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Michael E. Briant | |
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| Born | Michael Edwin Briant 14 February 1942 Bournemouth, Hampshire, England |
| Occupation(s) | Television director, author |
Michael Edwin Briant (born 14 February 1942) is a retired English television director and author, best known for his work as a director for BBC television drama in the 1970s and 1980s.
At the age of 21 Briant joined the BBC as an assistant floor manager in the drama department and a year later became a production assistant. In 1966, he took a Directors Course. Sometimes credited as just Michael Briant, he subsequently directed series such as Z-Cars [1] and Doctor Who , [2] directing Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker in a total of six serials: Colony in Space (1971), The Sea Devils (1972), The Green Death (1973), Death to the Daleks (1974), Revenge of the Cybermen (1975) and The Robots of Death (1977). He went on to direct several episodes from the first season of Blake's 7 in 1978, and Secret Army between 1978 and 1979. He later directed four of the six episodes of its sequel, Kessler , and the thriller series Blood Money , in which he cast many of the actors from Secret Army.
Briant's other directing work included a BBC adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island , the Emmy-award-winning BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens's story A Tale of Two Cities , the feature film Tangiers , the series Hideaway and many more productions, including Howards' Way and EastEnders . He also spent time directing television in the Netherlands.
Briant discusses his move from acting to directing and his time spent working on Treasure Island in the 2021 YouTube video Director - Michael E Briant
Briant has been involved with DVD releases of his Doctor Who episodes, appearing on various documentaries and commentary tracks. He has also become a successful author. His autobiography Who is Michael Briant? was published by Classic Press and his books French Canal Routes to the Mediterranean, The Gentle Sailing Route to the Mediterranean, Strait Sailing to Gibraltar and Living Aboard Around the World were published by EdwinEditions.
Following his circumnavigation in a Moody 36 sailing boat he has written a number of books about boating including French Canal Routes to the Mediterranean and The Atlantic Crossing Guide all of which are for sale as downloads from http://www.gentlesailing.com/. His YouTube channel which is also entirely about sailing and @SailingGently now has almost 19,000 subscribers and over a million views. Currently his boat 'Golden Haze' is in Martinique and is the base for his video films and books. He lives in northern France and southern Spain
In 2021 Michael Briant contributed to the documentary tribute Alfred Burke is Frank Marker.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic".
Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom set in Yorkshire created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973, and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. Alan J. W. Bell produced and directed all episodes of the show from late 1981 to 2010. The BBC confirmed on 2 June 2010 that Last of the Summer Wine would no longer be produced and the 31st series would be its last. Subsequently, the final episode was broadcast on 29 August 2010. Since its original release, all 295 episodes, comprising thirty-one series—including the pilot and all films and specials—have been released on DVD. Repeats of the show are broadcast in the UK on BBC One, Gold, Yesterday, and Drama. It is also seen in more than 25 countries, including various PBS stations in the United States and on VisionTV in Canada. With the exception of programmes 'rebooted' after long hiatuses, Last of the Summer Wine is the longest-running TV comedy programme in Britain and the longest-running TV sitcom in the world.
The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and broadcast by BBC Television. Transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985, the series spanned seven seasons and thirty-seven episodes.
Frederick Charles Jones was an English actor who had an extensive career in television, theatre and cinema productions for almost sixty years. In theatre, he was best known for originating the role of Sir in The Dresser; in film, he was best known for his role as the showman Bytes in The Elephant Man (1980); and in television, he was best known for playing Sandy Thomas in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 2005 to 2018.
Griffith Rhys Jones, often known and credited as Griff Rhys Jones, is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, and television presenter. Rhys Jones starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith. He and Smith came to national attention in the 1980s for their work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones.
David John Lee Maloney was a British television director and producer, best known for his work on the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and The Day of the Triffids. The Guardian described him on his death as "one of that old school who could turn out 30-minute dramas in two days shooting time".
Peter Grimwade was a British television director and screenwriter, known for his work as a director and writer of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who in the 1980s.
