Born: 16th March 1935 (as Tristan John de Vere Cole)
Episodes Broadcast: 1968

Tristan de Vere Cole was born in Redruth, Cornwall but raised in the Fordingbridge, Hampshire home of painter Augustus John, who was likely his biological father. De Vere Cole trained at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth and spent seven years with the Navy until 1960. He was an assistant stage manager and actor in the theatre before he joined the BBC in 1961. De Vere Cole's first experience with Doctor Who was as a production assistant on The Gunfighters in 1966. Later that year, he completed the BBC's directors' training course and earned his first credits on episodes of United!. De Vere Cole also worked on Kenilworth and Z Cars before he reluctantly returned to Doctor Who to direct The Wheel In Space in 1968. Unfortunately, this was an unhappy experience for de Vere Cole, who did not get along well with producer Peter Bryant.

During the Seventies, De Vere Cole's work included everything from Emmerdale Farm to Owen, MD to John Halifax, Gentleman to Angels. He also produced Sally Ann in 1979. In 1974, De Vere Cole published a biography of his mother, Beautiful And Beloved: The Life Of Mavis De Vere Cole, co-written with Reginald Owen. His career continued into the Eighties, during which he directed episodes of shows like Buccaneer, The Spoils Of War, The Odd Job Man and Howards' Way. His final work came in the early Nineties, on Bergerac and Trainer. Rare movie credits included the Norwegian film Dykket in 1989. De Vere Cole was married twice, to Diana Crosby Cook in 1962 and to Prudence Murdoch in 2000.