He could be working with Billy Fury, Diana Dors and Orson Welles one day, and then go on to cover the Wales - Scotland Football Match at Cardiff the next (that was the weekend of the Aberfan Pit Disaster.)
[2] At age 22 he directed and produced his first television drama, A Nice Dream While It Lasted,[5] written by his sister, renowned author Fay Weldon.
A female journalist reviewing the film in Ireland, was driving home after the screening, when she lost control of her car which ended upside down in a fast flowing river.
[8][3][2] In the mid 1970s, Birkinshaw's production of Alice in Wonderland ran into difficulties when the RSPCA banned him from using live flamingos in the croquet scene.
[18] After signing a contract on the back of a napkin in a restaurant on the Champs-Élysées, Birkinshaw was hired to direct an action adventure movie variously called Greed and Invaders of the Lost Gold.
[19][20] This movie was shot in the Philippines and starred Stuart Whitman, Harold Sakata, Edmund Purdom and English actress Glynis Barber.
[23][24][2] Returning from India, Birkinshaw directed several movies from original stories by Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe with stars such as Oliver Reed, Donald Pleasence, Donald Sutherland, Herbert Lom, Brenda Vaccaro and Moira Lister – Ten Little Indians,[25] The House of Usher [26] and Masque of the Red Death.
[2] The Creation of Adam, based on Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel is one, and the story of Alexander the Great's triumphant march into Babylon, original by the famed neo-classical sculptor, Bertel Thorvaldsen, is another.
During his spare time, Birkinshaw makes promotional videos of his home town, Kingston upon Thames, on his iPhone, under the production title Laughin' Dog.
[35] He has also written 3 books, 2 for children, “Heidi and the Elephant” [36] and “The Fat Swan”, and an adventure novel entitled “The Road to Malabar” [37] about the hunt for the Peacock Throne, using the pen name, Rayle Mackenzie.