Gerry Scott Foulds; BBC production designer
Hyfler/Rosner
BBC production designer
The Independent
10 May 2007
Diarmuid Lawrence
In the late 1960s a striking and vivacious young northerner
asked the BBC's Head of Design for a job. She was a graduate
of Bradford and Sunderland Colleges of Art, and a painter,
but she couldn't draw plans, so she was sent away. Six
months later she was back, her draughtmanship in order, and
was rewarded with one of the BBC's cautious "let's see how
we go" temporary contracts in 1968. They needn't have
worried. Gerry Scott was starting a career that was to make
her one of the most sought-after designers in British
television.
Blake's 7 in the late 1970s gave way to Silas Marner (1985),
Clarissa (1991), Middlemarch (1994), Pride and Prejudice
(1995) and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1998) - revealing her
growing passion and expertise for period drama, a genre she
virtually made her own. But she was a forceful character and
established directors confess to having been intimidated
before being smitten, fearful that their story focus might
be swept away in a welter of finely wrought period detail -
paint finishes, textiles and architecture - before learning
that she turned all that knowledge and care to the same end.
Scott created "lived-in" period sets with a style and
accuracy to rival the infinitely better funded competition.
In times of ever-increasing budget pressures, and
occasionally less than meticulous attitudes, she responded
with a fierce determination to do it right. It made her the
first choice of many producers and directors, and it earned
her the admiration of her peers.
The esteem in which BBC period drama is held internationally
is due in no small part to Scott's work, which was
recognised by a clutch of Bafta nominations, including two
wins in two years with Wives and Daughters and The Way We
Live Now, in 2000 and 2002 respectively.
Her subsequent diagnosis and radical first surgery on a
brain tumour left her initially with only partial sight. As
an artist, as well as a designer, it was devastating. "They
told me the bloody operation might kill me," she lamented,
"they never told it would leave me half-blind." She fought
back. In 2003 she designed Trollope's He Knew He Was Right,
but The Cranford Chronicles, a project she had longed for
and which suffered major funding delays, proved one too
many. Shooting commenced this April without her.
A Yorkshirewoman through and through, Gerry Scott spoke
straight and to the point and laughed a lot; a deep, sexy,
infectious laugh. She had a taste for challenging men and
even more challenging horses - she was an expert rider - and
brought an irrepressible energy, optimism and enthusiasm to
both life and career.
In 1974 her early marriage to Tony Scott dissolved, without
acrimony, to become an abiding friendship, setting a pattern
that would recur; you did not cease to be Gerry's friend -
it was not an option she allowed you. Life then revolved
around her family - always her bedrock - in rural Stoke
Poges, where she and her sister rode their horses at dawn,
and of course television drama.
The last 10 years were spent in the company of Archie
Foulds, who became her second husband last June. They were a
late and unexpected love-match and brought each other great
happiness.
Geraldine Mary Boldy, production designer: born Bradford ,
Yorkshire 4 November 1944; married 1967 Tony Scott (marriage
dissolved), 2006 Archie Foulds; died London 25 April 2007.