June Wyndham Davies obit

June Wyndham Davies, Producer of Granada Sherlock Holmes Series, Aged 97

 She was not on the list.

News reached Sherlockians today that June Wyndham Davies, the Granada Television producer who was a key part of the acclaimed Sherlock Holmes series, passed away on September 9 in Spain.

Fittingly, word came from our friends at The Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes Podcast, whose producers have become close to many of the cast and crew of the series. They wrote:

 “We are deeply saddened to share news of the passing of our friend, June Wyndham Davies. Her transition was peaceful and she was with loved ones."

An Eye for Holmes

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.” [VALL]

Born on June 27th in Cardiff, Wales to Mervyn and Despina Wyndham Davies, June trained at RADA and began her career as an actress before moving behind the camera. She joined the BBC as a director in 1965, working across single-play strands including 30 Minute Theater and Sunday Afternoon Theatre, then went freelance in 1969, directing for the BBC, Anglia, and Yorkshire television as well as Granada — work that included the Emmy-nominated Heidi (1974) and long stretches on Coronation Street and Crown Court.

From 1976 she worked almost exclusively for Granada, producing dark and supernatural drama Shades of Darkness among it — and the Victorian-set Cribb series. It was against that backdrop that she made the recommendation for which Sherlockians can be the most grateful: she suggested Jeremy Brett for the title role in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. By her own account, she was not even particularly fond of Sherlock Holmes. She simply knew talent when she saw it — which, as Holmes himself might have observed, is a rarer gift than it sounds.

Guiding the Canon to the Screen

“A friendly native will surely guide us.” [CREE]

Wyndham Davies went on to produce The Return of Sherlock Holmes, taking over day-to-day running of the series when Michael Cox stepped back to his executive producing duties. When Cox resumed direct control for The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991), she returned to lead the two-hour feature films that followed — among them The Master Blackmailer (1992) — working with screenwriter Jeremy Paul to stretch thinner source material to feature length.

Her fiercest fight came with The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994). Having initially been denied airtime, she fought for and won six one-hour episodes — then had to steer the production through Jeremy Brett's advancing illness, a circumstance that led to the decision in one episode to give Holmes this part to his brother Mycroft, rather than abandon the story. It was producing under the most difficult of circumstances, in service of a series she had helped propel.

A Career Beyond Baker Street

“Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.” 

Holmes was only ever part of her output. In 1997 she won a BAFTA Cymru for Best Drama for August, a Welsh-set adaptation of Uncle Vanya, directed by its star Anthony Hopkins. She had previously received the Chicago International Film Festival's Silver Plaque for The Lady's Maid's Bell (1985). Along the way, she gave early opportunities to actors including Michael Caine, Hugh Grant, and Rhys Ifans — a reminder that her eye for talent was no one time accident of casting Brett, but a career-long habit.

The Granada series she helped shepherd to screen remains, for many, a fixed point in a changing age against which every subsequent Sherlock Holmes is measured. That debt is owed in no small part to a producer who knew a good thing the moment she saw it, and who spent the rest of her career proving it wasn't a fluke.

Director

Don Henderson, Diane Keen, Peter Sallis, and Don Warrington in Crown Court (1972)

Crown Court

7.4

TV Series

Director

1973–2007

15 episodes

 

Shades of Darkness (1983)

Shades of Darkness

7.7

TV Series

Director

1986

1 episode

 

Peter Adamson, Jean Alexander, Johnny Briggs, Margot Bryant, and Doris Speed in Coronation Street (1960)

Coronation Street

5.6

TV Series

Director

1973–1981

47 episodes

 

Alan Dobie in Cribb (1980)

Cribb

7.7

TV Series

Director

1980–1981

3 episodes

 

Christmas Spirits (1981)

Christmas Spirits

6.1

TV Movie

Director

1981

 

Richard Hurndall and John Shrapnel in Screenplay (1979)

Screenplay

7.2

TV Series

Director

1979

1 episode

 

Emma Blake and Hans Meyer in Heidi (1974)

Heidi

8.1

TV Mini Series

Director

1974

6 episodes

 

Pollyanna (1973)

Pollyanna

7.3

TV Mini Series

Director

1973

6 episodes

 

Phyllis Calvert and Jack Hedley in Kate (1970)

Kate

7.9

TV Series

Director

1970–1972

16 episodes

 

Who-Dun-It

TV Series

Director

1969

1 episode

 

Boy Meets Girl (1967)

Boy Meets Girl

6.1

TV Series

Director

1967

1 episode

 

Thirty-Minute Theatre (1965)

Thirty-Minute Theatre

7.0

TV Series

Director (as June Wyndham Davies)

1966

1 episode

 

Producer

Keeley Hawes in The Cater Street Hangman (1998)

The Cater Street Hangman

6.9

TV Movie

producer

1998

 

Anthony Hopkins in August (1996)

August

5.8

produced by (as June Wyndham Davies)

1996

 

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994)

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

8.6

TV Mini Series

producer (as June Wyndham Davies)

1994

6 episodes

 

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991)

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

8.7

TV Series

producer (as June Wyndham Davies)

1992–1993

3 episodes

 

Tim Bentinck, Moira Brooker, and Louisa Rix in Made in Heaven (1990)

Made in Heaven

TV Series

producer

1990

4 episodes

 

The Heat of the Day (1989)

The Heat of the Day

6.2

TV Movie

producer

1989

 

Jeremy Brett in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988)

The Hound of the Baskervilles

7.8

TV Movie

producer (as June Wyndham Davies)

1988

 

The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1986)

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

8.7

TV Series

producer (as June Wyndham Davies)

1986–1988

11 episodes

 

Jeremy Brett, Kiran Shah, and John Thaw in The Sign of Four (1987)

The Sign of Four

7.8

TV Movie

producer (as June Wyndham Davies)

1987

 

Shades of Darkness (1983)

Shades of Darkness

7.7

TV Series

producer

1983–1986

9 episodes

 

The Death of the Heart (1985)

The Death of the Heart

7.6

TV Movie

producer

1985

 

Richard Johnson in The Member for Chelsea (1981)

The Member for Chelsea

TV Series

producer

1981

3 episodes

 

Alan Dobie in Cribb (1980)

Cribb

7.7

TV Series

producer

1980–1981

14 episodes

 

Christmas Spirits (1981)

Christmas Spirits

6.1

TV Movie

producer

1981

 

Send in the Girls (1978)

Send in the Girls

TV Series

producer

1978

7 episodes

 

Barbara Cavan, Norma West, and Henley Thomas in Out of Town Theatre (1966)

Out of Town Theatre

TV Mini Series

producer

1966

1 episode

 

Actress

Compact (1962)

Compact

6.8

TV Series

RadiographerMrs. Stenton (as June Wyndham Davies)

1963–1964

3 episodes

 

Curtain of Fear

TV Series

Secretary (as June Wyndham Davies)

1964

1 episode

 

Saturday Playhouse (1958)

Saturday Playhouse

TV Series

Secretary to Mrs. Wentross

1958

1 episode

 

Self

The Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes Podcast (2019)

The Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes Podcast

9.6

Podcast Series

Self - Guest

2023–2024

2 episodes