Jason Isaacs, Stephen Poliakoff and Maureen Lipman have paid tribute to Mike Vardy, the British TV director whose credits included Z Cars, The Sweeney and The Bill.
Vardy died last month, aged 91. He was viewed as an actors’ director, who worked on a variety of top, BAFTA-winning shows. He was repped by iconic British agent Jenne Casarotto, who died in 2024.
White Lotus star Isaacs, who was directed by Vardy in 1989 drama Capital City, said: “When I met Mike I was an overexcited idiot doing my first tv series and he was a veteran director with thirty years of experience over me, yet he did that immensely generous thing of pretending that my ideas were worth listening to (they weren’t) and that he didn’t know much more than me (he really did). Among his many creative gifts, the ability to make everyone feel valued and heard was something magical that I’ve rarely encountered since. A gentle, lovely man whose kindness I’ve never forgotten.”
Poliakoff called him a “very fine director with a remarkable range,” while Lipman celebrated a “lovely and gifted director.”
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Vardy was born in Sheffield in 1934. He started working for live variety shows and moved to drama thereafter. His list of credits included Z Cars, Man on the Run, Callan, Special Branch, Shoestring, Enemy at the Door, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Man at the Top, The Sweeney, Van der Valk, Rumpole of the Bailey, Minder, Taggart, and The Bill.
Vardy directed one feature, Man at the Top, starring Kenneth Haigh and Nanette Newman. During the 1970s, he expanded his creative involvement behind the camera with producing credits on Spring & Autumn and The House on the Hill.
He is survived by his wife Sandra Vardy.