Gerry Scott Foulds
Award winning production designer of BBC
costume dramas, Gerry Scott Foulds, studied the Art
Foundation at Bradford College of Art in the 1960s.
Geraldine was born in Bradford in 1944. Following her studies at Bradford College of Art she went to Sunderland College of Art to do a painting degree, before applying to the BBC Design Department in the late 1960s. The Head of Design turned her down as she had no experience of drawing plans but she was so determined that she spent 6 months learning to draught plans and applied again.
Gerry was finally accepted, on a temporary contract initially, in 1968. She went on to work on
a variety of programmes including Sykes (1972), Porridge (1974), Ripping Yarns (1979) and
Blake’s 7 (1979-80).
Gerry’s abiding passion and greatest triumph was period drama and she created lavish and
believable settings, often with ungenerous budgets. She was meticulous about everything
from large buildings down to the finest detail of paint finish and textiles. She designed Silas
Marner (1985), Clarissa (1991), Middlemarch (1994), Pride and Prejudice (1995), Tess of
the D’Urbervilles (1998), Wives and Daughters (2000) and The Way We Live Now (2002).
She was nominated for a BAFTA many times, winning twice in 2000 and 2002. In autumn
2002 when she was preparing for He Knew He Was Right she was diagnosed with a brain
tumour and had surgery in November which badly affected her vision. However in April 2003
she resumed working on the ambitious project and made a great success of it. For years she
had hoped to work on Cranford but funding delays meant that she was too ill by the time it
was in production.
Gerry died in April 2007, aged 62.