Started out in stage management at the Royal Court Theatre and then went to Leicester, where in 1960 he converted an old school and started the Living Theatre Company with Ken Loach, Jill Gascoine and Brian Grellis.
In the 1970s he was as artistic director of the Dundee Repertory Company. It was where he met the actor Nell Curran who became his wife in 1980.
He spent a period in Canada, setting up a new drama and entertainment department for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and on returning to the UK worked for the BBC and London Weekend Television, Thames TV and Yorkshire TV.
Had a Swedish mother and a British father, they divorced when he was a baby.