Patricia Foy

TV producer and director

Patricia Foy, television producer and director: born London 25 November 1922; married 1960 Richard Levin (died 2000); died Salisbury, Wiltshire 26 July 2006.

Amongst the television producer and director Patricia Foy's well-known programmes were the BBC series The Magic of Dance (1980), introduced by Dame Margot Fonteyn, and The Margot Fonteyn Story (1989). Fonteyn had steadfastly refused to take part in any biographical television programme until Foy persuaded the famous and much-loved ballerina to tell the full story of her life. This exclusive portrait, made two years before Fonteyn's death in 1991, is the only personal account of her life and career that exists on film.

Born in London in 1922, Foy received a musical education and went on to work in stage management at Sadler's Wells theatre before joining the BBC in the late 1950s. At the BBC she met and, in 1960, married Richard Levin, who was head of the Design Department.

Paddy Foy directed and/or produced many music programmes including Music For You, introduced by Eric Robinson, who also conducted the orchestra. Usually broadcast from Studio G at Lime Grove, it went to air live for an hour on a Wednesday evening once a month and featured artists like Hilde Gueden, Joan Hammond, Luigi Infantino and Annaliese Rothenberger.

Other programmes included a number of opera outside broadcasts. In 1975 she won an Emmy for the TV special Profile in Music: Beverly Sills Festival. Her worked for independent production companies included the documentary Rudolf Nureyev (1991).

Patricia Foy kept a parrot, Coco, and was a superb hostess.

Gavin Roebuck