Fiona Cumming

Fiona Cumming (9 October 1937 – 1 January 2015) was a Scottish television director, noted for her work on the BBC television series, Doctor Who, during the show's Fifth Doctor era.

Her credits included the 1982 episode, Castrovalva, the Season 19 premiere which marked the debut of Peter Davison as the show's fifth Doctor. Her other work with the show included Snakedance in January 1983 and Enlightenment in March 1983 for season 20. Cumming shot much of the 1984 serial, Planet of Fire, on location in Lanzarote, Canary Islands.

Cumming was raised in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. She began her career as an actress at the Royal Scottish Academy. She appeared in both film and television. Her early roles included an episode of the BBC television series, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, in 1963. She also worked as an announcer on Border Television (present-day ITV Border).

She transitioned from acting to television production in 1964. She had initially applied to the BBC and taught school in Scotland before breaking into production. She recalled her entry into the industry in a 2014 interview, telling Scotland Now, "I had applied to the BBC in 1964 when they were getting ready for BBC2, and I had been accepted - but they lost my file and because I had a teaching degree, I came back up to Glasgow and started teaching at Bellahouston Academy. I can remember in 1963 when the kids came in, talking about this brilliant TV show they had seen the Saturday night before, and I said, 'What do you mean, it's set in a police box?'...Then in 1964 I went to the BBC as a relief assistant floor manager, where you were slotted into various programmes. I was doing the twice-weekly soaps Compact and Swizzlewick, and the first time I was moved on to something different it was Doctor Who."

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