Patrick Magee (Leo Raymount in What Big Eyes)

Magee was born as Patrick George McGee on 31st March 1922 in Armagh, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. He was the first of five siblings and was educated at St Patrick’s Grammar School in Armagh where he excelled in a number of school productions. With his low gravelly voice, tormented mad eyes, slightly stooped stocky frame, unkempt hair and unique pronunciation and intonation he would specialise in playing obtuse, disturbing, sadistic or oddball characters in a career that started in the late 1940s and lasted until his death in 1982 from a heart attack, aged just sixty years old. During this time he would become closely associated with the works of playwrights Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett and earn a reputation as a hell raising heavy drinker and gambler. It seems that Magee had little quality control over the film roles he took later in his career, appearing in everything from films by auteur Stanley Kubrick and Italian schlockmeister Lucio Fulci to works by Joseph Losey and Roger Corman. Above all Magee was a passionate lover of theatre and the money he earned from taking film roles was often channelled into funding his own theatre productions.

Magee changed his stage name to supposedly avoid confusion with another actor called Patrick McGee. He was given to exaggeration in interviews and often stated that he was originally a street fighter from Dublin when in fact he was born into a comfortable middle class family. His father, Pat McGee, was the Master of Banbrook School. Magee joined the Belfast Group Players theatre group in 1948 and appeared in several acclaimed production during the three years he stayed there. He left to travel to England under the auspices of the renowned director Tyrone Guthrie to appear in a series of Irish plays staged at the Hammersmith Lyric as part of the Festival of Britain in 1951. He returned to Ireland with a tour of Shakespeare productions. Part of the acting company was the aspiring actor Harold Pinter who would strike up a lifelong friendship with Magee.  

Magee returned to the UK to work in repertory theatre and soon picked up the occasional role on television. His debut in the TV medium came with the role of Harry Berks in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre episode 'The Adventurer' (31st July 1955). He later returned to the anthology series with appearances in the episodes 'Juno and the Paycock' (17th March 1957), an Irish based family drama, and in a small role as a policeman in 'Teru' (4th August 1957). He would later return to the BBC series for two further instalments; 'Gracie' (12th October 1958) and 'Mooney’s Wreck' (3rd May 1959). Magee also found himself cast regularly in ITV’s flagship drama anthology series, ITV Television Playhouse, with the role of Maguire in 'The Shadow of the Gun Man' (11th July 1957) based on the Sean O’Casey play, portraying Mate in a version of the Herb Tank play 'Longitude 49' (17th July 1959) and as a unnamed police detective in 'Who’s Owen Stephens..?' (10th November 1960). His final appearance in the programme was in the episode 'Too Old For Donkeys' (4th April 1963).

Magee met the writer Samuel Beckett in 1957 and was soon recording excerpts from Beckett’s novel Molloy and the short story From an Abandoned Work for transmission on BBC radio. Beckett was impressed with the quality of Magee’s voice and set about writing Krapp’s Last Tape[1] especially for the actor. The play was first presented at London’s Royal Court Theatre in October 1958 with Magee starring as an aged misanthrope who listens to recordings of his former self with increasing intensity. The relationship between Magee and Beckett continued to flourish and Magee would later appear as Hamm in the play Endgame (1964) presented the RSC at Aldwych in July 1964. In 1958 Magee married Belle Sherry and in February 1961 they became the parents of fraternal twins – Mark and Caroline.

His television career continued to bloom. For the crime drama series Dial 999 Magee appeared as Parsons in the episode 'The Great Gold Robbery' (1959) and as Michael Davitt in the ITV Play of the Week episode 'Parnell' (10th February 1959), a political drama based on the life and times or the Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell. Next was the BBC Sunday Night Theatre play 'Mooney’s Wreck' (3rd May 1959). On stage he took on the role of Max in the Kenneth Jupp play The Buskers during March 1959. Later the same year he appeared as the aptly named Father Domineer in the English Stage Company production of Cock-A-Doodle Dandy by Sean O’Casey during September and October 1959, Having established the part of Ulrich Brendel in the English Stage Company’s production of Rosmersholm during October 1959 Magee retired from the role which was taken over by Alan Dobie when it transferred from the Royal Court to the Comedy Theatre in January 1960.

The first year of the new decade would see Magee making television appearances in an episode of Deadline Midnight (25th July 1960) and playing the character Jason in the BBC thriller series Here Lies Miss Sabry (8th August – 12th September 1960). His final television appearances for the year were in the BBC Sunday Night Play production 'The Ruffians' (9th October 1960) and Philip Broadley’s Associated Rediffusion play Owen Stephens (11th November 1960). Magee played a police man doggedly pursuing two men who have stolen a small fortune from a local business. He made a suitable film debut as the dour chief prison warden Barrows in Joseph Losey’s film The Criminal (1960) opposite Stanley Baker and Sam Wannamaker. This was followed by the role of Paddy Flynn, a drunken bully, in the crime drama Rag Doll AKA Young, Willing and Eager (1961) and appearing as Ben Black in the Edgar Wallace thriller Never Back Losers (1961).

His TV appearances for 1961 took in an episode of No Hiding Place – 'Explosion Underground' (30th June 1961) and playing a lawyer in 'Inquest at Golgotha' (1st October 1961) an episode of the ATV production About Religion. He ended the year with by appearing in a rare science fiction flavoured episode of Armchair Theatre – 'Murder Club' (3rd December 1961). He was equally busy in stage with A Whistle In The Dark at the Royal theatre, Stratford during September 1961. The play, authored by Thomas Murphey, was written as an entry to an all-Ireland amateur drama competition two years previously, but was held back on the grounds that the content was too controversial ever to be presented in the theatre. Also in the cast were Derren Nesbitt, Michael Craig and Dudley Sutton.

The start of 1962 saw Magee appear in 'Stab in the Dark' (23rd January 1962), the fourth episode of the new police drama series Z Cars, as the character Mr O’Conor. He popped up in an uncredited role as Mr Lee in the film The Boys (1962) and could be seen as RSM Hicks in A Prize of Arms (1962). Back on TV he made his second appearance in an episode of the ITV Play of the Week taking the central role of lighthouse keeper Duncan Bishop in the comedy drama 'Miracle on Mano' (14th August 1962). His next TV appearance was in the second episode of a dramatization of Sophocles' Antigone (16th October 1962) in the role of Teiresias.

The following year, 1963, would his busiest period yet for film and television jobs. His film appearances for the year featured work with the director Roger Corman on The Young Racers (1963), playing Sir William Dragonet, and the role of Inspector Cummins in Ricochet (1963), an Edgar Wallace potboiler. He had a supporting role in the thriller The Very Edge (1963) which was filmed in his native Ireland along with proto-slasher Dementia 13 (1963), Francis Ford Coppola’s first film as a director. Magee appeared as Justin Caleb in the horror thriller which was funded by Roger Corman. Magee joined a largely Yugoslavian cast for Operation Titian (1963) playing Doctor Morisijus, with Corman again providing financial backing. The film has a complex history with Corman repackaging and re-editing the film for television where it played as Portrait in Terror. However, Corman was still unsatisfied with the results and so hired director Jack Hill to film some new sequences. This version was released as Blood Bath (1966). This version was sold again to television with further scenes added by another director and became known as Track of the Vampire. Magee’s major film role during 1963 was as Bishop in a restaurant in the Joseph Losey film The Servant (1963) which was headlined by James Fox and Dork Bogarde. This was his second film for Losey.

