Jon Jones | |
---|---|
Born | Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales |
Nationality | Welsh |
Occupation(s) | Director, writer |
Children | 3 |
Website | http://lastsummerfilm.com/ |
Jon Jones is a Welsh film and television writer and director working primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States. He has directed numerous dramas for British and American television including the award-winning When I'm Sixty-Four (Prix Europa - Best TV Film), The Diary of Anne Frank , Blood Strangers , The Alan Clark Diaries (Director's Guild of Great Britain Best Director), A Very Social Secretary (Broadcast Press Award - Best Film), Northanger Abbey , Zen , Mr Selfridge and Going Postal .
Most recent projects are Lawless for Sky, American Odyssey and Heroes Reborn for NBCUniversal, Legends for Fox21 and Hanna for Amazon Studios.
In 2019 the feature film Last Summer, directed and written by Jon Jones, won the BAFTA Cymru for best feature film.
Jonathan Rhys Jones first worked in the film and television industry as a carpenter, building sets for advertisements and pop promos. From there he worked his way up the art department in a variety of roles, finishing up as an art director working on a number of BBC dramas and the feature film The Young Americans , before returning to study direction at the National Film and Television School, Beaconsfield. Upon leaving three years later, his first directing jobs were Edith's Finger, which won the BAFTA Cymru for Best Short Film, and the ITV series Cold Feet , [1] in 2000, with his three episodes receiving an average of 9 million viewers.
He went on to direct the ITV crime drama Blood Strangers . The series was nominated for a Prix Italia television award in 2002. He went on to direct The Debt , a two-part British television crime drama film starring Warren Clarke, and Martin Freeman; When I'm Sixty Four , which won the Prix Europa in 2005 for Best Television Film, and The Alan Clark Diaries . The Alan Clark Diaries led to work on A Very Social Secretary, which was the launch film of the new UK channel More4. It won the Broadcast Press Award that year.
During 2005 Jones also directed Archangel , a Soviet thriller starring Daniel Craig. In 2006, he worked on The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton followed by Northanger Abbey in 2007. [2]
His next direction job was The Diary of Anne Frank , which was the first production since 1959 to be given permission by the Anne Frank Fonds to use the words of Anne Frank's diary. It was made in collaboration with the Anne Frank House. He went on to direct Terry Pratchett's Going Postal in 2010, followed by Zen , with each episode reaching over 5 million viewers.
In 2012, he directed Julian Fellowes' Titanic , which won a BAFTA for best visual effects in 2013. That year, Jones directed Mr Selfridge , for ITV, Da Vinci's Demons , which won a Primetime Emmy Award, and Lawless - a legal drama screened as part of Sky's "Drama Matters", starring Suranne Jones and Lindsay Duncan. After directing ITV's The Great Fire , in 2014, he went on to direct American Odyssey for NBCUniversal, starring Anna Friel and Peter Facinelli; Legends for Fox21 and TNT with Sean Bean; Heroes Reborn for NBCUniversal and more recently Still Star Crossed for ABC and Shondaland; and Ransom .
Last Summer was released in 2019 and was his first independently written and directed project, a coming-of-age drama set in 1970s rural Wales, praised by critics at film festivals including the Austin Film Festival and the Vancouver International Film Festival. [3] Wales Arts Review wrote that it has "an execrable script, a confused impetus, dodgy character motivations, and a standard of cinematic conception that would get you a middling grade at a half-decent film school – it’s what #TeamWales expects. But what we cannot do is ignore the misogyny of a film that has been written, produced, developed and premiered during the most radically political era of modern filmmaking. Last Summer makes Wales look bad. It makes Welsh cinema look bad". [4] On 13 October 2019 Last Summer won Best Feature Film at the BAFTA Cymru Awards 2019. [5]
Jones directed his most recent work in 2019, Hanna , starring Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman for Amazon Studios.
Jennifer "Gemma" Jones is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include Sense and Sensibility (1995), the Bridget Jones series (2001–2016), the Harry Potter series (2002–2011), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010), and Ammonite (2020).
Sarah Ann Akers, known professionally as Suranne Jones, is an English actress and producer. Known for her numerous collaborations with screenwriter Sally Wainwright, she rose to prominence playing Karen McDonald on ITV's Coronation Street between 2000 and 2004. Upon leaving, she furthered her television career in drama series such as Vincent (2005–2006), Strictly Confidential (2006), Harley Street (2008), and Unforgiven (2009).
Euros Lyn is a Welsh film and television director, best known for his work in Doctor Who, Sherlock, Black Mirror, Daredevil, His Dark Materials and Heartstopper.
