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Stephen Poliakoff | |
|---|---|
 Stephen Poliakoff, May 2008 | |
| Born | (1952-12-01)1 December 1952 (age 72) Holland Park, London, England |
| Education | Marlborough House School Westminster School |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
| Occupation(s) | Playwright, director, screenwriter |
| Spouse | Sandy Welch (m. 1983) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Alexander Poliakoff Ina Montagu |
| Relatives | Sir Martyn Poliakoff(brother) |
| Website | www |
Stephen PoliakoffCBE, FRSL (born 1 December 1952) is a Britishplaywright,director andscreenwriter.[1] In 2006 Gerard Gilbert ofThe Independent described him as the UK's "pre-eminent TV dramatist" who had "inheritedDennis Potter's crown".[2]
Poliakoff was born inHolland Park, West London, to Ina (née Montagu) andAlexander Poliakoff.[3][4] His father was aRussian-Jewish immigrant and his mother was aBritish Jew. His maternal grandfather had bought 16th-century mansionGreat Fosters, and his maternal great-grandfather wasSamuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling.[5]
The second of four children, he was sent at a young age toMarlborough House School, which he hated. He then attendedWestminster School, where he attracted sufficient attention forGranny, a play he wrote and directed, to be reviewed inThe Times newspaper. He was still at Westminister whenMichael Rudman commissioned Poliakoff's first professionally produced play, "A Day With my Sister," which premiered at theTraverse Theatre, Edinburgh directed byDavid Halliwell in 1971.[6][7]After Westminster, he went toKing's College, Cambridge to read history but left after two years, later recalling Cambridge as "a stuffy place" and the history course as "shockingly bad".[8]
Poliakoff continued to write stage plays, becoming writer-in-residence for theNational Theatre at the age of 24, but he became increasingly interested in the medium of television, withStronger Than the Sun[9] (1977 –BBC1Play for Today),Bloody Kids (1980 –ATV)[10] directed byStephen Frears,Caught on a Train (1980 –BBC2Playhouse) starringPeggy Ashcroft, and Soft Targets (1982 –Play for Today).[11] There were also TV adaptations of his stage playsHitting Town (1976 –Thames Television/ITVPlays for Britain)[12] and City Sugar (1978 –Scottish Television /ITVThe Sunday Drama).[13] These two plays were among his earliest big successes.[14][15]
Poliakoff's theatre, although well received critically, has never achieved a great level of attention from the critics, apart from their reviews. This has been attributed to the ambiguity of his politics.[16] His approach towards political issues has been described as individual in nature rather than generalising.[14] Some of the recurring themes in his works have been recognised as[16] environmental pollution, due to human intervention, both rural and urban. Most of his plays portray contemporary Britain. He is scared of and fascinated byfascism. He said: "I'm writing about what's happening now, about people searching for beliefs in what is no longer a religious country, and about how individuals of charisma and power can polarise things."[16]
A full length study of his work,Stephen Poliakoff: On Stage and Screen, was published in 2011 by Robin Nelson.[17]
Nearly all of Poliakoff's plays premiered in London, four at theNational Theatre, four at theRoyal Shakespeare Company and at theAlmeida,Hampstead,Bush andRoyal Court. Three of his plays have transferred to the West End. Many of the plays have been performed across Europe and also in the US, Australia and Japan.
In 1976, Poliakoff won theEvening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award forHitting Town andCity Sugar and in 1997 he won theCritic's Circle Best Play Award for the National Theatre production ofBlinded By The Sun.[18]
Poliakoff's firstfeature film wasRunners, directed byCharles Sturridge, starringJames Fox,Jane Asher andKate Hardie. It received a limited theatrical release in 1983 before being shown inChannel 4'sFilm on Four slot. His directorial debut was the much-lauded and now rareHidden City (1988),[19] premiered at theVenice Film Festival and starringCharles Dance,Richard E. Grant and Cassie Stuart. His television career continued withShe's Been Away (1989)[20] starringPeggy Ashcroft and also winning awards at Venice, before a return to film withClose My Eyes (1991),[21] starringClive Owen,Saskia Reeves andAlan Rickman in an elaborate reworking of the incest theme that had been central toHitting Town (1976),[12] followed byCentury (1994),[22] with Owen, Dance andMiranda Richardson. Less successful wereFood of Love (1997) with Grant,Nathalie Baye andJoe McGann andThe Tribe (1998)[23] starringJoely Richardson andJeremy Northam, the latter eventually screened onBBC Two in the absence of a cinema distribution deal where it achieved extremely high viewing figures and was immediately repeated.