The actor was equally as busy with television roles during 1963 appearing in 'The Escape' (20th June 1963), an episode of the adventure series Moonstrike, Zero One episode 'Stopover' (21st August 1963) as the character Gallegos and playing a police inspector in 'Express Delivery' (12th October 1963), an episode of The Sentimental Agent. He also popped up in two episodes of the soap opera Compact playing the character Sligo in the episodes 'Faith and Begorra' (10th September 1963) and 'A Touch of the Blarney' (12th September 1963). There was also two appearances in The Avengers; playing Pancho in the second season instalment 'Killer Whale' (2nd March 1963) and the third season story 'The Gilded Cage' (9th November 1963) as criminal mastermind J P Spagge. Finally he appeared as William Breen in The Plane Makers episode 'The Old Boy Network' (21st October 1963) which was followed by his return in the later episode 'The Smiler' (14th January 1964).

More high profile film work came with the role of surgeon James Reynolds in the classic Zulu (1964), Alfredo in the sumptuous looking Roger Corman production of The Masque of Red Death (1964) and as Inspector Walsh in Bryan Forbe’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964). His TV resume for the year included playing Jack Mullen in two episodes of Z Cars written by Eric Paice – 'The Fire Raiser' (21st March 1964) and 'The Witness' (28th March 1964) – and playing The Duke of Wellington for the Theatre 625 episode 'Carried By Storm' (25th October 1964) directed by Donald McWhinnie who would later direct 'What Big Eyes'. The Stage review singled out his performance in the play “Patrick Magee showed us yet another side of his considerable talent, and was indeed the Iron Duke when he delivered lines like “The only rules of war that concern is gentlemen. Are mine.[2]””

Magee joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1964 following a request from Harold Pinter who wanted Magee to appear in a revival of The Birthday Party, with Pinter directing, at the Aldwych theatre during June 1964. Magee played the role of the torturer McCann. Further RSC roles included the role of Roche in another revival, Afore Night Come by David Rudkin, during July. August saw a legendary production of The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed By The Inmates of The Asylum of Charenton Under The Direction of the Marquis de Sade. Magee was the Marquis de Sade. After a successful run in London the play transferred to New York to much praise including Magee winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play in 1966 for his portrayal. This would lead to international recognition and enable Magee to go from B to A class budget films in due course.
Magee was so busy with the RSC that he only found time to make two television appearances in 1965; essaying the role of James Spalding in 'Beware of the Dog' (16th May 1965), an episode of Dr Finlay’s Casebook, and featuring as Tetzel in the BBC Play of the Month production 'Luther' (19th October 1965). Film wise he appeared as a police surgeon on the British horror flick The Skull (1965) and could be seen as Doctor Henderson in Die, Monster, Die! AKA Monster of Terror (1965) which was based on the H P Lovecraft story The Colour Out of Space. Magee also played a criminal out to steal a valuable painting in Portrait in Terror (1965).

Magee made no film or TV appearances during 1966 due to his stage commitments including Marat/Sade and various prestigious RSC and Broadway productions. He would recreate his Tony Award winning performance as the Marquis de Sade in the cinema production of Marat/Sade (1967). One of his only two TV roles during this period was as Mephistophilis in a production of 'Doctor Faustus' (27th January 1967) made for the ATV educational programme Conflict. This series was hosted by John Gielgud and presented scenes from classic dramas especially adapted for schools and colleges. Magee’s other television role was in the Dennis Potter production Message for Posterity (3rd May 1967), as the elderly painter James Player, who is commissioned to paint a portrait of the former Conservative Prime Minister Sir David Browning played by Joseph O’Connor.

He had a handful of television roles the following year; appearing as an old man in the two-handed play 'A Private Place' (3rd January 1968) for Thirty Minute Theatre, playing Arnold Jessie in The Wednesday Play instalment 'Nothing Will Be The Same' (6th November 1968) opposite 'Murrain' star Bernard Lee, appearing as Pedraza in The Champions story 'The Iron Man' (20th November 1968) and undertaking the part of Philo in 'Neutral Ground' (2nd December 1968) a play by Tom Stoppard for the ITV Playhouse series directed by Piers Haggard, who would later helm the final Quatermass TV series. The play was based on the classical Greek legend of the warrior Philoctetes updated to a 1960s Central European spy story. Magee featured as a double-crossed and abandoned secret agent. Film work for 1968 included General Starkey in the war film Battle For Anzio (1968), playing a lunatic prisoner in the comedy film Decline and Fall…of a Bird Watcher (1968) and revisiting his stage role as Shamus McCann, one of the evil tormentors of Robert Shaw’s character in William Friedkin’s film version of the Harold Pinter play The Birthday Party (1968). 

Magee continued to be busy with his preferred platform for acting in the theatre and so in 1969 he had only a handful of film or television credits. His only film appearance for the year was to add some flavour as the character Alexi to the otherwise bland thriller Hard Contract (1969), a vehicle for James Coburn and Lee Remick. He also made the TV movie Destiny of a Spy (1969) which was headlined by Lorne Greene and Anthony Quayle. His TV appearance for the year was in an episode of the BBC’s The Canterbury Tales which adapted the works of Chaucer. Magee could be seen as an old man in 'The Pardoner’s Tale' (13th November 1969).

The following year Magee played the role of Mark in the Peter Shaffer play The Battle of Shrivings at the Brighton Royal during January with a London run in February 1970. Mark sounds typical Magee material from The Stage review description of his character as a “raging, coarse, earthy force of destruction[3]”. As well as the legends of stage John Gielgud and Wendy Hiller in the cast there was a young actor just making his mark, Martin Shaw, who would later play a lead role in the Beasts episode 'Buddyboy'. The first year of the new decade saw Magee make only two film appearance with the role of Hugh Peters in Cromwell (1970) and as General Ataturk in the action comedy You Can’t Win ‘Em All (1970). His non-stage work for 1971 consisted of three film roles the first of which was for director Peter Brook’s version of King Lear (1971) playing the role of Cornwall. The next was in the obscure historical epic The Trojan Woman (1971) undertaking the role of Menelaus. The final film role for the year is possibly one of his most famous, playing Mr Alexander, the householder who tortures Malcom McDowell’s character Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) after his home is invaded by Alex. McDowell and Magee had previously met when they had worked on the 1965 Royal Shakespeare Company production Squire Puntila and His Servant Matti. Magee had the lead role of Matti and McDowell was a lowly supporting artist.

