CHRISTOPHER MORAHAN

8 Apr

(9 July 1929 - 7 April 2017)

Noted mainly for his superior work for television, director-producer Christopher Morahan trained as an actor but became a TV director, initially on Emergency – Ward 10, Probation Officer and adaptations of John Gabriel Borkman and Arsenic and Old Lace. In his time Morahan was Head of Plays at the BBC and also directed at the RSC, the National and Chichester Festival Theatres. He will be especially remembered for producing and co-directing The Jewel in the Crown (earning him Bafta and Primetime Emmy Awards), which introduced the then relatively unknown Tim Pigott-Smith. For the cinema Morahan directed Marcello Mastroianni in Diamonds for Breakfast, as well as All Neat in Black Stockings, Clockwise, Paper Mask and Element of Doubt. He is survived by his second wife, the actress Anna Carteret with whom he had two children, Rebecca, a theatre director, and the actress Hattie Morahan. He also had three children from his first marriage to the late Joan Murray. Morahan died on the same day as his Jewel in the Crown star Tim Pigott-Smith (q.v.). He was awarded the CBE in 2011.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

CHRISTOPHER MORAHAN

CLIFTON JAMES

TIM PIGOTT-SMITH