Born: 16th August 1943
Episodes Broadcast: 1988-1989

Alan Wareing was born in Chorley, Lancashire. He became involved in amateur theatre, which aroused an interest in directing. He joined the BBC as an assistant floor manager in the mid-Seventies, working on programmes like Blake's 7. Around the end of the decade, Wareing was promoted to production assistant, in which capacity he worked on the 1981 Doctor Who serial The Keeper Of Traken, Tom Baker's penultimate adventure as the Fourth Doctor. He was soon elevated to production manager, which brought him back to Doctor Who for 1985's Timelash, with Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor. Having established a good relationship with producer John Nathan-Turner and script editor Eric Saward, Wareing solicited their help when he enrolled in the BBC's internal directors' course. They assisted with Wareing's final project, after which he directed episodes of EastEnders and Casualty.

Having left the BBC to go freelance, Wareing was hired by Nathan-Turner to direct three serials for Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor. The first was the surreal The Greatest Show In The Galaxy in 1988. The following year, Wareing oversaw the end of Doctor Who's original run, handling both the final story into production -- the atmospheric Ghost Light -- and the last to be broadcast, in the form of the mould-breaking Survival. Other directing credits during the late Eighties included Rockliffe's Folly and The Bill. Amongst Wareing's Nineties work were London's Burning, Wycliffe, and the first of more than three hundred episodes of Emmerdale. After the turn of the century, Wareing likewise became part of another soap opera juggernaut, directing over a hundred installments of Coronation Street. He would also earn credits on The Royal, Holby City and Fair City.