1972 would be the year that Magee really threw himself into horror film roles starting with the portmanteau Tales From The Crypt (1972). Magee featured in the segment 'Blind Alleys' playing the role of George Carter, the leader of a group of blind people who have their revenge on the callous new owner of their care home. He also took the lead role of the sinister unnamed minister who leads a religious sect called The Brethren in Robert Hartford-Davis’ grubby horror flick The Fiend AKA Beware My Brethren (1972). Next was another portmanteau horror, Asylum (1972), with Magee essaying the role of the distinctly odd Doctor Rutherford who instructs a new doctor (Robert Powell) that he must guest which one of four inmates is the doctor he has come to replace. This acts as the framing story for the portmanteau film. His final horror film for the year was the Hammer production Demons of the Mind (1972) in which he chews the scenery as Falkenberg. His other film appearances for the year included appearing as General Bindon Blood in Young Winston (1972) and as an elderly monk in Pope Joan (1972). He also made two appearances in two editions of Thirty Minute Theatre, the first was as Michael in 'Thrills Galore' (4th September 1972), whilst his second was in a performance of 'Krapp’s Last Tape' (29th November 1972).

Magee had a guest role as Gardner in The Persuaders episode 'Chase' (2nd March 1973) before appearing in the Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries adaptation of 'The Monkey’s Paw' (10th November 1973) playing the central role of Sergeant Morris. Also in the cast was Michael Kitchen who would later appear alongside Magee in the Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes'. Magee then made his second appearance in a BBC Play of the Month production playing The Storyteller in an adaptation of Brecht’s play 'Caucasian Chalk Circle' (16th May 1973). His film credits included another horror film, And Now The Screaming Starts (1973) playing Doctor Whittle, the Donald Sutherland starring crime thriller Lady Ice (1973) and the truly bonkers psychedelic science fiction film The Final Programme AKA The Last Days of Man on Earth (1973) as mad scientist Doctor Baxter. 

Film roles for 1974 took in in the Italian drama Simona (1974) and Luther (1974), a film version of the John Osborne stage play, starring Stacey Keach as Martin Luther supported by a wealth of Brit character actors including Hugh Griffith, Julian Glover, Judi Dench and Robert Stephens. Television roles included playing Corporal Donovan in 'The Last Charge' (3rd March 1974), a second season episode of The Adventures of Black Beauty. His major television role for the year was undertaking the title role in a Thames Television production of King Lear (24th September – 5th November 1974). This was a six-part production for schools and colleges and originally transmitted on Tuesday mornings from 24th September. The adaptation, intended for secondary school pupils boasted a cast that also had roles essayed by Patrick Mower (Edmund), Peter Jeffrey (Cornwall) and Wendy Allnut (Cordelia). The production was later edited into a single play running to two hours in length and was released on DVD in 2004. In the year prior to his role in Beasts Magee played Cardinal Bellarim in the biopic Galileo (1975) which saw him reunited with director Joseph Losey. Rather strangely Topol was cast as the eponymous 17th Century Italian astronomer. His only other film role for the year saw him also reunited with Stanley Kubrick for whom he undertook the role of gambler the Chevalier du Balibari in Barry Lyndon (1975). During the filming a card game scene Magee had difficulty in saying his lines due to being distracted by having to wear an eye patch. When he did get the line right his hands were not in the position that Kubrick required and so a hand model was used to shuffle and deal the cards. However this caused continuity problems because the hand model had smooth hands and Magee’s were very hairy. Kubrick’s solution to match the shots was for Magee to shave his hands.

On television he could be seen playing another mad scientist, Professor Marcus Carnaby, in the Thriller episode 'A Killer in Every Corner' (1st February 1975). Carnaby is a psychologist who habitually records his voice on a tape recorder, possibly a direct reference to Krapp’s Last Tape. Next was a role as Vamvakaris in the Quiller episode 'Mark The File Expendable' (7th November 1975). On the stage there was a revival of Krapp’s Last Tape at the Greenwich Theatre during December 1975. Magee directed with Max Wall taking on the central role previously written by Beckett for Magee. During May 1976 to mark the seventieth birthday of Samuel Beckett the Royal Court staged a new production of his play Endgame, directed by Donald McWhinnie who would cast Magee in his episode of Beasts. Magee played the central role of Hamm whilst a young Stephen Rea essayed Clov. This was followed with McWhinnie also directing a production of Beckett’s trilogy Play, That Time and Footfalls. Magee appeared in That Time. Further stage roles for the year included The White Devil at the Old Vic during July 1976 and part of the Oxford Theatre Festival Magee directed a revival of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot during August.

Magee’s role as Leo Raymount in the Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes' was his only film or television appearance during 1976. Perhaps Magee’s biggest achievement of the year was not on the screen or on the stage, but in the realm of politics. He joined fellow actors Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson in successfully campaigning to persuade the actor’s union Equity to boycott South African because of Apartheid. Post-Beasts there was a third and final appearance in a BBC Play of the Month production with Magee in the supporting role of Fergus Crampton in a version of the George Bernard Shaw play 'You Can Never Tell' (30th October 1977). This was followed by a role in 'The Well' (12th December 1977), an episode of the BBC drama series Who Pays The Ferryman? His only film work for the year was as a Russian KGB officer, General Strelsky, in Don Siegel’s action film Telefon (1977) which starred Charles Bronson. During 1978 Magee’s sole television appearance was as the recurring character Ebenezer Balfour in HTV’s production of Kidnapped. He then appeared on screen in the strife-torn Belfast set Play for Today episode 'The Last Window Cleaner' (13th February 1979). Tony Harrison’s staging of Aeschylus trilogy of plays was filmed by the BBC and Magee could be seen in the role of Kalchas in the opening episode Agamemnon (7th March 1979). For the French film production Les soeurs Bronte (The Bronte Sisters) (1979) Magee played the strict Anglican pastor who fathered the eponymous siblings. Churchill and the Generals (1979) was a star studded TV movie which featured Timothy West as Churchill. The production examined the relationship Churchill had with his army generals during the war and Magee appeared as General Sir Archibald Wavell. Magee also appeared as Muldooney in the Play for Today production 'The Last Window Cleaner' (13th February 1979).

 

In the last few years of his life Magee became more active onscreen than he had been in recent years. In 1980 he appeared in four cinema releases; playing Ernst Mueller in heist movie Rough Cut (1980), popping up as the sacrilegious Reverend Slodden who declares he is the anti-Christ in comedy vehicle Sir Henry at Rawlinson’s End (1980), portraying the Marquis in obscure Swedish horror film The Sleep of Death AKA Inn of the Flying Dragon (1980) and a cameo as a priest in the low budget fantasy film Hawk The Slayer (1980). His only TV role for the year was in a Play for Today episode which unusually featured a science fiction storyline. 'The Flipside of Dominck Hide' (9th December 1980) featured Magee in the role of Caleb Line.