He subsequently returned to his favoured form, television, this time choosing a flexible serial format resulting in the acclaimed andPrix Italia-winning[24]Shooting the Past (1999),[25] the fresh critical and audience success ofPerfect Strangers (2001),[26] a family drama starringMatthew Macfadyen,Michael Gambon andLindsay Duncan andThe Lost Prince (2003),[27] a single drama recognised with anEmmy award rare for a non-American production. The film also featuredMiranda Richardson in aGolden Globe-nominated performance as QueenMary of Teck.Michael Gambon,Gina McKee,Tom Hollander andBill Nighy appeared in major roles. Late 2005 saw the one-off dramaFriends and Crocodiles (2006)[28] starringDamian Lewis andJodhi May, with its overlapping companion piece,Gideon's Daughter (2006),[29] starringBill Nighy,Miranda Richardson andEmily Blunt, appearing early the following year. The latter won aPeabody Award in April 2007, withGolden Globes for Nighy and Blunt.
In 2005, he renewed recent criticisms ofBBC scheduling and commissioning policy, arguing that the reintroduction of a regular evening slot for one-offplays onBBC1 would provide the re-invigoration of drama output that has become a priority for the corporation.
Joe's Palace[30] was screened on 4 November 2007 onBBC One andCapturing Mary[31] was screened onBBC Two on 12 November 2007.The Culture Show also screened a Poliakoff special, including an interview between Poliakoff andMark Kermode and a new TV play,A Real Summer,[32] on 10 November.[33]
Glorious 39,[34] starringRomola Garai,Bill Nighy andJulie Christie, premiered at theToronto International Film Festival in September 2009 and was released in the UK that November.
In 2011, Poliakoff wrote a seven-minute short film,Astonish Me, to celebrateWWF's 50th anniversary. StarringBill Nighy andGemma Arterton, the film was shown inOdeon Cinemas in August 2011 and made available on theWWF website andYouTube.[35]
In February and March 2013,Dancing on the Edge,[36] a five-part series which followed the fortunes of a black jazz band in 1930s London, was broadcast by theBBC, and also later won aGolden Globe.[37]
In November/December 2016, his seven-part seriesClose to the Enemy[38] was transmitted onBBC Two.[39]Close to the Enemy[40] is set in a bombed-out London in the aftermath of theSecond World War.
Poliakoff wrote and directedSummer of Rockets, a semi-autobiographical six-part series broadcast by the BBC in June 2019. It is set in 1958, just as the UK is testing its first hydrogen bomb, and focuses on aRussian Jewish hearing aid inventor (Toby Stephens) who goes to work for MI5.[41] It also starsKeeley Hawes,Linus Roache, andTimothy Spall.[42]
Stephen Poliakoff lives in London and is married to fellow scriptwriterSandy Welch, with whom he has two children. He was awarded aCBE in theQueen's Birthday Honours list 2007.[43]
His brother, SirMartyn Poliakoff, a research chemist and lecturer, is a Fellow of theRoyal Society,[44] being, until November 2016, its Foreign Secretary and vice-president.[45] He is also the presenter of a YouTube educational series on chemistry,The Periodic Table of Videos.[46]
Poliakoff's paternal grandfather,Joseph, was a Russian Jew who experienced first-hand the effects of the communist revolution in Russia from the family'sMoscow flat across from theKremlin.[47] Near starvation after the revolution, he was given a government job as a district telephone inspector from an admiring commissar and he helped build Moscow's first automatic telephone exchange.[47] He then fled with his family from theSoviet Union to the UK in 1924.[48][49]
Joseph Poliakoff was an inventor of electrical devices[50] whose many inventions included a selenium photograph telephony shutter in 1899 (US patent 700,100, 26 August 1901),[51][52] which, along with electrical sound amplification, allowed for synchronised audio on film, the radio volume control, a magnetic induction loop that allowed hearing-impaired people to hear in auditoriums or theatres,[53][54] and thepaging beeper.[55] He also founded the Multitone Electric Company of London in 1931 that producedhearing aid devices[56] with their most prestigious customer beingWinston Churchill.[55] Joseph's experiences under the Bolsheviks inspired Poliakoff's 1984 playBreaking the Silence.[57] Several of these attributes (such as the pager, and hearing aids, including Churchill's) were ascribed to the lead character inSummer of Rockets.
All London except where otherwise stated:
All (originally) made for British television unless otherwise stated.
Poliakoff has received the following awards:[14]
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