Jonathan Maitland is a British playwright and former broadcaster.
Jonathan Maitland is a British playwright and former broadcaster.
Maitland attended boarding schools from the age of three [1] including Epsom College. He graduated from King's College London with a degree in law.[ citation needed ] His parents divorced when he was six years old. [1]
Maitland started his writing career in the 1980s as a reporter on The Sutton Guardian . He reported for BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio 4's Today programme . He was also a general correspondent for BBC News. From 1995–98 he presented and produced factual shows on BBC 1.
In 1999 he was poached by ITV to present BAFTA winning current affairs show Tonight and the BAFTA nominated House of Horrors, the first show to secretly film and expose rogue traders and builders.
Maitland has written five books including How to Make your Million from the Internet (and what to do if you don't), which explored the dot com boom. His memoir How to Survive your Mother described his unconventional childhood in suburban Surrey. Aged three he was sent to boarding school, and at 13 his mother turned the family hotel in Epsom into a retreat for homosexuals.
Maitland has written two radio plays and seven stage plays. Dead Sheep, about the Geoffrey Howe speech which led to Margaret Thatcher's downfall, was staged at the Park Theatre in London in 2015. It received positive reviews and the Independent called it a "...fine, often very funny debut play." [2] It went on a national tour in 2016. [3] In June 2023, a BBC Radio 4 adaptation, Wasps in a Jam Jar, starred Dame Penelope Wilton, Dame Harriet Walter and James Fleet. [4] Maitland's second play at the Park was An Audience With Jimmy Savile . The Observer described the play's central performance by Alistair McGowan as "Uncanny ... creepily powerful ... shocking." [5] The show was transferred to the Edinburgh Fringe in August. [6] Maitland's third play, Deny Deny Deny, about medical and ethical dilemmas, was also staged at the Park. The Daily Telegraph called it "a gripping, Faustian take on Olympic doping." [7]
Maitland's other radio play, The Remco, about the corrupt machinations of the committees which make huge pay awards to City fat cats, aired in 2018 and started Deborah Findlay and James Purefoy.
In May 2019, The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson opened at the Park Theatre. [8] Act One centred on the February 2016 dinner party at Johnson's home in Islington with Michael Gove, after which he decided to campaign for Vote Leave. The second act posited that Johnson resigned as Prime Minister in 2022 (this actually happened in real life) and is set in 2029 when he makes another run at the leadership, based on taking the UK back into the EU. The play broke previous box office records and sold out its entire run but received mixed reviews; Ann Treneman in The Times gave the play four stars out of five, calling it 'politics...served deliciously pink'. [9] In The New European , Martin McQuillan praised Maitland's "remarkable play" with a five-star review, [10] but Michael Billington in The Guardian gave it two stars, concluding that "Maitland's mind-changing hero is not nearly as interesting as he thinks he is." [11] The play completed an eight week national tour in March 2020.
Maitland's fifth play, The Interview, about the Martin Bashir/Princess Diana Panorama programme, premiered at the Park Theatre on October 27, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews.[ citation needed ] It is set to tour the UK in 2025. His play with music about Wilko Johnson, the guitarist and founder of the band Dr Feelgood, premiered at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch on February 1, 2024 and received positive reviews. [12] The Reviews Hub, awarding it fours stars, called it "an extraordinary story... magnificent" [13] and The Guardian's three star review praised director Dugald Bruce-Lockhart's "nifty production" and Johnson Willis's "stonking star turn". [14] Maitland's play How to Survive Your Mother, based on the memoir of the same name, premieres at the King's Head Theatre in London on October 23rd 2024. [15]
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Maitland part funded Chris Morris's debut feature film Four Lions (2010) in which he has a cameo as a newsreader.
He also presented Profile and two series of Lyrical Journey, both for BBC Radio 4. The latter, which he devised, takes musicians to a place they have written a song about. They then perform it in front of people for whom it has special significance. The series featured songs by the Proclaimers, Squeeze and Billy Bragg.
Alistair Charles McGowan is an English impressionist, comic, actor, singer and writer best known to British audiences for The Big Impression, which was, for four years, one of BBC1's top-rating comedy programmes – winning numerous awards, including a BAFTA in 2003. He has also worked extensively in theatre and appeared in the West End in Art, Cabaret, The Mikado and Little Shop of Horrors. As a television actor, he played the lead role in BBC1's Mayo. He wrote the play Timing and the book A Matter of Life and Death or How to Wean Your Man off Football with former comedy partner Ronni Ancona. He also provided voices for Spitting Image.