His appearance as the pompous aristocrat Lord Cadogan, head of the British Olympic Committee, in the Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire (1981) is possibly his most recognisable role from his final years and is certainly the most highly visible with his other film roles for the year being in the horror genre. The Monster Club (1981) was a late entry into the horror portmanteau field and feels and looks very old fashioned. Magee graced the film with his role as the Innkeeper in the third and final segment. The Black Cat (1981) was an Italian horror film directed by the notorious director Lucio Fulci which featured Magee as Professor Robert Miles opposite David Warbeck’s police inspector and Mimsy Farmer. Professor Miles is a psychic who is able to communicate with his pet cat who he sends to wreak vengeance on those that wronged him. His final horror film role was as General William Danvers Carew in Walerian Borowczyk’s art porn horror The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981). The director had seen Magee in Sir Henry at Rawlinson’s End and recruited him and the cinematographer, Martin Bell, to work on his production following the viewing. Magee’s final film appearance was in the documentary Samuel Beckett: Silence To Silence (1982) which celebrated the work of the writer with who Magee had been a lifelong friend to.

Next was the role of Alfred in 'Horace Finds a Friend' (22nd April 1982), an episode of the Yorkshire Television comedy series Horace starring Barry Jackson in the title role. His final posthumous appearance saw him reprise the role of Caleb Line in the Play For Today story 'Another Flip For Dominick' (14th December 1982)

Despite all this success Magee still struggled financially, in part due to his vices. A low in his stage career came when he appeared opposite Helen Mirren in a production of the play The Faith Healer at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Magee was cast in the central role of Frank McCabe and was eventually sacked for appearing on stage drunk. The playwright Thomas Kilroy who was rehearsing another production at the Royal Court reflected “I have never been so frightened in the theatre. Most of those nights Magee was so drunk that he barely made it into the spot on the stage. To compound matters, Mirren was giving a performance of matching power and you ached for even one respite to allow these two performances to speak to one another. It never quite happened because the real danger that Magee was about to fall head over heels into the front rows of the stalls.[4]”

Magee died from a heart attack (probably caused by his drinking and hell raiser lifestyle) at his home in Fulham, London on 14th August 1982. His wife Belle passed away in September 2006. In 2017 his life was commemorated with a blue plaque by the Ulster History Circle at his former family home in Armagh. The plaque was unveiled by actor Stephen Rea who had appeared with Magee on stage in a 1976 production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame.

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[1] The script was originally titled Magee’s Monologue and written in only three weeks

[2] “Carried by Storm” review by Susan Kay, The Stage, Thursday 29^th October 1964, page 12

[3] “Gielgud, Hiller, Magee in Shaffer Drama”, The Stage and Television Today, Thursday 29^th January 1970, page 14 

 [4] Quoted in “A Drunk, Gambler and Hell-Raiser, But A Towering Acting Talent… Remembering Patrick Magee”  by Ivan Little, Belfast Telegraph Digital, available at https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/news/a-drunk-gambler-and-hellraiser-but-a-towering-acting-talent-remembering-patrick-magee-35974861.html (accessed 19th March 2019)

Michael Kitchen (Bob Curry in What Big Eyes)

Michael Kitchen was born on 31st October 1948 in Leicester General Hospital. His father, Arthur Ernest Kitchen, was a butcher’s assistant and his mother, Elsie Betty Kitchen, was a hairdresser. During his childhood he was the head chorister in the local church choir and attended the City of Leicester Grammar School. It was here that he had his first taste of ‘treading the boards’ when he appeared in a school production of Shakespeare’s Cymbaline. He completed work with the National Youth Theatre and then as an assistant stage manager at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry[1] before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) between 1967 and 1969. Whilst still a drama student he won the 1969 Emilie Littler Award for outstanding talent and aptitude for the professional theatre. From the start of the 1970s he could be seen in small roles in films whilst becoming a familiar face on television. The 5’7’’ tall actor is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle in the ITV crime drama Foyle’s War.

Whilst still attending RADA he was approached by the talent spotter Peter Froggat and signed on with the agency Plant and Froggat Ltd. One of his earliest professional stage appearances was playing Harry Hardcastle in a production of Love on the Dole staged at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. Amongst his first television appearances was an episode of Thirty Minute Theatre, 'Is That Your Body, Boy?' (9th May 1970). Kitchen was one of the main characters, Waller, alongside Ron Moody performing from a script by Andrew Davies. This was followed by a guest role as Trevor in 'The Prime of Life' (11th January 1971), an episode of Man at the Top. Kitchen made his Play for Today debut with the episode 'Hell’s Angel' (21st January 1971) which also featured Quatermass actor Andre Morrell in the cast. Next was the obligatory role in Z Cars appearing as Ray Hall in the two part story 'Hold Up' (1st and 2nd March 1971).

Kitchen made his film debut playing the school boy Bungabine in the macabre and sadly underseen Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971), adapted from the play written by Giles Cooper. Kitchen’s character was one of the murderous schoolboys who plot a similar deadly outcome for their new teacher, John Ebony, played by David Hemmings. Kitchen's next film role was as Greg, one of the young people in 1970s swinging London who find themselves confronting Christopher Lee’s vampire in the Hammer horror Dracula AD 1972 (1972). On the stage he could be seen in the Royal Court production of Big Wolf during April and May 1972. During September 1972 he appeared in double bill of two genre flavoured plays staged for lunchtime audiences at the King’s Head Theatre Club. The Day They Came saw aliens invade Brighton Pier whilst A Night Out from The Ghosts offered necrophilia and cannibalism.

His television roles for 1972 included 'The Web' (3rd December 1972), an episode of the drama anthology ITV Sunday Night Theatre, and a guest role in 'Hoax' (29th December 1972), an episode of the police drama series New Scotland Yard. He also made his second Play for Today appearance with 'The Reporters' (9th October 1972) which told of a meeting between a fresh faced news reporter and a jaded old hack. Kitchen played the younger reporter, Alan, with the veteran journalist, Vic, portrayed by Robert Urquhart. The play was written by Arthur Hopcraft who had worked as a reporter for the Daily Mirror and The Guardian newspapers. The trade paper The Stage’s review highlighted Kitchen’s contribution; “Michael Kitchen was capably cast as Alan, the young cub. He managed to find all the flair, drive, and repressed vulnerability that Hopcraft wrote into the character.[2]”

His next television work was for another drama anthology production, Country Matters, and it was here that he first worked alongside director Donald McWhinnie - this would lead to him being cast by the director in the Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes'. Kitchen played Henry Batley, a journalist who stays at a bed and breakfast and has a fling with the landlady in the episode 'The Four Beauties' (11th March 1973). The production was adapted from an H E Bates short story.

