Tristram Powell, who has died aged 83, was head of the landed gentry family of Powell of the Chantry, was a renowned TV director who flourished in the golden age of BBC arts coverage.

https://peeragenews.blogspot.com/2024/03/tristram-roger-dymoke-powell-1940-2024.html

Tristram Roger Dymoke Powell was born 25 April, 1940, elder son of Anthony Dymoke Powell, CH, CBE (1905-2000), the writer, by his wife Lady Violet Georgiana Pakenham (1912-2002), daughter of the 5th Earl of Longford, KP, MVO.

He married 25 April, 1968, the artist Virginia Beatrice Lucas (born 1939), daughter of Archibald Julian Lucas (died 1946), by his wife the Hon Madelina Victoria Margaret Grenfell (1904-1982), daughter of Field Marshal the 1st Baron Grenfell, GCB, GCMG, PC (1841-1925), by whom he had issue, a son Archibald John Llewellyn Powell (born 1970), and a daughter, Georgia (born 18 Feb, 1969), wife of the 12th Duke of Beaufort (born 22 May, 1952).

Powell made films with Alan Bennett, Philip Roth and Michael Palin, secured a rare interview with Marcel Duchamp and was painted by Lucian Freud. He was a film, television and occasional stage director who became a great favourite with artists and writers during the heyday of BBC Television arts documentaries in the 1960s and 1970s. Moving on from such series as Omnibus and Arena, he collaborated with leading writers on television and radio dramas and demonstrated a gift for suspense, directing episodes of such series as Law and Order, Foyle’s War, Lynda La Plante’s Trial and Retribution, Judge John Deed and Kavanagh QC.

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