Ian Mac Naughton - Director and Producer

Director and Producer

Whilst appearing in the BBC drama series Silent Evidence, MacNaughton saw an advert for a BBC training course in television directing for which he was accepted. In 1963 and 1964 he directed two episodes of Teletale and in 1965 an episode of Z-Cars. MacNaughton continued to act in numerous small roles for television and film including Dr. Finlay's Casebook in 1964 and The Avengers in 1965.

In 1966 and 1967 he directed all fifty two episodes of a BBC series called This Man Craig which was set in a large comprehensive school in the fictional Scottish village of Strathaird. The series revolved around the daily life of schoolmaster Ian Craig, who as one of six housemasters had to keep an eye on the problems of over three hundred pupils. Between 1967 and 1968 he also directed eight episodes of Dr. Finlay's Casebook.

In 1969 MacNaughton directed and produced the first series of Spike Milligan's Q, which was a surreal British comedy television sketch show consisting of seven episodes. The show had a big influence on the Monty Python team. In the Python autobiography, Michael Palin mentions meeting their directors. "One was Ian MacNaughton, director of the Spike Milligan Q5 series which we all thought was one of the best comedy shows on TV and certainly the most far ahead..." (p. 218). He describes himself and Terry Jones as being so impressed with the Q... show that they specifically sought out MacNaughton to direct their own series."

Between 1969 and 1974 MacNaughton would produce and direct all but four of the forty five episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Having accepted the job of director and producer, MacNaughton announced to the Python's dismay that he had to take a holiday and would be unavailable for the first four shows, which were consequently directed by John Howard Davies. Initially, there was some friction between MacNaughton and the Python's because of their close involvement with the way the show was directed but by the end of the first series he had become one of the team and his contribution was significant. In 1970 the team filmed the second series of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

In 1971 MacNaughton directed the team's first film, And Now For Something Completely Different, which was a remake of the best sketches from the first two series of Monty Python's Flying Circus without an audience. In the same year MacNaughton directed the group in the first of two German specials filmed in Bavaria called, Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus. The following year he directed the second episode of the Python's German specials, another comedy sketch show starring Spike Milligan and the third series of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

MacNaughton directed episodes of several television series in 1973 and in 1974 directed the pilot episode of Rising Damp with Leonard Rossiter, which received good reviews. Later that year he filmed the fourth and final series of Monty Python. In 1975 the second series of Spike Milligan's Q was commissioned by the BBC called Q6. MacNaughton directed Q6 in 1975, Q7 in 1977, Q8 in 1978 and Q9 in 1980.

During this time MacNaughton also directed another pilot comedy sketch show called Out of the Trees, starring Graham Chapman in 1976. They only filmed one episode as the show was not commissioned by the BBC. In 1977 he directed five episodes of a comedy called Middlemen starring Frank Windsor. In 1979, he made the short film Le Pétomane about farting artist Joseph Pujol, starring Leonard Rossiter.

From the late seventies onwards MacNaughton was based in Munich and he continued to work as a director in television and on stage. In 1980 he directed six episodes of the German comedy show, Harry Hocker läßt nicht locker, starring Harald Wolff. He also directed numerous operas and musicals, working in venues around the world, including Israel, Yugoslavia, Norway and Austria. In 1996 he directed Australian composer George Dreyfus's comedy, The Marx Sisters in Bielefeld and in 1997 Gerhard Baumann's, Nyx in Munich. At the theatre in Hall, near Innsbruck in Austria he directed plays by Otto Grunmandl. In 2001 MacNaughton was returning from the first night of a translation of Alan Ayckbourn's play Seasons Greetings at the theatre in Hall, when he was involved in a car accident that led to his final illness.