The year of 1973 was a breakthrough year for Kitchen and would prove to be his busiest year so far in the medium of television. Following his work with Donald McWhinnie Kitchen moved onto an episode of another drama anthology series, Late Night Theatre, with the episode 'Susan' (13th June 1973). He then guest starred as Philippe Villon in 'Chantelle' (15th October 1973), an episode of drama anthology Crime of Passion, written by Adele Rose. He was also cast as Branwell Bronte in The Brontes of Haworth (30th September – 28th October 1973), a five episode dramatization of the life and times of the Bronte sisters, co-produced by Yorkshire Television and Granada Television. The Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries episode 'The Monkeys Paw' (10th November 1973) would see Kitchen cast as the ill-fated Herbert White, who would return from death mangled, but living. Based on the WW Jacobs short story the production also featured Patrick Magee as the old soldier who passes on the titular paw with the power to grant wishes to Herbert’s parents. Playing Mr and Mrs White was Cyril Cusack and Megs Jenkins[3]. Kitchen also took the lead male role of Ray in 'Audrey Had A Little Lamb' (4th December 1973), an episode of the romantic drama anthology series Love Story. Earlier in the same day Kitchen could be seen as Simon in the first of a two part storyline for the drama series Marked Personal (4th and 5th December 1973).

The following year, 1974, was also an industrious year which Kitchen began by playing King Thrushbeard in the BBC single drama King Thrushbeard and the Proud Princess (27th February 1974). In the theatre he was involved with a touring production of Spring Awakening for the National Theatre from May until July 1974. Also amongst the cast was Jenny Agutter, Beryl Reid and Peter Firth. 'St Martin’s Summer' (7th July 1974) was an instalment of the television anthology series Seven Faces of Woman written by Shelagh Delaney. Kitchen played the character Archie. Three days later he appeared as Tommy in the ITV Playhouse production 'A Kind of Bonus' (10th July 1974). Next was playing Trotsky in two episodes of the BBC historical drama The Fall of Eagles – 'The Last Tsar' (12th April 1974) and 'Absolute Beginners' (19th April 1974). During September 1974 Kitchen took over the role of Romeo from Peter Firth in a touring production of Romeo and Juliet before ending the year appearing in the BBC mini-series The Early Life of Stephen Hind (30th November – 14th December 1974). Kitchen took the titular role as a venal and manipulative man who will stop at nothing to rise to the top.

During February and March 1975 Kitchen played the title role in John Osborne’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray at the Greenwich Theatre. Television roles for 1975 included 'King Thrushbeard and the Proud Princess' (13th February 1975) - an episode of children’s show Jackanory Playhouse, playing The Earl of Rochester in 'A Bill of Mortality' (28th April 1975), the 18th episode of the BBC’s ambitious failure Churchill’s People, portraying kidnapper and terrorist Carlos Esquerdo in the BBC feature length single drama Savages (12th November 1975) and his first television encounter with the supernatural in 'The Imp of the Perverse' (20th December 1975). Kitchen could be seen as the student in a cast which also featured Milton Johns and Lalla Ward working with a script by Andrew Davies. The production was transmitted as part of the drama anthology strand Centre Play. Stage work for the latter half of the year took in Iago in a production of Othello for the Young Vic Theatre during October and Macbeth[4] in a Young Vic Theatre production of the play during October

Prior to appearing in the Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes' Kitchen made his second ITV Sunday Night Drama appearance with the role of Ken, a wounded British soldier who stumbles across an abandoned tank in the desert, in the episode 'Enemy' (24th April 1976). His role as RSPCA inspector Bob Curry in 'What Big Eyes' was next. Kitchen also appeared in the Dennis Potter play Brimstone and Treacle made during 1976. However, the controversial production was to remain unscreened until 1987. Post-Beasts Kitchen was seen in the three-part BBC drama A Divorce (6th August – 20th August 1976) in the role of Laurence, the husband involved in the breakup of his marriage from the quiet beginnings through to the legal proceedings. Kitchen then entered a quiet period for television appearances during the next few years as he concentrated his energy on theatre and stage appointments. He was romantically linked to Joanna Lumley during this period of his life.

During February and March 1977 he was in the cast of the premiere run of Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn presented at Birmingham’s Alexandra Theatre. May 1977 saw the premiere of Robert Bolt’s State of Revolution at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre before moving to the National Theatre’s South Bank complex in London. The play featured leading Russian political figures like Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin played by Michael Bryant, Michael Kitchen and Terence Rigby. Other roles were filled by Brian Blessed and Sara Kestelman. He was then cast as Maurice Rossitter in an episode of the Thames Television single season drama anthology Romance. 'House of Men' (30th March 1977) was based on a story by Catherine Cookson and directed by Piers Haggard who would later oversee the final Quatermass series. In 1978 Kitchen featured in No Man’s Land (3rd October 1978), a TV adaptation of the Harold Pinter play which was headlined by John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.

He was also the bad guy of the week in The Professionals episode 'Runner' (8th December 1979) playing the political terrorist Duffy. More highbrow was the BBC 2 Playhouse instalment 'School Play' (7th November 1979) set in a public school with all the school boys played by adults which included Kitchen, Tim Piggot-Smith and Jeremy Kemp. The only female in the cast was Jenny Agutter who played the school cook. Kitchen played Rose, a new boy at the school.

Kitchen started the new decade with gusto and a return to regular television guest roles. Festival: The Misanthrope (27th January 1980) was a feature length single drama adapted from the play by Moliere. Kitchen appeared as Acaste opposite a talented cast that also featured Annette Crosbie, Cherie Lunghi and Nigel Hawthorne. Kitchen then appeared as a man of the cloth, Reverend Father M’Enery, in 'Not For the Nervous' (27th July 1980), an episode of themed drama anthology series Ladykillers. Next was a television version of the Alan Ayckbourn play Bedroom Farce (28th September 1980) and the role of Larner in the New Wave film musical Breaking Glass (1980). His most enduring role for the year was as Peter in the Stephen Poliakoff BBC 2 Playhouse drama 'Caught on a Train' (31st October 1980). During October and November 1980 Kitchen was also appearing in the theatre production The Provok’d Wife at the Lyttelton Theatre situated at the South Bank in London.

The year of 1981 was an industrious one for Kitchen. His credits began with The Bunker (27th January 1981), an American and French television co-production TV movie, which starred Anthony Hopkins as Hitler in his last days in his underground bunker in Berlin. Kitchen played Rochus Misch, one of the Hitler’s bodyguards. February 1981 saw production of a stage version of the radio play Family Voices by Harold Pinter. Kitchen, along with Mark Dignam and Peggy Ashcroft, reprised the roles they had played on the radio for the stage production presented at the Lyttelton theatre. Kitchen also headlined a season four episode of Tales of the Unexpected, 'The Best of Everything' (26th April 1981), playing Arthur Price.

Willis Hall’s play The Long and the Short and the Tall was first produced in 1958 and out of all of the different versions since Hall himself was apparently most pleased with a BBC schools and colleges production. This version was compiled and transmitted on BBC 2 during the evening of Saturday 27th June 1981. Kitchen was a cast member alongside Mark McManus. Patrick Stewart was Doctor Edward Roebuck, lead character in the BBC drama series Maybury, a psychiatrist who would deal with a different case each episode. Kitchen was a guest star in the first season episode 'Indoor Games' (21st July 1981). Kitchen was next be seen on the television as Stephen in the Play for Today episode 'A Room for the Winter' (3rd November 1981). This was his third, and final role for the drama anthology series. On the big screen Kitchen appeared alongside Hywel Bennett and Judy Geeson in the short film Towards The Morning (1981), based on a story by Melvyn Bragg.