Lesley Sharp is an English stage, film, and television actress whose roles on British television include Clocking Off (2000–2001), Bob & Rose (2001) and Afterlife (2005–2006). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the 1997 film The Full Monty. Her other film appearances include Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1986), Naked (1993), Priest (1994), From Hell (2001), and Vera Drake (2004). Between 2011 and 2016, she starred as DC Janet Scott in the ITV drama Scott & Bailey.
James Hawes is a British television director. He has worked in British television drama since the mid-1990s, and has also produced documentaries for British and American television networks. His work has ranged across high-end period pieces and prime-time adventure drama, including the re-launch of Doctor Who and Enid, a biopic starring Helena Bonham Carter about the celebrated children's author Enid Blyton, which won Hawes a BAFTA nomination as Best Director at the 2010 ceremony.
Chris Lang is a British screenwriter, producer and actor. Lang has written for many British television series but is best known as the writer, creator and executive producer of Unforgotten.
Douglas “Dougie” James Henshall is a Scottish television, film and stage actor. He is best known for his roles as Professor Nick Cutter in the science fiction series Primeval (2007–2011) and Detective Inspector Jimmy Pérez in the crime drama Shetland (2013–2022).
Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is a British actress. She started her professional acting career as a child, appearing in The Treasure Seekers (1996) at age 12. She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series of the television series The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. On radio, she has played the role of Emma Grundy in the BBC's The Archers. In 2008, she appeared in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Chalk Garden.
James Strong is a British television and film director and writer, best known for his work on Broadchurch for which he was BAFTA-nominated for Best Director Fiction 2015. He trained at Granada TV and has directed episodes of the shows Holby City and Doctors, as well as seven episodes of Doctor Who and two episodes of its spin-off series Torchwood. His work on the Doctor Who episode "Voyage of the Damned" won him a BAFTA Cymru award for Best Director in 2008.
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.
Jack Louis Fox is a British actor. He is part of the Fox family. He is the fourth son of James Fox and his late wife Mary. His uncles are Robert and Edward Fox. Fox began his career in television starring in the critically acclaimed Fresh Meat (2011). Roles in the Golden Globe-nominated National Geographic series Genius, BBC One’s Privates, Upstart Crow, NBC's Dracula, ITV’s Mr. Selfridge, Lewis, Midsomer Murders, and Crackle’s Snatch followed. He played a leading Role in Sky Atlantic's Riviera (2019), which smashed records for their biggest debut series ever, making it their most downloaded show in history. He continues to play a lead role in Andrew Davies's ITV/Masterpiece (PBS) produced Sanditon (2020–present). Most recently he can be seen in BBC One's drama Cheaters (2022).
Julian Richards is a Welsh film director. He is associated with the Cool Cymru era of culture and arts in Wales.
Andy Goddard is a Welsh director and screenwriter, best known for writing and directing his feature debut Set Fire to the Stars (2014) and directing and co-producing his second feature A Kind of Murder (2016). Goddard has also directed five episodes of the ITV period drama series Downton Abbey.
Stephen Walters is an English actor. A regular in British television and film, he has played a wide range and variety of character roles in both drama and comedy. Walters is most commonly associated with unpredictable, complex figures. He was nominated for a Royal Television Society Best Actor award in 2013 for his role in the Sky Arts drama Ragged and in 2023 for a Supporting Actor (Male) award for his role in the ITV drama Anne.
Nigel Stafford-Clark is a British film and television producer and the managing director of Deep Indigo. He is best known as the producer of Warriors, The Way We Live Now, Bleak House, and The Passion, which were broadcast by the BBC.
Jonathan Tudor Owen is a Welsh producer, actor and writer who has appeared in TV shows including Shameless, Murphy's Law and My Family. Owen won a Welsh BAFTA in 2007 for the documentary The Aberfan Disaster, which he co-produced with Judith Davies.
Giles Foster has been an English television director since 1975, specialising in television dramas. He has also directed in Australia and in Germany (2012-2014). He wrote some television dramas in the 1970s.
Thomas Cullen is a Welsh actor and director. He had roles in the independent film Weekend (2011), as Anthony Foyle, Viscount Gillingham in the television series Downton Abbey, and as Sir Landry in the historical drama series Knightfall. He also appeared in another historical drama playing the role of Thomas Seymour in Becoming Elizabeth.
Northanger Abbey is a 2007 British television film adaptation of Jane Austen's 1817 novel of the same name. It was directed by British television director Jon Jones and the screenplay was written by Andrew Davies. Felicity Jones stars as the protagonist Catherine Morland and JJ Feild plays her love interest Henry Tilney.
Callum Robilliard Turner is a British actor. After beginning a career as a fashion model, he began working in film and television. Turner has been nominated for a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor and named as a Breakthrough Brit by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Welsh film was well-represented this year with the Feature/TV Film Award going to Last Summer