we had the first ‘multi-camera’ outside broadcast.
His was a career of original productions. He produced and directed two of the most important programmes made in Ulster Television, Midnight Oil and The Inquiring Mind, the first adult education programmes on the network and said to be the inspiration for the Open University.
I recall travelling with him on film stories, once to Newbliss, Co Monaghan to the home of Sir Tyrone Guthrie.
The interview completed, we sat round Guthrie’s lunch table with Lady Judith and the legendary stage designer Tanya Moiseiwitch and soon Guthrie and Derek became involved in talk about theatre - the master and his willing pupil.
Another occasion was to Nutts Corner airport to welcome Louis Armstrong; the following week to Baltray to interview Bing Crosby - all unique experiences.
Derek was also influenced by Madam Gertrude Drinkwater, a little white-haired lady in a long dress who lived near Whiteabbey. He recalled her wearing elbow-length gloves, baton in her left hand as she conducted the Ulster Operatic Company orchestra at the Empire Theatre.
He later appeared in leading roles with the Ulster Operatic combining his stage career with television especially with music programmes, including pianists Ivor Mills and his wife Muriel Hay, singers Maurice and Una O’Callaghan and Irene Sandford.
He directed the first drama from Ulster Television, Boatman Do Not Tarry by John D Stewart, which was shown throughout the UK.
In the mid-sixties Derek Bailey left Belfast to join the ITV network, first at ATV Birmingham and then to London Weekend Television as senior director for the award-winning arts series Aquarius.
Indeed, at his birthday parties you were likely to rub shoulders with Sir William Walton’s widow, prima ballerina absolute Natalia Makarova, Melvyn Bragg or Aquarius host Humphrey Burton.
He established his film and TV production company Landseer Productions and a list of awards followed including Music Prix Italia, another for outstanding artistic achievement in ballet programmes and the Gold Medal for cultural productions awarded by the New York Festival.
In later years he directed BBC Proms in the Park with the Ulster Orchestra.
Tributes have come from many who worked with him, all recalling a gentleman of culture, enthusiasm, knowledge and humour who drew out their talents in a gentle and challenging way.
From commentating for the BBC Home Service live from the City Hall Christmas tree at the age of 12 to an international career, Derek Bailey is a name that will go down in broadcasting history.
Sincere sympathies to his wife Gill, his son Patrick and daughter Kate.
Anne Hailes
