Harold Snoad, who has died aged 88, was a prolific sitcom producer and director for the BBC whose greatest personal success was his swansong, Keeping Up Appearances (1990-95).
When Roy Clarke created it, he had no one in mind to star as the suburban super-snob Hyacinth Bucket, who insists her name is pronounced “Bouquet” and attempts to impress her middle-class neighbours – but is brought down a few pegs by her longsuffering husband, Richard (played by Clive Swift), and her working-class sisters, who turn up despite her best efforts to keep them away.
Snoad put Patricia Routledge in the lead role, explaining: “I wanted the character of Hyacinth to be a sort of stately galleon. I didn’t want somebody lightweight, either in size or vocal terms.”
Clarke regarded the casting of the pretentious, social-climbing Hyacinth as “perfect”, although his own relationship with the producer-director was fractious. “I watched on occasions and found scenes I hadn’t written and that’s, of course, death to a writer,” he said. Snoad admitted to rewriting “large chunks” himself when he considered that elements of the script didn’t work, adding: “At times, we weren’t the best of mates.” A script editor was eventually brought in to act as peacemaker.
Despite these off-screen battles, Keeping Up Appearances was an immediate hit on screen with viewers in Britain – and around the world, where it became the BBC’s biggest export, including being remade for an Indian audience as Kauva Chala Hans Ki Chaal (“The Crow Who Tries to Walk Like a Peacock”) in 2003.
Born in Mill Hill, Middlesex, Harold was the son of Irene (nee Janes) and Sydney Snoad, who worked in advertising. During the second world war, his father was stationed with the army in Bath, where the family enjoyed visits to the Theatre Royal.
When Harold was 12, they moved to Eastbourne, East Sussex, to run a hotel, and he went to Eastbourne college, where he acted in shows. He also worked backstage at the town’s Devonshire Park theatre during the holidays. On leaving school, he trained at Florence Moore Theatre Studios in Brighton.
After two years of national service with the RAF, during which time he staged productions, Snoad moved to its Brighton recruiting centre, where he was asked to devise an entry for the air force’s annual window display competition. Coming up with a theme based on the popular BBC TV gameshow What’s My Line?, he contacted Gilbert Harding, who helped him to obtain photographs of himself and fellow panellists. When the display won, Harding suggested that on demob Snoad look for a job in television rather than return to the theatre. As a result, he joined the BBC as a floor assistant in 1957.
He worked on programmes such as the classic TV sitcom Hancock’s Half Hour in 1960, and then became a production assistant, a role he took on the first four series of Dad’s Army (1968-70), for which he was responsible for choosing the Norfolk location for filming the fictional south coast town of Walmington-on-Sea. During that time, the producer David Croft – who created the wartime Home Guard comedy with Jimmy Perry – gave Snoad the chance to direct five episodes. Perry called him “the bravest man I know” when Snoad once told the cast they had not learned their lines well enough.
Later, Snoad and the actor Michael Knowles adapted 67 Dad’s Army television episodes for BBC radio (1974-76). They also wrote a sequel series, It Sticks Out Half a Mile (1983-84), for radio, relocating Sergeant Arthur Wilson (John Le Mesurier), Private Frank Pike (Ian Lavender) and the former chief ARP warden Hodges (Bill Pertwee) to a seaside resort after the war to restore a decrepit pier.
Snoad had made his debut as a director on Hugh and I Spy (1968), an espionage sitcom starring Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd, then worked with Eric Sykes on Sykes and a Big, Big Show (1971).
His career as both producer and director began in 1969 with the clerical sitcom Oh, Brother!, starring Derek Nimmo. He followed it with His Lordship Entertains (1972), featuring Ronnie Barker in his Lord Rustless persona. Snoad’s first meeting with Barker, who was recovering from a throat operation, consisted of the comedy actor responding to Snoad’s questions by writing his answers on paper. In 1973, he made Casanova ’73, with Leslie Phillips as a serial womaniser.
He was then given the opportunity to take charge of the second run of the department store comedy Are You Being Served? (1974), Croft’s creation with Jeremy Lloyd. However, Snoad later told the author Richard Webber: “The second series was very successful, and the next thing David said to me was, ‘Thanks for your help. I’ll have it back now!’”
His long sitcom career also included Rings on Their Fingers (1978-80), The New Adventures of Lucky Jim (1982), Tears Before Bedtime (1983), the third series of Brush Strokes (1989), Ever Decreasing Circles (1986-89) and Don’t Wait Up (1983-90).
In 1974, Snoad took over as producer and director of The Dick Emery Show, eventually revamping it to feature one main scenario alongside just a handful of sketches. In 1982, a year after it ended, he oversaw the star playing a detective and other parts in Emery Presents: Legacy of Murder, a light comedy thriller series.
Snoad’s one chance to direct a film, with its writer, Ray Cooney, was the 1976 farce Not Now, Comrade, featuring an array of comedy stars including Phillips, Lavender, Windsor Davies and June Whitfield.
He wrote the BBC Television training manual Directing Situation Comedy (1988) and the inside story of Keeping Up Appearances, It’s Bouquet – Not Bucket! (2009).
His 1957 marriage to Anne Cadwallader ended in divorce. He is survived by his second wife, Jean (nee Green), whom he married in 1963, and their daughters, Helen and Jeanette.
• Harold Edward Snoad, producer and director, born 28 August 1935; died 2 June 2024
