Born: 9th October 1937
Died: 1st January 2015 (aged 77 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1982-1984

Fiona Cumming was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and originally planned to become an actress, attending the Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow. Her parents also prevailed upon her to train as a teacher at the University of Glasgow, but Cumming was soon earning acting roles, including her television debut in a 1955 edition of BBC Sunday-Night Theatre. She could soon be seen in episodes of Sunday's Child, Suspense and Dr Finlay's Casebook, and then worked as an interviewer with Border Television. However, Cumming was now eager to move behind the camera; she spent part of 1963 teaching before taking up a post with the BBC as an assistant floor manager in 1964. Her first involvement with Doctor Who came in this capacity, on 1966's The Massacre Of St Bartholomew's Eve, with William Hartnell as the First Doctor, and later that year on The Highlanders, by which time Patrick Troughton had taken over the title role.

In the late Sixties, Cumming was promoted to production assistant; this brought her back to Doctor Who in 1969 for The Seeds Of Death, one of Troughton's last serials. By the time she worked with the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, on 1972's The Mutants, she had already enrolled in the BBC's internal directors' course. Cumming's first directing credit came on episodes of Z Cars in 1974. She also worked on programmes such as The Master Of Ballantrae and Angels, but was still primarily employed as a production assistant, including on episodes of Murder Most English and Shoestring.

For Planet Of Fire, Cumming convinced producer John Nathan-Turner to film in Lanzarote

Fed up with the BBC's refusal to let her direct full-time, Cumming went freelance in 1979. She was soon busy on shows like Square Mile Of Murder and Blake's 7. Following an episode of The Omega Factor, she began a romance with production manager Ian Fraser; they were married in 1981. In a span of three years, Cumming made four serials for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor, including his broadcast debut in 1982's Castrovalva. For her final Doctor Who serial, Planet Of Fire in 1984, she convinced producer John Nathan-Turner to film in Lanzarote, one of Spain's Canary Islands. An expected return to Doctor Who for “The Ultimate Evil” fell through when the BBC cancelled all of the original plans for the 1986 season. Cumming and her husband did make an on-screen cameo appearance as tourists in 1988's Silver Nemesis.

Cumming's other work during the Eighties included an installment of Dramarama and numerous episodes of Emmerdale Farm. She also began working on Take The High Road, and was eventually made its associate producer. During the Nineties, Cumming directed for Eldorado, and made more than a hundred installments of Machair before retiring from television. In the mid-Nineties, she and Fraser formed Teynham Productions in collaboration with Nathan-Turner; the company mainly focussed on pantomime productions. The couple then moved to Denmark for an opportunity to teach at a film school. After five years, they returned to the UK, where Cumming successfully battled lung cancer. The disease was in remission by 2009, but sadly made an aggressive return in 2014. Cumming died on New Year's Day 2015.