Obituary: Don Battye

donbattyeDon Battye, former producer for both Crawford and Grundy production houses, has died at the age of 77.

Starting out as an actor from the age of nine through to his 20s — including an appearance in an early TV production, the play The Big Day in 1959 — Battye went on to write for theatre. He then joined Crawford Productions in 1969, initially as a scriptwriter before moving on to production roles. He worked on drama series including Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police, Bluey and The Box.

He left Crawfords in 1977 to join the then Reg Grundy Organisation, working as both a writer and producer. His credits at Grundy included Chopper Squad, Bellamy, The Restless Years, Possession and Waterloo Station. He was producer for the long-running series Sons And Daughters and with Peter Pinne co-wrote the show’s signature theme tune that was played on all 972 episodes.

He later worked on Neighbours, Richmond Hill and the mini-series Tanamera: Lion Of Singapore.

Upon retiring in 1998, Battye moved to the Philippines, where he continued to pursue an interest in writing musical arrangements for old Australian, West End and American musicals which had never been recorded.

Source: IMDB, Perfect BlendCrawfordProductions.tv

 

 

 

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2016/03/obituary-don-battye.html

1 comment

    • Bevan Lee on 3 March 2016 at 5:03 PM
    • Reply

    Don was my incredible mentor and friend in the years I worked with him at Grundy Television. So much of what I became can be directly attributed to both his professional example and the skills he imparted to me. Rest in Peace, Don. I shall be forever grateful for what you passed on to me and always fortunate that you were a part of my life in my very formative creative years.

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