User:Pip.burley/sandbox

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Pip Burley is a television producer and musician best known for his work on TV drama series "The Darling BUds of May' (1991-1993), 'A Touch of Frost' (1994-2010) and "My Uncle Silas' (2001-2003). He also produced the film 'Pride of Africa' (1997) starring Robert Powell. In1991 he won an Ivor Novello Award for Best theme Tune for a TV or Radio Production for his composition "Perfick" for 'The Darling Buds of May'.

Biography Pip Burley was born in 1943 in Croydon. His father, Victor Burley, was a successful mechanical engineer and sent Pip to Whitgift School in Croydon, Surrey where it was assumed he would follow in his father's footsteps. When his mother, Blanche, died in 1960, and with A-Levels in Physics, Maths and Chemistry, he was due to take up an engineering place at Bristol University. Instead he stayed at school for a further year to keep his father company and realised that he did not want to be an engineer after all - preferring to try to make a career as a pianist, a hobby since the age of four. Largely self-taught, Pip found himself in demand both as a singer and keyboard player and was soon performing with Croydon-based band "The Quiet Five" and with a cabaret group called "The Semitones", who caught the eye of West End Bandleader, Sidney Lipton. By the end of the sixties Pip was playing with most of the big bands of the era including Sidney Lipton, Ken Mackintosh, Joe Loss and Claude Cavalotti. In his middle twenties a twin career beckoned as a graphic designer, and before long he set up his own design business working freelance for publishers and advertising agencies. In the early eighties he co-founded the Quadrant Group, which embraced magazine publishing, graphic and corporate design, advertising and promotions. During this period he remained active as a composer and writer working mainly for Thames Television on series such as "Musicround" and "Database" as well as collaborating with Michael Bentine on his series "Potty Time". In 1988 he sold the business with the intention of going back into television full-time. He went on to found Excelsior Group Productions, one of the early independent production companies specialising in long-form television drama. The company's first commission, "The Darling Buds of May", starring David Jason and the young Catherine Zeta-Jones, went straight to the top of the ratings with an audience of 18m. Two years later, Excelsior went on to devise and produce "A Touch of Frost", a starring vehicle for David Jason, which ran for nearly sixteen years. Both series have sold all over the world and have been constantly repeated. Excelsior also devised and produced "My Uncle Silas", a series of half-hour adaptations of the short stories by H.E.Bates, starring Albert Finney in the title role.

Current As well as being Chairman and CEO of Excelsior, Pip has been a director of Suffolk LIfe Annuities, a company which he co-founded and which was sold to Legal & General in 2008. At present he is Chairman of N'Dreams, who specialise in VR software, and a director of Plasmaclean, a Stockport based engineering company developing and manufacturing sophisticated clean air technologies.

Pip was Chief Barker of the Variety Club of Great Britain in 1999, the charity's 50th Anniversary year. He was Artistic Director of the Polesden Lacey Festival for the National Trust (1998-2003) and has been President and Chairman of the Whitgiftian Association (2011 - ). He is Chair of Governors of the Quest Academy in Croydon where he has been responsible for the implementation of a £16m rebuilding programme, completed last year.

Pip is married to Christine, has three daughters and five grandchildren.