The next couple of years were quiet with only a handful of television appearances whilst Kitchen again concentrated in stage work. He did find time to appear in two Shakespeare adaptations for the BBC undertaking the role of Edmund in a version of King Lear (18th October 1982) starring Michael Horden as Lear under the direction of Jonathan Miller. The following year he appeared as Antipholus in The Comedy of Errors (24th December 1983) which featured rock star Roger Daltrey in the role of Dromio.

He was teamed with Bernard Hill for the BBC 2 feature length single drama Still Life (2nd May 1984). Kitchen was cast as Bob, a teacher who becomes paralysed following being knocked off his bike by a lorry. For the London Weekend Television drama anthology series Weekend Playhouse he then appeared in the production 'As Man and Wife' (22nd July 1984). His biggest television role of the year was playing Ernst von Fleischi-Marxow in the BBC biographical period drama Freud (14th September – 19th October 1984) which starred David Suchet as Sigmund Freud. Fleischi-Marxow was an Austrian physician who became noted for his investigations into electrical activity in the brain and nerves. He also continued his association with the Lyttelton Theatre by appearing in a production of the Tom Stoppard play Rough Crossing during November 1984. 

Kitchen’s most prominent role of 1985 was playing Berkeley in the film Out of Africa (1985) though he also appeared in a couple of television movies during the year as well – a BBC iteration of Terence Rattigan’s The Browning Version (31st December 1985), which also figured Judie Dench and Ian Holm in the cast, and Love Song (6th April 1985) playing the younger version of William Hatchard with Maurice Denham playing the same role as an old man. The screenplay was based on a story by Jeffrey Archer. For the next few years Kitchen concentrated on stage roles. From September 1986 through to May 1987 Kitchen was a member of touring RSC production of Richard II playing Bolingbroke. February onwards 1987 he was in a touring production of The Art of Success as the Victorian painter William Hogarth. Niamh Cusack played his wife. April 1987 he played Mercurio in a version of Romeo and Juliet staged at The Barbican. 

Though produced in 1976 the BBC version of Dennis Potter’s Brimstone and Treacle (25th August 1987) was not transmitted until 1987, five years after the film version starring Sting as the demonic Martin Taylor. Kitchen played the Martin Taylor role in the television play and he imbues the roles with much more demonic shading than Sting was able to muster in the film version. Denholm Elliott and Patricia Lawrence played the parents of Pattie (Michelle Newell) who is in a permanent vegetative state following a road accident. Kitchen claims to be Pattie’s suitor and uses this to charm his way into the household. Kitchen made no film or television appearances during 1988. He returned to the small screen with the guest role of Maltese Tony in the Minder episode 'Fiddler on the Hoof' (30th January 1989) before moving onto the BBC drama series The Justice Game (7th – 28th April 1989) to play Tim Forsythe. Kitchen‘s next appearance on television was 'Benefactors' (28th May 1989), an episode of the BBC 2 anthology strand Theatre Night. He also popped up in the Norwegian feature film Dykket (1989) playing the role of Bricks in a largely Norwegian cast. 'Home Run' (1st October 1989) was an episode of Screen One and Kitchen’s appearance in this production was followed by the clumsily named Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage (27th December 1989), a single feature length comedy drama written by Andrew Davies. Crossing To Freedom AKA The Pied Piper (8th April 1990) was a TV movie which starred Peter O’Toole as a man who helps a group of children escape Nazi Germany. Kitchen played Major Diessen in the production which was adapted from a Neville Shute novel. 

During 1990 he was also involved in two cinema releases – Fools of Fortune (1990) where he played the local landowner, Mr Quinton, in a tale set in Ireland during 1918. The second film was the Sean Connery vehicle The Russia House which was adapted from a John Le Carre novel. The movie plays host to many a familiar British character actor and Kitchen found himself in the company of such names as David Threlfall, James Fox and even director Ken Russell popping up in a cameo role. He then had a small role in the BBC production of The War That Never Ends (28th March 1991) based on the writings of Thucydides and Plato. Kitchen could be seen as an Athenian representative in the production which depicted the Peloponnesian Wars, which pitched Athens against Sparta and lasted 27 years, as a series of news broadcast talking heads. Central Television’s drama series Chancer, starring Clive Owen, also featured Kitchen in two episodes – 'The Fall' (28th May 1991) and 'Sacrifice' (4th June 1991) playing the role of Roman. His only other TV appearances during 1991 were in an episode of the series Stay Lucky. He guest starred as Ray Monk opposite series regulars Dennis Waterman and Jan Francis in the instalment 'Shingle Beach' (23rd November 1991). He also appeared in Faraday’s Dream (21st September 1991), a thirty minute BBC 2 drama celebrating the life of the inventor Michael Faraday, played by Kitchen.

The year of 1992 started with a guest role in an episode of Lovejoy, 'Kids' (15th March 1992), before Kitchen moved on to the Scottish Television mini-series Advocates II (9th – 23rd March 1992) playing barrister James McCandlish. Only two days later ITV viewers could enjoy another Kitchen guest role in the Inspector Morse episode 'The Death of the Self ' (25th March 1992) when he played the role of Russell Clark. He could also be seen in the BBC Films production Enchanted April (5th April 1992). He then appeared in the forgotten UK action thriller film Hostage (1992) which starred Sam Neill as a secret agent. Kitchen has a small role as the character Fredericks.

Kitchen was next seen on screen as the amoral attorney Steven Vey in the two-part Central drama series The Guilty (8th and 9th June 1992). Vey rapes his secretary who fears going public with the incident until Vey is made a judge. Kitchen completed the year with another guest role, portraying Donald Blake in the Boon episode 'Shot in the Dark' (1st December 1992). He could be heard, but not seen, for his final TV credit of the year playing the narrator of 'Hamlet' (7th December 1992), an episode of the BBC Shakespeare The Animated Tales series. Kitchen’s first televised appearance of 1993 was a guest slot in the Keith Barron / Nigel Havers comedy drama The Good Guys in the episode 'Old School Ties' (15th January 1993) playing Graham Croxley, a local councillor whose son is suspected of attacking an old age pensioner. He then appeared in the BBC Films version of Franz Kafka’s The Trial (1993) opposite Kyle MacLachlan as Josef K. Kitchen essayed the character Block.  

Next was a guest role in the American TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles with an appearance in the episode 'Paris, May 1919' (24th July 1993). Kitchen played Lloyd George. Back on UK TV he had a further guest role for the Between the Lines episode 'The Fifth Estate' (16th November 1993). Kitchen appeared as the character Roger Boshier. During the same year he also acted as the narrator on the documentary Hell in the Pacific (1993) which examined the issues of land rights and their exploitation by mining companies in Papua New Guinea. His final televised role for the year was as The King in the BBC mini-series To Play The King (21st November – 12th December 1993).

