Jonathan Maitland is aBritish playwright and former broadcaster.
Maitland attended boarding schools from the age of three[1] includingEpsom College. He graduated fromKing's College London with a degree in law.[citation needed] He describes his mother as abusive: his parents divorced when he was six years old.[1]
Maitland started his writing career in the 1980s as a reporter on TheSutton Guardian. He reported forBBC Radio Bristol andBBC Radio 4'sToday programme. He was also a general correspondent for BBC News. From 1995–98 he presented and produced factual shows on BBC 1. He was also one of the reporters forWatchdog and presented a spin off calledThe Big Dinner
In 1999 he was poached by ITV to present BAFTA winning current affairs showTonight and the BAFTA nominatedHouse of Horrors, the first show to secretly film and expose rogue traders and builders.
Maitland has written five books includingHow to Make your Million from the Internet (and what to do if you don't), which explored thedot com boom. His memoirHow to Survive your Mother described his unconventional childhood in suburbanSurrey. Aged three he was sent to boarding school, and at 13 his mother turned the family hotel in Epsom into a retreat for homosexuals.
Maitland has written two radio plays and seven stage plays.Dead Sheep, about theGeoffrey Howe speech which led toMargaret Thatcher's downfall, was staged at thePark Theatre in London in 2015. It received positive reviews and the Independent called it a "...fine, often very funny debut play."[2] It went on a national tour in 2016.[3] In June 2023, aBBC Radio 4 adaptation,Wasps in a Jam Jar, starred DamePenelope Wilton, DameHarriet Walter andJames Fleet.[4] Maitland's second play at the Park wasAn Audience WithJimmy Savile.The Observer described the play's central performance byAlistair McGowan as "Uncanny ... creepily powerful ... shocking."[5] The show was transferred to theEdinburgh Fringe in August.[6] Maitland's third play,Deny Deny Deny, about medical and ethical dilemmas, was also staged at the Park.The Daily Telegraph called it "a gripping, Faustian take on Olympic doping."[7]
Maitland's other radio play,The Remco, about the corrupt machinations of the committees which make huge pay awards to City fat cats, aired in 2018 and started byDeborah Findlay andJames Purefoy.
In May 2019,The Last Temptation ofBoris Johnson opened at the Park Theatre.[8] Act One centred on the February 2016 dinner party at Johnson's home inIslington withMichael Gove, after which he decided to campaign forVote Leave. The second act posited that Johnson resigned as Prime Minister in 2022 (this actually happened in real life) and is set in 2029 when he makes another run at the leadership, based on taking the UK back into the EU. The play broke previous box office records and sold out its entire run but received mixed reviews; Ann Treneman inThe Times gave the play four stars out of five, calling it 'politics...served deliciously pink'.[9] InThe New European, Martin McQuillan praised Maitland's "remarkable play" with a five-star review,[10] but Michael Billington inThe Guardian gave it two stars, concluding that "Maitland's mind-changing hero is not nearly as interesting as he thinks he is."[11] The play completed an eight week national tour in March 2020.
Maitland's fifth play,The Interview, aboutthe Martin Bashir/Princess DianaPanorama programme, premiered at the Park Theatre on 27 October 2023. It received mostly positive reviews.[citation needed] His play with music aboutWilko Johnson, the guitarist and founder of the bandDr Feelgood, premiered at theQueen's Theatre, Hornchurch on 1 February 2024 and received positive reviews.[12] The Reviews Hub, awarding it fours stars, called it "an extraordinary story... magnificent"[13] andThe Guardian's three star review praised director Dugald Bruce-Lockhart's "nifty production" and Johnson Willis's "stonking star turn".[14] Maitland's playHow to Survive Your Mother, based on the memoir of the same name, premieres at theKing's Head Theatre in London on October 23, 2024.[15]
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Maitland part fundedChris Morris's debut feature filmFour Lions (2010) in which he has a cameo as a newsreader.
He also presentedProfile and two series ofLyrical Journey, both for BBC Radio 4. The latter, which he devised, takes musicians to a place they have written a song about. They then perform it in front of people for whom it has special significance. The series featured songs bythe Proclaimers,Squeeze andBilly Bragg.
