Directing
Jul 20, 1934
London, England
Jonathan Miller
Directing
Biography
Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 1950s, he came to prominence in the early 1960s in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett. Miller began directing operas in the 1970s. His 1982 production of a "Mafia"-styled Rigoletto was set in 1950s Little Italy, Manhattan. In its early days, he was an associate director at the National Theatre. He later ran the Old Vic Theatre. As a writer and presenter of more than a dozen BBC documentaries, Miller became a television personality and public intellectual in Britain and the United States.
Feature Films (12)
Documentary charting the history of the supernatural on British TV, revisiting classic ghost stories and controversial shows. Contributors include Derren Brown and Yvette Fielding.
Ghosts in the Machine
Two impressions of New York - a city of dreams or nightmares. The Outsider: Jonathan Miller 'If you enter New York in the first place in a show business context every time you return you have to justify your existence in show business terms. If you haven't got something to sell you become almost transparent...' The Insider: Patti Smith, poet, singer, actress. 'People come to New York to see the stars, but there ain't no stars in the sky. I lived in the city and I haven't seen a constellation since.'
West Side Stories
A documentary about the life of British satirist and founder of 'Private Eye' Peter Cook.
Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook
A study of absurdity in a suburban family: father recreates the Old Bailey in the living room while the son teaches speak-your-weight machines to sing in the attic.
One Way Pendulum
Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great tragedy to life. Christopher Plummer, David Tennant, John Nettles, John Simm, Sir Trevor Nunn, Franco Zeffirelli, Philip Saville, and others explore the enduring appeal of the Prince of Denmark more than 400 years after his stage debut.
Discovering Hamlet
A TV version of the stage show originally performed at the Edinburgh Fringe (August 1960) and in London (Fortune Theatre, May 1961) and Broadway (October 1962).
Beyond the Fringe
TV documentary tracing the life of the comedian and satirist from his school days, through the Cambridge Footlights, to Beyond the Fringe and his partnership with Dudley Moore. With contributions from Cook's school friends Peter Rabey and Jonathan Harlow; Cook's first wife Wendy Cook; Cambridge University friends Tim Harrold and Roger Law; Adrian Slade (ex-president of Cambridge Footlights); Jonathan Miller; Sir David Frost; Ned Sherrin; John Bassett (creator, Beyond The Fringe); Willie Donaldson (producer, Beyond The Fringe); John Cleese; Eric Idle; Michael Parkinson; Brenda Vaccaro; John Fortune; Nicholas Luard (co-owner with Cook of The Establishment club); actress Gaye Brown; Christopher Booker; Ian Hislop; Victor Lownes and Michael Bawtree (friends of Cook); Joe McGrath; Dick Clement; Mel Smith; Clive Anderson; tv producer and executive Paul Jackson; Harry Enfield, radio presenter Clive Bull, and archival interview footage of both Cook and Dudley Moore.
Peter Cook: At a Slight Angle to the Universe
A chance to see director Jonathan Miller at work on his acclaimed staging of Gilbert and Sullivan's famous comic opera.
The English National Opera Rehearse The Mikado
Pioneer photographer, forefather of cinema, showman, murderer - Eadweard Muybridge was a Victorian enigma. He was born and died in Kingston upon Thames, but did his most famous work in California - freezing time and starting it up again, so that for the first time people could see how a racing horse's legs moved. He went on to animate the movements of naked ladies, wrestlers, athletes, elephants, cockatoos and his own naked body, projecting his images publicly with a machine he invented and astounding audiences worldwide with the first flickerings of cinema. Alan Yentob follows in Muybridge's footsteps as he makes - and often changes - his name, and sets off to kill his young wife's lover. With Andy Serkis as Muybridge
The Weird World of Eadweard Muybridge
Jonathan Miller visits the Regent's Park Zoo and gives his personal opinions on the animals and their enclosures.
The Zoo in Winter
Veteran radio, theatre, television and film actor Christopher Plummer has played a thousand parts, but beneath that elegant stage presence lies the restless heart of a risk-taker. Don't miss this engaging biography.
Christopher Plummer: A Man For All Stages
In a programme first broadcast in 1969, some of the four million people evacuated as children from British cities during the Second World War look back on their experiences. Amongst the contributors are Michael Aspel and Jonathan Miller.
The Evacuees
Television & Series (16)
A series of benefit shows staged initially in the United Kingdom to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. The shows started in 1976 featuring popular British comedians but later included leading musicians and actors. The Secret Policeman's Ball shows are credited by many prominent entertainers with having galvanised them to become involved with Amnesty and other social and political causes in succeeding years.
The Secret Policeman's Ball
A series of workshops led by leading actors on the techniques of acting in film, opera, and on stage
Acting
Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history, its narrative-led storytelling offering a richly immersive and varied window onto the past.
Timeshift
Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries can be found on US cable channels without the branding.
