Eileen Diss

Eileen Diss, RDI (13 May 1931 – 5 November 2024) was a British set designer for stage, television and film. She won six British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Production Design awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award for Design from the Royal Television Society in 2002, and a BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Special Craft Award in 2006.

Early life and education

Diss was born on 13 May 1931 in Leytonstone, East London, England. She was the only child of Thomas and Winifred Diss. She was educated at Ilford County High School for Girls, then an all-girls grammar school in Ilford. Aged 14, she went on a school outing to see Laurence Olivier's film version of Henry V. This sparked an interest in film and she began to attend the pictures every Saturday. Henry V had made a particular impression on her, and its medieval set designed by Carmen Dillon was particularly enamouring. She would later say; "I could draw and loved history so it seemed that design was the area to go into". After leaving school, she attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, where she undertook a theatre design course.

Career

In 1952, Diss joined the BBC's design department as a third assistant to the set designers. As there were only ten designers, after only two weeks of training, she was designing her first designing the sets, for Three Little Mushrooms, a children's programme, an An American Gentleman, a TV film staring a soon to be famous John Gregson. Initially focusing on children's programmes such as Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School and Blue Peter, her scope was later broadened and she worked on Zoo Quest, the first major programme to feature David Attenborough, and The Grove Family (1954–1957), Britain's first television soap.

Diss left the BBC in 1957, and from then onwards worked freelance in theatre, television and on film. She collaborated with Harold Pinter more than 20 times.