BBC Newsnight is the BBC's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30 on BBC Two and the UK feed of BBC News channel; it is also available on BBC iPlayer.
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile was an English media personality and DJ. He hosted the BBC shows Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It. During his lifetime, Savile was well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image and charitable work. After his death, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse made against him were investigated, leading the police to conclude that he had been a predatory sex offender and possibly one of Britain's most prolific. There had been allegations during his lifetime, but they were dismissed and accusers ignored or were disbelieved.
John Andrew Wilkinson, better known by the stage name Wilko Johnson, was an English guitarist, singer, songwriter and occasional actor. He was a member of the pub rock/rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s. Johnson was known for his distinctive guitar playing style which he achieved by not using a plectrum but playing fingerstyle. This enabled him to play rhythm guitar and riffs or solos at the same time creating a highly percussive guitar sound.
Caroline Quentin is an English actress, broadcaster and television presenter. Quentin became known for her television appearances: portraying Dorothy in Men Behaving Badly (1992–1998), Maddie Magellan in Jonathan Creek (1997–2000), Kate Salinger in Kiss Me Kate and DCI Janine Lewis in Blue Murder (2003–2009).
William Francis Nighy is an English actor. Known for his work in several stage, television and film productions, he has received several awards including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, and also has had nominations for an Academy Award, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author. Specialising in culture and the arts, he is best known for presenting the flagship BBC Radio 4 arts programme Front Row between 1998 and 2014. He is also a Guardian columnist, and presented Mark Lawson Talks To... on BBC Four from 2006 to 2015.
Thomas Anthony Hollander is a British actor who has gained success for his roles on stage and screen, winning BAFTA and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Benjamin Charles Miles is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the television comedy Coupling, from 2000 to 2004, as Montague Dartie in The Forsyte Saga, from 2002 to 2003, as propagandist and television executive Roger Dascombe in 2005 film V for Vendetta, as Peter Townsend in the Netflix drama The Crown (2016–2017) and George in episode 8 "The One That Holds Everything" in the TV drama The Romanoffs (2018).
William Gaminara is a Rhodesian-born British actor, screenwriter and playwright, probably best known for playing pathologist Professor Leo Dalton on the television series Silent Witness, from 2002 to 2013. His plays include According to Hoyle, The Three Lions and The Nightingales.
Ruth Katrin Gemmell is an English actress. She starred in the film Fever Pitch in 1997 which was followed by supporting roles in television series EastEnders, Casualty, Home Fires and Penny Dreadful. She has played Carly Beaker, the mother of the title character in the Tracy Beaker franchise since 2004. In 2020, she began playing Violet, Dowager Viscountess Bridgerton in the Netflix series Bridgerton.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously was Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023.
Eve Leigh is a playwright, theatre maker and dramaturg.
Munira Mirza is a British political advisor who served as Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit under Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019 until she resigned in February 2022. She previously worked under Johnson as Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture when he was Mayor of London.
Operation Yewtree was a British police investigation into sexual abuse allegations, predominantly the abuse of children, against the English media personality Jimmy Savile and others. The investigation, led by the Metropolitan Police Service (Met), started in October 2012. After a period of assessment, it became a full criminal investigation, involving inquiries into living people, notably other celebrities, as well as Savile, who had died the previous year.
It emerged in late 2012 that Jimmy Savile, a British media personality who had died the previous year, had sexually abused many people throughout his life, mostly children but some as old as 75, and mostly female. He had been well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image and was generally respected for his charitable work, which associated him with the British monarchy and other individuals of personal power.
The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues.
Boris Johnson's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 24 July 2019 when he accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding Theresa May, and ended on 6 September 2022 upon his resignation. As prime minister, Johnson served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. He also served as Minister for the Union, a position created by him to be held by the prime minister. Johnson's premiership was dominated by Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the cost of living crisis. His tenure was also characterised by several political controversies and scandals, being viewed as the most scandalous premiership of modern times by historians and biographers.
Caroline Louise Beavan Johnson is an English media consultant and is married to former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson. She is the daughter of Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent.
The public image of Boris Johnson has attracted commentary throughout his political career. As Mayor of London, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and in various ministerial positions, British Conservative politician Boris Johnson has been considered a controversial or polarising figure in British politics.
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