Moira Armstrong

Known For: Directing

Biography

Born in Crieff in 1930 and raised in north-east Scotland, Moira Armstrong is a Scottish television director whose career has expanded over nearly fifty years. Her credits include episodes of Armchair Thriller (based on the novel Quiet as a Nun), The Onedin Line, Lark Rise to Candleford, Where the Heart Is, The Bill, Midsomer Murders, Something in Disguise, The Wednesday Play, and Adam Adamant Lives!, the biographical serial Freud (1984) as well as the television film The Countess Alice (1992). She also directed Sunset Song, the 1971 adaptation for television of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel, notable not only for being the first drama to be recorded in colour by BBC Scotland but also featuring its first nude scene. Armstrong (with Jonathan Powell) won the 1980 BAFTA Best Drama Series/Serial award for Testament of Youth (1979). In 2024 and 2025 many of her TV work was repeated as part of a retrospective of vintage drama on BBC4, with Armstrong invited to introduce several of the productions alongside fellow cast and crew.

Filmography

2001

Shades ... (Director)

1999

Always and Everyone ... (Director)

1998

Mortimer's Law ... (Director)

1997

Midsomer Murders ... (Director)
Where the Heart Is ... (Director)
The Broker's Man ... (Director)
Breakout ... (Director)

1996

No Bananas ... (Director)

1995

The Vet ... (Director)
A Village Affair ... (Director)

1993

Peak Practice ... (Director)
Body & Soul ... (Director)
The Countess Alice ... (Director)

1992

Moon and Son ... (Director)

1990

A Safe House ... (Director)

1989

Screen One ... (Director)
The Justice Game ... (Director)
The Mountain and the Molehill ... (Director)

1988

The Play on One ... (Director)
The Dunroamin' Rising ... (Director)

1986

ScreenPlay ... (Director)
Boon ... (Director)
Inside Story ... (Director)
Bluebell ... (Director)

1985

Theatre Night ... (Director)

1984

The Bill ... (Director)
Freud ... (Director)
C.Q. ... (Director)

1983

To the Camp and Back ... (Director)
Letting the Birds Go Free ... (Director)

1982

All for Love ... (Director)
Something in Disguise ... (Director)
How Many Miles to Babylon? ... (Director)
God Speed Co-operation ... (Director)

1981

No Visible Scar ... (Director)

1980

Minor Complications ... (Director)

1979

Testament of Youth ... (Director)
The Great Detective ... (Director)

1978

Hazell ... (Director)
Armchair Thriller ... (Director)
Quiet as a Nun ... (Director)
One of the Boys ... (Director)
Fairies ... (Director)
We Never Do What They Want ... (Director)

1977

BBC2 Play of the Week ... (Director)
A Christmas Carol ... (Director)
Maidens' Trip ... (Director)

1976

Clay, Smeddum and Greenden ... (Director)
Abide with Me ... (Director)
For the Whales ... (Director)

1975

The Girls of Slender Means ... (Director)
After the Solo ... (Director)

1974

Playhouse ... (Director)
Dial M for Murder ... (Director)
Shoulder to Shoulder ... (Director)
The Bevellers ... (Director)

1973

Centre Play ... (Director)
Armchair 30 ... (Director)
Beryl's Lot ... (Director)
The New Road ... (Director)

1972

No Exit ... (Director)
The Shadow of the Tower ... (Director)

1971

Great Performances ... (Director)
The Onedin Line ... (Director)
Budgie ... (Director)
The Guardians ... (Director)
Sunset Song ... (Director)

1970

Play for Today ... (Director)
Menace ... (Director)
Villette ... (Director)

1969

W. Somerset Maugham ... (Director)
Hadleigh ... (Director)

1968

The Borderers ... (Director)

1967

ITV Playhouse ... (Director)

1966

Softly, Softly ... (Director)
Adam Adamant Lives! ... (Director)
This Man Craig ... (Director)

1965

BBC Play of the Month ... (Director)
The Troubleshooters ... (Director)

1964

The Wednesday Play ... (Director)
Detective ... (Director)
R3 ... (Director)

1963

Love Story ... (Director)

1962

Z-Cars ... (Director)
Dr. Finlay's Casebook ... (Director)