Kitchen undertook the role of Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong in the London Weekend Television crime drama Dandelion Dead (6th February 1994). The Major is a solicitor who stands trial for killing a business rival and his wife and was based on a real-life case. This was followed by playing Dudley Hooperman in the first episode of the comedy drama Pie in the Sky – 'The Best of Both Worlds' (13th March 1994). Next was the American TV movie Doomsday Gun (23rd July 1994) which saw Kitchen appear alongside such quality Hollywood stars as Frank Langella, Alan Arkin and Kevin Spacey in the dramatization of the events around Sadam Hussein’s super gun. This was followed by another American TV movie, Fatherland (26th November 1994), based on the novel by Robert Harris and set in an alternate world where Nazi Germany won the Second World War. Kitchen appeared as the character Jaeger. He also made a return to Shakespeare The Animated Tales to voice the character Polixenes in “The Winter’s Tale” (7th December 1994). 

Kitchen started 1995 with an appearance in Rik Mayall Presents, an anthology series designed to show the dramatic capabilities of the eponymous actor. Kitchen appears in the episode 'Dirty Old Town' (5th February) which sees Mayall play a tramp with Kitchen in the role of Jeremy Swain. In between the guest slots Kitchen also committed to a couple of min-series during the year – BBC period drama The Buccaneers (5th February – 5th March 1995), which saw Kitchen play the role of Sir Helmsley Thwaite, and The Hanging Gale (14th May – 4th June 1995). This was another period drama with Kitchen playing Captain William Townsend who persecutes the Phelan brothers – played by the real-life McGann brothers; Paul, Joe, Mark and Stephen. Up next was another American TV movie, this time a version of Kidnapped (5th November 1995), with Armand Assante as an unlikely Alan Stewart. Kitchen adds character to the production playing William Reid. He also acted the narrator on the two-part Network First documentary 'Gettys – Tragedy of Riches' (7th and 14th November 1995). His most high profile role for the year was undoubtedly playing Bill Tanner in the James Bond film Golden Eye (1995). He then reprised the role of Dudley Hooperman in the Pie in the Sky episode 'Money Talks' (31st December 1995).

During 1996 he took part in the three-part miniseries Wilderness (30th September – 14th October 1996) based on the horror novel by Dennis Danvers and adapted by Andrew and Bernadette Davies. Kitchen appeared as Luther Adams, a psychiatrist working with Alice White (Amanda Ooms) who believes she turns into a wolf once a month. Kitchen may have had flashbacks to dealing with a similar lycanthrope obsessed individual in his Beasts episode “What Big Eyes”. There was also a solitary guest role, Jonathan Meyerbridge, in the A Touch of Frost episode “The Things We Do For Love” (21st January 1996). Kitchen was the narrator on “The Power and the Glory” (11th December 1996), an episode of the BBC documentary programme Modern Times. The subject was the annual power boat race at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight.

As Kitchen approached his fifties he was even more in demand than ever and 1997 onwards would be a particularly busy time for film and television roles starting with a guest role in the sketch show Harry Enfield and Chums playing a director called David in an episode transmitted 11th February 1997. This revealed a flair for comic timing which would lead Kitchen to take more comedic roles in future. Next was the romantic drama series Reckless (6th February – 13th March 1997) with Kitchen appearing as David Crane, the ex-husband of Francesca Annis’ character. Crane also happens to be boss of Annis’ new lover. Produced by Granada this soapy eternal love triangle also starred David Bradley as Crane’s ailing father. 

Kitchen followed this with another comedy role in the forgotten BBC comedy gem Sunnyside Farm (18th April – 23rd May 1997) which also starred Mark Addy and Phil Daniels. Kitchen played the unpleasant, flat cap wearing local landowner Mr Letchworth who bullies his way through all six episodes. The series sported a theme tune by Damon Albarn (assisted by Phil Daniels) and featured an early appearance of Matt Lucas in a series of cameos as kinky or half naked countryside characters. The programme received a set of harsh reviews. It ran for one season only and has never been repeated or released on DVD. Film wise Kitchen appeared in Mrs Dalloway (1997), a version of the Virginia Woolf novel adapted by ex-actress Eileen Atkins who, together with her husband Bill Shepherd, bankrolled the adaptation with their own money. The venture nearly bankrupted them when the film flopped at the box office. Kitchen appears as the character Peter Walsh whilst Vanessa Redgrave headlined as Mrs Clarissa Dalloway. A Royal Scandal (10th October 1997) was a BBC feature length costume drama based on the story of the disastrous marriage between George, Prince of Wales and Caroline of Brunswick. Kitchen played Lord Malmesbury in a glittering cast which also included Richard E Grant as George, Susan Lynch as Caroline, Denis Lawson, Frances Barber and Ian Richardson.

One of his more unusual roles during 1998 was for the Swedish crime thriller movie Sista kontraktet (1998). Kitchen appeared as the master assassin Ray Lambert who is being hunted by the police as he pursues his plan to kill the Swedish prime minister. Reckless: The Sequel (18th April 1998) was a feature length follow up the romantic drama series screened the previous year. Robson Green and Francesca Annis returned as the romantic couple, now on the verge of marriage. Kitchen also recreated the role of bitter ex-husband David Crane who this time schemes to tear the happy couple apart. He then had a guest role as Philip Swain in the Dalziel and Pascoe episode 'Bones and Silence' (18th October 1998).

Kitchen started 1999 with his most distinguished role for the year which was another return to a previously played character. He appeared in his second James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough (1999), once more playing Bill Tanner. The next television role for Kitchen was the kindly Mr Brownlow in a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (28th November 1999 – 19th December 1999). The script, provided by Alan Bleasdale, also offered roles to Julie Walters, Annette Crosbie, Lindsay Duncan and Robert Lindsay (as Fagin). Kitchen was then seen as the father in Carlton Television’s version of The Railway Children (12th November 2000). Cast as mother was Jenny Agutter who had appeared as a juvenile actor in the film version. The Holocaust on Trial (29th April 2000) was a feature length documentary which investigated Hitler’s Final Solution. The programme also contained dramatic reconstructions of the trial of historian David Irving who was accused of being a Holocaust denier. Kitchen was cast in the reconstructions as Professor Richard Evans, a British historian and expert on 19th and 20th Century Germany who was called to give evidence for the prosecution in the trial. 

The mini-series The Secret World of Michael Fry (25th April & 2nd May 2000) featured Ewen Bremmer as the eponymous character, a council planner who uncovers a sinister secret in a sleepy Welsh seaside town. Kitchen could be seen in the supporting role of Herbie. Film roles for the year started with the British drama New Year’s Day (2000) written by Ralph Brown, more commonly recognised for his acting roles including the drug dealer Danny in cult comedy Withnail and I (1987). Kitchen then took the part of Ian Harvery in the Hollywood film Proof of Life (2000) which starred Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan under the direction of Taylor Hackford.

