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Image: Oliver Reed as Debussy with Audrey Searle as Madame Vasnier.

The Debussy Film was first shown as a Monitor Special on 18 May 1965. It was directed by Ken Russell and highly anticipated after his treatment of Elgar, Prokofiev and Bartok. Russell’s take on Debussy was his most experimental piece to date, stretching the bounds of television and showing some of the flamboyance that marked his later cinematic work. Its multi-layered structure featured a film unit making a film about Debussy, as well as stylised visualisations of the composer’s music. Writing in the Radio Times, Russell said:

Russell attempted to show how Debussy’s music was written against the turmoil in his personal life. Oliver Reed played Debussy while Annette Robertson, Iza Teller and Penny Service were the women in his life. Vladek Sheybal played both Debussy’s friend and the Director of the film within a film. In the script by Russell and Melvyn Bragg, Sheybal offered a constant commentary on the problems of creating an accurate portrait.

Russell continued to work for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ and in 1968 made Song of Summer, about Delius, generally seen as the highpoint of his television output and Russell’s personal favourite. Before his death in 2011, Russell had completed almost 50 television films.