Christopher McMaster, who died recently at his home in Hampshire at the age of 70, was a distinguished television director, although his earlier career was spent as an actor in Ireland, Britain and Australia. He was born in London in 1925, the first child and only son of the actor manager Anew McMaster and his wife Marjorie Wilmore, who had just founded the touring company which they ran until the late 1950s. Christopher's godparents were Ivor Novello and Constance Collier.
He was one of few actors actually born in that proverbially invoked maternity ward of the theatrical profession, the property basket. He was carried on stage in several productions in which babies were preferred to the customary bundles of cloth, but made his first important appearance at the age of seven at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, as Marcius, son of Coriolanus, his father having been engaged as the principal actor for the 1933 season.
He was sent to Glenstal Abbey school in County Limerick, performing with the family company during the holidays. He continued to act after leaving school - reluctantly, as some of his contemporaries would have it, and because it was "the only profession he knew".
He adapted 19th century novels for the stage, and directed the modern plays which supplemented the McMasters' largely Shakespearian repertoire. A peculiarly childlike relish and absorption informed both his acting and writing. His earliest leading role in the West End was in Saroyan's The Beautiful People in 1948. He often appeared at the Dublin Gate Theatre for Hilton Edwards and his uncle, Micheal MacUammoir. A now elderly theatregoing generation will recall his marvellous Fool in King Lear at the Gaiety Theatre; this casting may have been a metaphor for his own life in the 1950s - always overshadowed by his father in the name part.
It seems that Christopher McMaster, though no stranger to eccentricities himself, sought a more conventional lifestyle than that of the touring artiste. He en rolled in a BBC training course in 1956, and was soon directing the Starr series on television. He moved to Granada TV at a time of great expansion in the industry, and there directed many plays and serials, including over sixty of the early episodes of Coronation; Street.
Moving to Southern Television in 1967, he became head of children's programmes, where, it would seem, free rein was given to his quirky imagination. His serial Freewheelers ran to 96 instalments, and was seen all over the world. Other series followed, among them Rogue's Rock, Park Ranger, The Ravelled Thread, Scarf Jack and Midnight is a Place - the latter nominated for a BAFTA award. During the 1980s he worked in a freelance capacity for Disney and other companies in Hollywood.
Christopher McMaster is survived by his wife, Jill Gotts, by his two sons, Paul and John, and by his sister, the actress Mary Rose McMaster, who now lives in California.