Revenge of the Cybermen is the fifth and final serial of the 12th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 19 April to 10 May 1975. It was the first to feature the Cybermen since The Invasion (1968) and the last until Earthshock (1982).
Hergé's Adventures of Tintin is the first animated television series based on Hergé's popular comic book series, The Adventures of Tintin. The series was produced by Belvision Studios and first aired in 1957. After two books were adapted in black and white, eight books were then adapted in colour, each serialised into a set of five-minute episodes, with 103 episodes produced.
Shaun Alfred Graham Sutton was an English television writer, director, producer and executive, who worked in the medium for nearly forty years from the 1950s to the 1990s. His most important role was as the Head of Drama at BBC Television from the late 1960s until 1981, a role he occupied for longer than anyone else.
The Staircase is a 2004 French-produced, English-language documentary television miniseries directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade about the trial of Michael Peterson, convicted of murdering his wife, Kathleen Peterson.
Warship is a British television drama series produced by the BBC and broadcast between 1973 and 1977. The series was set contemporaneously and depicted life on board the fictitious Royal Navy frigate HMS Hero. Four series were produced with 45 episodes made in total.
Miles Anderson is a British stage and screen actor, born in the colony of Southern Rhodesia, who has appeared in television serials both in the United Kingdom, and North America. He appeared as Alistair the photographer in the film La La Land. In 2021 he played 'Lennox' in Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. He is commonly remembered in the UK for his role as Lieutenant Colonel Dan Fortune in ITV television show Soldier Soldier that aired in 1991-92
Francesco da Mosto is an Italian architect, author, historian, film maker and television presenter. He presented the three BBC 2 series Francesco's Venice (2004) and Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (2006) where he explored the country in an Alfa Romeo Spider and Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage which sees him sailing aboard the Camper and Nicholsons ketch Black Swan from his home city, Venice, to Istanbul, visiting places including Split, Mostar and Dubrovnik. He presented the two part BBC 2 series: Shakespeare in Italy, (2012).
Carol Drinkwater is a British actress, writer and filmmaker residing in France. She portrayed Helen Herriot in the television adaptation of the James Herriot books All Creatures Great and Small, which led to her receiving the Variety Club Television Personality of the Year award in 1985.
Leonard Jack Lewis was a British producer and director. He was most active in television. He was the Executive/Series Producer for BBC's EastEnders during the early 1990s, though he had success with many other television programmes for both the BBC and ITV. It has been said that Lewis believed in "the principles of public service broadcasting" and he has been described as a "gifted television producer with hidden directorial talents". After over 40 years working in the television industry, Lewis retired in 1995. He died in December 2005, aged 78.
Treasure Island is a 1977 television adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous 1883 novel. It was filmed in 1977 on location in Plymouth and Dartmouth (Devon), and in Corsica, and also at BBC Television Centre at Wood Lane, London.
Paul Seed is a British television director and former actor.
Henry Soskin, better known as Henry Lincoln, was a British author, television presenter, scriptwriter, and actor. He co-wrote three Doctor Who multi-part serials in the 1960s, and — starting in the 1970s — inspired three Chronicle BBC Two documentaries on the alleged mysteries surrounding the French village of Rennes-le-Château — and, from the 1980s, co-authored and authored a series of books of which The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was the most popular, becoming the inspiration for Dan Brown's 2003 best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. He was the last living person to have written for Doctor Who in the 1960s.
Dirk Gently is a British comic science fiction detective television series based on characters from the novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. The series was created by Howard Overman and stars Stephen Mangan as holistic detective Dirk Gently and Darren Boyd as his sidekick Richard MacDuff. Recurring actors include Helen Baxendale as MacDuff's girlfriend Susan Harmison, Jason Watkins as Dirk's nemesis DI Gilks and Lisa Jackson as Dirk's receptionist Janice Pearce. Unlike most detective series Dirk Gently features broadly comic touches and even some science fiction themes such as time travel and artificial intelligence.
@SailingGently
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