Gavin Millar, who has died aged 84 from a brain tumour, was a leading light of television arts journalism of the 1960s and 70s before going on to direct work by Alan Bennett, Dennis Potter and Victoria Wood.
His richest film was Dreamchild (1985), written by Potter, in which the elderly Alice Liddell (Coral Browne) reflects on her youthful relationship with Charles Dodgson, AKA Lewis Carroll, who used her as the inspiration for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As well as shaping complex performances from Browne in her final screen appearance, and Ian Holm as the squirming, tormented Dodgson, Millar negotiated tonal shifts and moral ambiguities that might have foxed a less humane or sensitive film-maker.
