He went to Ealing Art College in West London, where he specialised in photography, while attending Frank Auerbach's drawing classes.
[1] Gilmour directed the plays Happy Returns by Brian Clarke, Some Enchanted Evening by C. P. Taylor, and The Game by Paul Pender.
[6] Gilmour's work continued with Cribb, a Victorian Scotland Yard detective drama based on the novels by Peter Lovesey, and House of Caradus, a series set in a fine art auction house, as well as twenty-seven episodes of Crown Court, a courtroom drama in which a case is played before a jury drawn from members of the public.
He produced and directed The Cuckoo Waltz, written by Geoffrey Lancashire, a comedy series about a young married couple and their lodger.
He contributed an essay to the book, Granada Television, The First Generation, edited by Michael Cox, John Finch, and Marjorie Giles.