MICHAEL TUCHNER

23 Mar

(24 June 1932 - 17 February 2017)

The Berlin-born film and television director lived in Britain from the age of seven. He made most of his cinema films between 1970 and 1990, beginning with Villain in 1971, from a screenplay by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, with Richard Burton as an East End gangster. The following year he directed Fear Is the Key, an Alistair MacLean actioner, with Barry Newman. Mr Quilp (1975) was a musical version of Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop with Anthony Newley. The Likely Lads (1975) had another script from Clement and La Frenais, based on their TV show, a film that holds up well today. Trenchcoat (1983) was a Disney mystery with Margot Kidder and Robert Hays; Wilt (1990) was a Tom Sharpe story with Griff Rhys Jones as a would-be wife murderer. Tuchner’s last film for the cinema was Back to the Secret Garden (2001), a sequel with Joan Plowright.

The rest of his busy career was taken up with television series, films and documentaries, including episodes of Follyfoot, Play for Today, Whicker’s World, The One and Only Phyllis Dixey, Tales of the Unexpected, Hart to Hart, etc. His last TV movie was A Place Called Home in 2004, with Ann-Margret. Tuchner was nominated four times for a Bafta, winning for the BBC’s Bar Mitzvah Boy in 1977.

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.

https://www.filmreviewdaily.com/michael-darvell

MICHAEL TUCHNER

LOLA ALBRIGHT

ROBERT DAY