Marius Van Der Werff(1947-2016)
- Production Designer
Marius Van Der Werff was born in Glasgow to a Scottish mother and a Dutch father in 1947. He had two sisters, Agnes (who pre-deceased him) and Maggie. Van Der Werff studied at the Glasgow School of Art where he produced and sold a series of watercolours of flowers, some of the exotic places he loved to spend time in, and the lanes in the West End of Glasgow where he lived.
He began working in television as a production designer at BBC Scotland where he felt he was undervalued and underused which is why he crossed over to STV in the early 1980s when they became part of the ITV network and were hiring talented people from all branches. One of his first assignments was working on Killer (1983), a mini-series which was spun-off two years later into Taggart (1983), one of Britain's longest-running TV dramas and STV's biggest hit. He remained with the series throughout its run.
Later in his career, he was acclaimed for his work on such TV dramas as The Steamie (1988), The Advocates (1991), and most notably Doctor Finlay (1993) in which he lovingly and accurately recreated a post-war Scottish village. This proved to be a difficult endeavour and Van Der Werff's work was made all the more difficult by the numerous TV aerials on the roofs of the houses at the colourful location. His perfectionism made him unpopular with the villagers of Auchtermuchty where the series was filmed but he was widely acclaimed for its believable look.
In his last years, he was ill and relied on the loving help of his partner Alan Mason.
He began working in television as a production designer at BBC Scotland where he felt he was undervalued and underused which is why he crossed over to STV in the early 1980s when they became part of the ITV network and were hiring talented people from all branches. One of his first assignments was working on Killer (1983), a mini-series which was spun-off two years later into Taggart (1983), one of Britain's longest-running TV dramas and STV's biggest hit. He remained with the series throughout its run.
Later in his career, he was acclaimed for his work on such TV dramas as The Steamie (1988), The Advocates (1991), and most notably Doctor Finlay (1993) in which he lovingly and accurately recreated a post-war Scottish village. This proved to be a difficult endeavour and Van Der Werff's work was made all the more difficult by the numerous TV aerials on the roofs of the houses at the colourful location. His perfectionism made him unpopular with the villagers of Auchtermuchty where the series was filmed but he was widely acclaimed for its believable look.
In his last years, he was ill and relied on the loving help of his partner Alan Mason.