18 Jan Obituary Piers Haggard, SDUK Founder
We are deeply saddened by the news that our founder, Piers Haggard, passed away on 11th January. Piers was born in London in 1939. He started his career as an assistant director at the Royal Court, before going on to work across theatre, film and TV. His many film and TV credits include Pennies From Heaven which won a BAFTA in 1979.
Alongside his successful career as a director, Piers was tireless in his fight for the rights and recognition of directors. He served as chairman of the former Directors Guild, before going on to help form our sister organisation Directors UK. Then, at the age of 75, he organised, cajoled, and coerced us theatre directors into forming Stage Directors UK.
I met Piers in 2014 at the second SDUK meeting. He spotted that I’d probably be useful, and got me onto the original board. There was very little strategy about his early decisions – if he thought you could help, you were on the board. He didn’t have time to strategize – he was too busy getting things done. If you wanted to help then you were encouraged to get involved. SDUK was set up at remarkable speed, and on a wave of energy created by Piers and his relentless determination. Piers was brilliant about getting everyone in a room, getting us fired up, and then giving us the tools we needed to fight to protect our rights.
I spent the next eight years working with him, initially as a board member and then as his successor. He taught me a huge amount about the history of our unions, and the various former attempts theatre directors had made to unionise. Piers had an unparalleled knowledge of industrial relations and collective action in the creative industries – from the formation of the DGGB in the 1980s, to the TV directors’ rights strike in the late 1990s.
The history of directors’ collective action is as dramatic as any of the work we create for stage or screen, and at the heart of that, for almost 50 years, was Piers. He was always prepared to fight on others’ behalf; he was prepared to take a stand and get things done.
The time we worked together was always eventful. Piers was busy charging ahead and it was almost impossible to keep up. His energy and commitment were unparalleled. It is no exaggeration to say that SDUK would not exist without Piers. He simply spotted that we needed to get organised, he jumped in, and he got us organised. He did this at a point in his life where he could have been taking it easy, and he did it with no desire for recognition. He also refused the salary the original board continually tried to offer him.
When I took over the running of SDUK Piers was generous enough to offer me support and guidance. When I stood down, I was delighted to be able to introduce Harold to Piers. Piers has been a constant presence for all of us at SDUK for the past 8 years, and I know we will miss his guidance, cajoling and occasional gossip.
Harold and the board are thinking of ways we can honour Piers and everything he did to bring SDUK to life. It strikes me the most important thing we can do is to keep SDUK as strong and as powerful as it was when Piers founded it. Piers spent a lifetime fighting for our rights, and it is our turn now to keep that fight going.
Thomas Hescott
Former Executive Director of SDUK