Graeme Harper was originally a child actor, appearing in adaptations of
The Pickwick Papers (1952) and
The Silver Sword (1957) among other productions,
before becoming a floor assistant at the BBC in 1965 and then an
assistant floor manager in 1969. He worked on the serials
Colony in Space: Episode One (1971),
Planet of the Daleks: Episode One (1973) and
Planet of the Spiders: Part One (1974) during the
Jon Pertwee years, and
The Seeds of Doom: Part One (1976) and
Warriors' Gate: Part One (1981) in the
Tom Baker era.
In 1980 Harper started
on the BBC's director's course.
The Caves of Androzani: Part One (1984) was the first
job he got as a freelance director after working on
Angels (1975) for
Julia Smith. Harper went on to direct one further
Doctor Who (1963) story,
Revelation of the Daleks: Part One (1985), and was also to have directed the third
story in the abandoned season twenty-three, which would have been either
Philip Martin's "Mission to Magnus" or
Robert Holmes's "Yellow Fever
and How to Cure It".
Harper quickly became one of
the industry's most competent and sought-after directors, working on almost every popular drama series in the UK. In 1993, he was scheduled to
direct "The Dark Dimension", the ultimately aborted 30th anniversary
Doctor Who (1963) story.