Born: 5th June 1925 (as William Sellers)
Died: 19th December 2018 (aged 93 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1966

Bill Sellers was born in Tideswell, Derbyshire. While serving in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War, he became involved in performing comic revues for his fellow troops. Returning to the UK, Sellers became an assistant floor manager and then acted and directed in repertory theatre. It was at this point that he changed the spelling of his last name to “Sellars” for professional purposes, avoiding any implied connection with the famed actor Peter Sellers. In 1950, Sellars married actress June Bland, who later appeared in the 1989 Doctor Who story Battlefield. They had a son, Paul, and daughters Janine and Lindy.

In 1958, Sellars joined the BBC, initially as a floor manager and then as a production assistant on shows like A For Andromeda (in which he also made an uncredited appearance). Sellars then became a director on programmes such as Compact and United!, before making The Celestial Toymaker for Doctor Who. Sellars' final directing assignment was on The Newcomers; in 1967, he was named its producer. Sellars spent the rest of his television career as a producer, with credits in the Seventies coming on shows like The Doctors, Five Red Herrings and The Brothers. In 1974, Sellars divorced his wife to live with Alan Sandilands, who would become his civil partner.

Sellars' greatest success was inarguably All Creatures Great And Small, which he produced intermittently from 1978 through to his retirement in 1990; it was here that Peter Davison, later cast as the Fifth Doctor, came to prominence. Other Eighties television included Flesh And Blood and One By One. In 1981, Sellars created the ferry-based soap opera Triangle, which was widely seen as a rare misstep. After leaving television, Sellars was the artistic manager of the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond, North Yorkshire. From 2003 until Sandilands' death in 2012, the couple resided in Spain. Sellars then returned to England and remarried Bland. He died peacefully in his sleep on December 19th, 2018.