Theatrical career
David Aukin served as the literary adviser at the Traverse Theatre (1970–73). From 1970 to 1974, he served as Chairman of the Oval House Arts Centre. Along with David Hare and Max Stafford-Clark, Aukin co-founded the Joint Stock Theatre Company in 1974. During this period he presented The Open Theatre and two seasons of Le Grand Magic Circus all at the Roundhouse Theatre and presented numerous fringe companies in the UK and abroad, including The Freehold, The People Show, Pip Simmons Theatre Group and the premiere of Pam Gems' first stage play at the Cockpit Theatre. From 1974 through 1975, Aukin was an administrator with Anvil Productions in Oxford. In 1975, Aukin became an administrator at the Hampstead Theatre. [3] Three years later he was appointed to the position of Artistic Director there, a position he held until 1984. The numerous premiers he produced there include Translations by Brien Friel, Abigail's Party, Goose-Pimples, and Ecstasy, all by Mike Leigh, The Hothouse written and directed by Harold Pinter and Dusa Fish Stas and Vi by Pam Gems. [4] He was then appointed artistic director of the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester where he premiered Me and My Girl which went on to win many awards on the West End and Broadway. In 1986 he was appointed executive director of the National Theatre which he ran with Richard Eyre until 1990 when he was headhunted to be Head of Film at Channel 4. He subsequently has produced intermittently in the West End, including Dance of Death with Ian McKellen, and Onassis by Martin Sherman with Robert Lindsay. In 2002, Aukin produced the Broadway revival of The Elephant Man . [5]
Film work
From 1990 to 1998 he was Head of Film at Channel 4, during which time he commissioned over 100 feature films including Trainspotting , The Madness of King George , Secrets & Lies , Shallow Grave , Four Weddings and a Funeral , Brassed Off , and films by Ken Loach, Peter Greenaway, Tony Harrison and many others. In 2005, Aukin was the executive producer of The Government Inspector , a television drama about the death of David Kelly. The film was described by Rupert Smith in The Guardian as "...television drama in excelsis, hitting all the right buttons – action, comedy, pathos, satire – as well as having shedloads of righteous political anger...", [6] though Mark Lawson criticised its portrayal of Tony Blair strumming a guitar while "sending men to their deaths on the telephone". [7] Aukin responded by insisting that the scene had been misinterpreted. [8] The film went on to win the 2005 BAFTA Award for Best Single Drama. [2] At the 2007 BAFTA awards, two of Aukin's works were nominated: The Trial of Tony Blair for Best Single Drama and Britz which won Best Drama Serial. [9]
He executive produced Endgame which won a 2009 Peabody Award. [10] He also produced or executive produced The Promise , The Hamburg Cell , A Very Social Secretary , Mrs Henderson Presents , Hyde Park on Hudson , and True History of the Kelly Gang . [11]
Anthony Minghella, was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007.
Sir David Rippon Hare is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre and film director. Best known for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing The Hoursin 2002, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, and The Readerin 2008, based on the novel of the same name written by Bernhard Schlink.
Kelly Macdonald is a Scottish actress. Known for her performances on film and television, she has received various accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.
David Matthew Macfadyen is an English actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he gained prominence for his role as Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice (2005). He currently stars as Tom Wambsgans in the HBO drama series Succession (2018–present), for which he has received a Primetime Emmy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Robert Lindsay Stevenson is an English actor. He is the recipient of a British Academy Television Award, a Tony Award and two Laurence Olivier Awards.
Sophie Okonedo is an English actress and narrator. The recipient of a Tony Award, she has been nominated for an Academy Award, three BAFTA Television Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She began her film career in the British coming-of-age drama Young Soul Rebels (1991) before appearing in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), and Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things (2002).
Jon Blair, CBE, is a South African-born British writer, film producer, and director of documentary films, drama, and comedy.
Sir David Mark Rylance Waters is a British actor, playwright and theatre director. He is known for his roles on stage and screen having received numerous awards including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Olivier Awards and three Tony Awards. In 2016, he was included in the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. In 2017 was made a knight by Queen Elizabeth II.
Thomas Anthony Hollander is an English actor. As a child Hollander trained with the National Youth Theatre and was later involved in stage productions as a member of the Footlights and was president of the Marlowe Society. He later gained success for his roles on stage and screen, winning a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for a Tony Award and Olivier Award.
Stephen James Mangan is an English actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in Green Wing, Dan Moody in I'm Alan Partridge, Seán Lincoln in Episodes, Bigwig in Watership Down, Postman Pat in Postman Pat: The Movie, Richard Pitt in Hang Ups, Andrew in Bliss (2018), and Nathan Stern in The Split (2018–2022).
Peter Kosminsky is a British writer, director and producer. He has directed Hollywood movies such as White Oleander and television films like Warriors, The Government Inspector, The Promise, Wolf Hall and The State.
Ruth Wilson is an English actress. She is known for her performances as the eponymous protagonist in Jane Eyre (2006), as Alice Morgan in the BBC psychological crime drama Luther, as Alison Lockhart in the Showtime drama The Affair (2014–2018), and as the eponymous character in Mrs Wilson (2018). Since 2019, she has portrayed Marisa Coulter in the BBC/HBO fantasy series His Dark Materials, and for this role she won the 2020 BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress. Her film credits include The Lone Ranger (2013), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016), and Dark River (2017).
Dennis Kelly is a British writer and producer. He has worked for theatre, television and film.
Helen Edmundson is a British playwright, screenwriter and producer. She has won awards and critical acclaim both for her original writing and for her adaptations of various literary classics for the stage and screen.
Terry Johnson is a British dramatist and director working for stage, television and film. Graduating from the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham, he worked as an actor from 1971 to 1975, and has been active as a playwright since the early 1980s.
Christine Langan is an English film producer who was appointed Head of BBC Films in 2009. In 2016, she left the role to become CEO of comedy television production company Baby Cow Productions.
Nicola Shindler is a British television producer and executive, and founder of the independent television drama production company Quay Street Productions, having founded and run Red Production Company from 1998 to 2020. She has won eleven BAFTA TV Awards.
Sir Michael Victor Codron is a British theatre producer, known for his productions of the early work of Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Simon Gray and Tom Stoppard. He has been honoured with a Laurence Olivier Award for Lifetime Achievement, and is a stakeholder and director of the Aldwych Theatre in the West End, London.
Robert Hugh Carvel is a British actor. He has twice won a Laurence Olivier Award: for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his role as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical, and for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Rupert Murdoch in Ink. For the latter role, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Play.
Derek Wax is a British television producer. His work includes Sex Traffic, Occupation, The Hour,Troy: Fall of a City,Capital and Humans. He was a producer at Granada TV from 2001-2005 and an Executive Producer at Kudos from 2005-2017.
