
Directing
Michael E. Briant
Born 1942-02-14
Michael Edwin Briant (born 14 February 1942) is a retired English television director and author, best known for his work as a director for BBC television drama in the 1970s and 1980s. At the age of 21 Briant joined the BBC as an assistant floor manager in the drama department and a year later became a production assistant. In 1966, he took a Directors Course. Sometimes credited as just Michael Briant, he subsequently directed series such as Z-Cars and Doctor Who, directing Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker in a total of six serials: Colony in Space (1971), The Sea Devils (1972), The Green Death (1973), Death to the Daleks (1974), Revenge of the Cybermen (1975) and The Robots of Death (1977). He went on to direct several episodes from the first season of Blake's 7 in 1978, and Secret Army between 1978 and 1979. He later directed four of the six episodes of its sequel, Kessler, and the thriller series Blood Money, in which he cast many of the actors from Secret Army.
Acting credits
NRCast and crew discuss the making of The Sea Devils, from the television series Doctor Who.
Hello Sailor!
2008
8.0Cast and crew look back on the filming of Doctor Who: The Robots of Death
The Sandmine Murders
2012
7.7Tony Hudson offers his young wife Jane a cruise on a yacht as a honeymoon trip. Although Jane suffers from chronic seasickness, she accepts and one day they go on board the Turtle, a fine yacht owned by an industrialist friend, Dudley Partridge. A lot of misadventures await them before they finally reach France.
True as a Turtle
1957
NRThe making of Revenge of the Cybermen, with director Michael E Briant, incoming producer Philip Hinchcliffe and outgoing producer Barry Letts.
The Tin Men and the Witch
2010
NRCast and crew look back at the making of Colony in Space.
IMC Needs You!
2011
Doctor Who directors Michael Briant, Graeme Harper and Tim Combe take an epic road trip to all the filming locations from Season 8 as they discuss directing the show in the early 1970s.
The Direct Route
2021
NRA look at an extraordinary era of musical experimentation within Doctor Who, with special emphasis on the musical scores for Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Sea Devils. Featuring producer Barry Letts, composer Mark Ayres and directors Timothy Combe, Christopher Barry and Michael Briant, with an archive appearance from Radiophonic composer Malcolm Clarke.
Musical Scales: An Era of Experimentation
2008
Behind the camera
A former CIA agent is forced by crooked agents of the government to pose as a notorious smuggler of the Tangier Straits who happens to be a stiff
Tangiers
1982
6.2An energy drain traps the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith on the planet Exxilon with its hostile natives, causing the travellers to make an uneasy alliance with a Marine Space Corps expedition and a squadron of Daleks. The key to escape for all of them lies at the heart of a powerful and mysterious lost city, but only after a series of deadly traps.
Doctor Who: Death to the Daleks
1974
9.0In the far future, freedom fighter Roj Blake, framed by the all-powerful but corrupt Galactic Federation, escapes his captors from his sentence to a harsh penal colony and, helped by a handful of fellow convicts and armed with a superbly-equipped alien spaceship, sets about restoring freedom to the galaxy.
Blake's 7: The Beginning
1985
NRSupreme Commander Servalan assigns the task to the deadly Travis-his orders simply to seek, locate and destroy Blake's 7! Travis and his Mutoid crew clash with Blake in a crucial struggle over the Federation's secret cypher machine and again in desperate hand-to-hand combat on a mysterious dead planet. Finally, they confront each other on a barren ice world as Blake attempts to rescue the resistance leader, Avalon. This time, however, Travis is expecting him, and a terrible trap awaits. . .
Blake's 7: Duel
1986
NRA spaceship crashes approaching the planet Cephlon and when the crew of the Liberator answer the distress call they find their own lives endangered. Blake is caught in a desperate race against time to save the lives of the crew and also find the mysterious ORAC. Once in Blake's possession, ORAC predicts the future of Blake and his crew by showing them an image of the Liberator blown to atoms in space. Blake is powerless to alter their inevitable destruction, and when the Liberator is seized by a hostile force, a series of terrifying events sets the prophecy in motion.
Blake's 7: Orac
1986
7.9The Doctor and Leela must catch a killer on a vast mining ship run by robots and humans.
Doctor Who: The Robots of Death
1977
6.6When the Master steals the Time Lords' secret file on the Doomsday Weapon, they grant the Doctor a temporary reprieve from his exile on Earth to deal with the crisis. He and Jo arrive on the planet Uxarieus and become enmeshed in a struggle between an agrarian colony and a powerful mining corporation.
Doctor Who: Colony in Space
1971
7.6The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England. The governor, Colonel Trenchard, says ships have been disappearing mysteriously at sea. The Doctor discovers that Trenchard and the Master are in league to contact the Sea Devils, a race of reptiles in hibernation in a base beneath the sea, who have been awoken by recent work on a nearby sea fort. The Master intends to use his new allies to help him conquer the world!
Doctor Who: The Sea Devils
1972
8.4The Doctor and UNIT investigate a deadly infection lurking underneath the Welsh mining town of Llanfairfach. It's an adventure that will change Jo Grant's life forever...
Doctor Who: The Green Death
1973
5.9Arriving on Space Station Nerva in its distant past, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry find its crew threatened by a mysterious plague. Discovering that things are not as they seem, they uncover a Cyberman plot to destroy Voga, planet of gold.
Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen
1975
NRJim Hawkins discovers a treasure map and embarks on a journey to find the treasure, but pirates led by Long John Silver have plans to take the treasure for themselves by way of mutiny.
Treasure Island
1977