This is taken from The Guardian:

Gerry Scott Foulds
Admired for her lavish design of BBC costume dramas
by Nigel Stafford-Clark
Saturday May 12, 2007

Gerry Scott Foulds, who has died of a brain tumour aged 62, was one of the most admired and sought-after designers in television drama in the past 15 years. I first met her when I was preparing Anthony Trollope's saga of late 19th-century corruption, The Way We Live Now, in 2002. I was a little nervous. Apart from The House (1984) an early Film on Four with Mike Figgis, in which Britain was relocated as one of the Baltic States in the 1880s, I'd never tried period drama. Gerry, on the other hand, virtually owned it - as the designer of Middlemarch (1994) and Pride and Prejudice the following year, she had helped to reinvent the genre. I need not have worried. I was smitten with Gerry from the first time we met. She was irresistible - a warm, funny, down-to-earth Yorkshire woman with an infectiously sexy laugh. Later I learnt that she was also the best possible guide to the complexities of creating a living, breathing world that could bring a classic story vividly to life.

She was the complete designer, relishing both the creative sweep of the whole show and the smallest detail of paint or set dressing. She was meticulous in her attention to detail. When we first worked together she would borrow the tape of the day's filming and return it later without comment. Worried that she didn't approve of what she was seeing, I asked her what she thought. "I'm not watching it, love," she said kindly. "I'm just looking at the four corners to make sure nothing's crept in that shouldn't be there". Yet she never let attention to detail crab her imagination. I lost count of the number of times she saved our skins by conjuring a bedroom out of a floating window frame and a curtain, or a night at the opera out of two drapes and a chair.

She inspired an almost fanatical devotion in her crew. Her generosity and her warmth were lavished on all those who worked for her, and the standards she set stretched them to go beyond their limits. And she was someone who knew how to party. The art department was always a fun place when she was around.

She won her second Bafta in 2002 for The Way We Live Now, having won two years before with Wives and Daughters after a string of nominations. We began to plan the assault on another hefty Trollope, He Knew He Was Right. Then Gerry was diagnosed with a brain tumour. In November 2002 she had radical surgery, which left her initially with only partial sight. As an artist, as well as a designer, it was a crushing blow. Slowly, indomitably, she fought back. The grace, courage, resilience and humour that she showed were unforgettable. By April 2003, her sight had improved and she decided she was ready to go back to work. She took on the Trollope, which spanned London, Wells, large chunks of southern England and finally the Italian Alps. She brought it off triumphantly.

She was born Geraldine Mary Boldy, in Bradford, and graduated from Bradford and Sunderland colleges of art in the late 1960s. She secured a contract with the BBC design department after initial rejection because she was a painter and couldn't draw plans. Fortunately for the future reputation of BBC design, this drawback was overcome and she quickly established herself on a range of productions from Sykes (1972), Porridge (1974) and Ripping Yarns (1979) to Blake's 7 (1979-80). But it was on Clarissa in 1991 that she found the genre that was to make her so sought after.

In 1974, her marriage to the director Tony Scott was dissolved. They had met, when they were both 18-year-olds at Sunderland College of Art. "We lived in a student commune overlooking the Beach at Roker," Tony recalls, "Next door to the pub. It was the most fun four years of my life." Their married life was "traumatic, wild, and crazy, but the very best."

They remained friends, and she was fortunate in her subsequent choice of partner, finding 10 years of great happiness with Archie Foulds. They were married last June, and his love and support helped her through the severe trials of her illness.

But it is as irresistibly alive that Gerry will be remembered by those who were lucky enough to know and work with her; whether tending to her beloved family in rural Stoke Poges, riding one of her horses with careless expertise, chewing the end of a pencil, her nose in an art book, her knees tucked up beneath her like a cat, or just laughing her deep, throaty, wonderful laugh.

Jim Clay writes: In the early 1970s I joined the BBC design department as a junior assistant. Within my first few weeks I was put to work with a charismatic fellow northerner well into establishing her brilliant career. These were changing times at the BBC and the inspirational head of design, Cliff Hatts, had employed Gerry as a new breed of raw talent. I watched as she forged her career and typically generously helped us newcomers who tried to emulate her absolute passion for all she did.

For 30 years Gerry provided some of the most memorable images in television drama - working hard, playing hard and challenging even the most established directors. Her finely crafted eye for detail, texture and her manipulation of space and light provided the reality and drama that allowed characters to unfold in the inspired worlds she created.

She always paid tribute to others and especially her team who provided years of support- her art director Diane Dancklesen, set decorator Caroline Smith and construction manager Barry Mole. Our industry is the poorer for her passing.

· Gerry Scott Foulds, production designer, born November 4 1944; died April 25 2007