Paul Marcus, who has died of cancer aged 56, was best known for his award-winning work as producer of the television series Prime Suspect. However, most of his career was devoted to directing, for theatre and cinema, as well as for TV.

The first series of the police drama Prime Suspect, written by Lynda La Plante and following DCI Jane Tennison (played by Helen Mirren) as she led her first major murder investigation, was aired by Granada TV in 1991, to wide acclaim. Marcus was asked by Granada to take over as producer on the second series. He bravely invited an unknown director, John Strickland, to oversee the drama, but his choice proved justified, with Prime Suspect 2 matching the success of the first series and receiving an International Emmy award as well as Bafta recognition.

Fired by the belief that popular drama could also be high-quality work, Marcus went on to produce the next two Prime Suspect series as well, turning a hit into an enduring franchise. Prime Suspect 3 won the Bafta for best drama serial, and Marcus rounded off his involvement with the programme by himself directing The Scent of Darkness, the two-hour film that comprised the final instalment of Prime Suspect 4. For her performance in this, Mirren finally won an International Emmy award as best actress.


Marcus was born in London and grew up in a theatrical household. His father was the playwright and critic Frank Marcus, author of The Killing of Sister George, and from his youth Paul acquired a great knowledge of drama and actors, which provided the springboard for his future career. He was educated at Latymer Upper school in west London, and won an exhibition to study English at Lincoln College, Oxford. He started directing at school and continued to mount ambitious student productions at university, persuading the professional actor Christopher Gable to appear in his staging of Goethe's Faust, which played a short season at London's Young Vic after an initial run at the Oxford Playhouse.

After graduating in 1976, Marcus created a lunchtime theatre venue at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden, where he scored a notable early success with Brecht's Mahagonny, which the Guardian critic Michael Billington described as "the best lunchtime show I've ever seen". Marcus subsequently worked at the Salisbury Playhouse, and in London at the Mermaid and the Roundhouse. His production company briefly ran the Fortune theatre in the West End, before he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as an assistant director in 1983. There he worked alongside Howard Davies and Adrian Noble, co-directed Giordano Bruno's Il Candelaio, and ran the celebrated Not the RSC festival, of work created by company members, at the Almeida theatre, in Islington, with Alan Rickman. He also met Viviana Maranzano, whom he married in 1987.

The year before that, he had joined BBC TV as a script editor, working with the producer Louis Marks on an eclectic range of single dramas including Quartermaine's Terms (1987), Precious Bane (1989) and Sweet Nothing (1990). He also continued stage work and directed three productions for the prestigious South Coast repertory theatre in California, including an award-winning School for Scandal.

Soon after he had completed the BBC directors' course, in 1991 Marcus's talent as a creator of projects and the infectious enthusiasm with which he promoted them led to him producing the BBC film Hancock, starring Alfred Molina. This was shortlisted for a Bafta and prompted Granada's offer to produce Prime Suspect 2 and its sequels.

Having also produced the series Maigret (1993) with Michael Gambon, Wokenwell (1997) and Plastic Man (1999), all for ITV, Marcus devoted himself wholly to directing. After going to the US in 1998 to direct Break Up, a film starring Bridget Fonda and Kiefer Sutherland, he was invited to take charge, at the actor's request, of another Sutherland film – After Alice (Eye of the Killer) in 2000.

Marcus subsequently worked as the lead director on the BBC series In Deep (2001), and contributed to the high-profile dramas Dalziel and Pascoe, and Murder Rooms. He also directed Nero (2004), the epic children's drama The Roman Mysteries (2007) and, in 2005, a film version of Heidi. He continued working even after he became ill, directing episodes of Lark Rise to Candleford and, his final completed project, a video installation for the Rose theatre in Southwark, London, that features performances by Ian McKellen, Alan Rickman and Antony Sher.

He is survived by Viviana, and their daughters Rafaella and Olivia.


By:- Colin Ludlow

Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/mar/03/paul-marcus-obituary