Kitchen could also be heard as one of the voices reading aloud from historical documents in the first season of Simon Schama’s BBC documentary series A History of Britain (30th September – 11th November 2000). He was then cast as Judge Jeffries for the BBC adaptation of Lorna Doone before moving onto feature in the BBC crime drama Second Sight in the episode 'Parasomni'” (8th June 2000) as Bruce Roddam, the father of a girl with a sleep disorder accused of murdering her fiancé.

Kitchen had been a jobbing guest star actor and had featured in several mini-series, but he had never undertaken a recurring role in an ongoing television series before. During 2001 and 2002 he made his debut in such a series, Always and Everyone, a medical drama produced by Granada Television, starting in the third season as one of the principal characters, Jack Turner. The character was created to act as a catalyst between established characters Robert Kingsford (Martin Shaw, another Beasts luminary) and Christine Fletcher (Niamh Cusack) and continued into the fourth and final season in 2002. He also narrated a couple of World War Two documentaries - Hitler’s Fixer (2002), which detailed the life of Hitler’s right hand man Martin Bormann, and Adolf and Eva (29th April 2001).  

2002 would see Kitchen take on what has become his signature television role, Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle who investigates crimes as England confronts Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The character has appeared in twenty eight episodes produced between 2002 and 2015. Kitchen himself has been a consultant producer on other twenty episodes of the series. The character was created by writer Anthony Horowitz and was commissioned by ITV after the cancellation of Inspector Morse. Foyle’s War was cancelled in 2007, but a torrent of complaints and good ratings for the fifth series in 2008 prompted the programme to be revived. The final episode was broadcast in January 2015 after eight series.

During 2003 Kitchen took the role of Doctor Adams in the short film Crisis (2003) and the role of Greg Brentwood in the two-part mini-series Alibi (25th & 26th August 2003) - a black comedy written by Paul Abbott which sees Greg discover with the dead body of his wife’s lover and his attempts to cover it up. Kitchen also utilised his vocal talents by narrating the first season of the reality series Faking It USA (2003). Kitchen was once again cast in a production scripted by Andrew Davies with Falling (6th March 2005), a Granada Television romantic thriller based in the novel by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Kitchen appeared as Henry Kent who starts a romance with writer Daisy Langrish (Penelope Wilton), but his advances are not always done with the best intentions. 

With his Foyle’s War commitments Kitchen found little time to make many appearances in other programmes. One of his guest roles in another production was as David Guest in the three-part thriller series Mobile (19th March – 2nd April 2007). Following this role Kitchen confined himself purely to appearing in Foyle’s War and it would be four years before Kitchen appeared outside of the wartime detective drama. This came in the form of a supporting role as Hugh Perceval, the British screenwriter and producer, in the film My Week with Marilyn (2011). He then fully capitalised on his earlier entries into comedy with feature length comedy drama Hacks (1st January 2012), playing the media baron Stanhope Feast, as well as taking on the recurring role of John Farrow, the splenetic agent of Brian Pern, in the spoof documentary series The Life of Rock with Brian Pern which ran for three seasons between 2014 and 2016. A one-off special followed, Brian Pern: A Tribute (29th March 2017), after Pern had passed away. Kitchen’s most recent screen role to date has been in the Amazon original series The Collection, a drama series set in a post-War Parisian fashion house. Kitchen guest stars in the episode 'The Scent' (10th February 2017) as Frederic Lemaire.

In 1988 he married Rowena Miller and the couple have two children. They met whilst Miller was working as a dresser for the Royal Shakespeare Company. A very private individual, Kitchen very rarely gives interviews.

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[1] Kitchen also appeared on stage during his time in Coventry, making his debut for the company when he took over the role of Lord Fellamar from David Munro, who had to spend time in hospital. This was in May 1967 shortly before Kitchen enrolled at RADA.

[2] “The Reporter” review by Sheldon Larry, The Stage and Television Today, 12^th October 1972, page 12

[3] Jenkins had appeared in a short film version of the story in 1948

[4] The role was played by three actors including Kitchen, the other iterations being Alfred Lynch and Michael Graham Cox

Donald McWhinnie (Director - What Big Eyes)

Born on 16th October 1920 in Rotherham, Yorkshire McWhinnie attended Rotherham Grammar School. By all accounts he was a quiet and reserved man with the air of a “provincial school master.”[1] He joined the BBC in the 1940s and was involved mainly in administrative roles during the 1940s before becoming a radio scriptwriter and producer in 1945. In 1949 he was promoted to the role of producer for the radio drama department and by 1951 he was working as a drama script editor. From 1953 he was promoted to the Assistant Head of Sound Drama before becoming a drama director. During this period there was a new wave of writers who had realised the need for different emphasis in drama structure and diction. McWhinie was instrumental in promoting the broadcast of several of these new writers including Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter.

In an article for the Radio Times introducing the new season of radio programmes McWhinnie was passionate in his belief in new writers and advances in radio presentation techniques given the threat of television. He wrote “if sound drama is ultimately to survive it must be on its own terms – that is to say, with specially scripted work which makes full use of radio’s flexibility, intimacy, and capacity for imaginative and evocative storytelling.[2]” In 1959 his book, The Art of Radio, was published by Faber and was an account of producing Beckett plays for the medium. The book advanced McWhinnie’s belief that sound effects played a crucial part in the storytelling and together with dialogue was able to a rich atmosphere.

Writer George Cooper was one of the first to take up the idea of using sound effects as an integral part of a story. He was first paired with McWhinnie when they worked on Cooper’s play Mathry Beacon (1956). The plot sees a World War Two army outfit assigned to guard the Deflector, a mysterious new weapon designed to fight the Nazis, which they have no understanding of. The war ends, another war begins and ends, they have offspring and they still guard the weapon. Decades pass until one of the military unit smashes the machine up. Its constant hum stops. The unit then realise they have lived their entire lives guarding a weapon that does not work.

 McWhinnie was the producer and director of Beckett’s 1957 radio play All That Fall (17th January 1957). During April 1956 Brian George, the BBC head of Central Program Operations, proposed setting up a small unit within the BBC to experiment with electronic sound effects for use in radio programmes. Shortly before the transmission of All That Fall George commissioned a report which saw McWhinnie contribute to a document which stressed the value such a unit would bring to drama productions[3]. McWhinnie had travelled to Paris as part of his preparation on All That Fall to meet with composers of musique concrete and his input was invaluable in stating a case for an electronic sound effects unit. The unit would eventually become the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

All That Fall was not only Samuel Beckett’s first play for the radio, but also the first production to use and integrate tape sound effects into the presentation. It not only bought this new technique to a popular audience but also demonstrated to the BBC the need for the corporation to establish their own facilities for such material. The play depicts the journey of an elderly woman, Ma Rooney, to the train station to meet her husband, Dan, who is blind. The majority of the dialogue is from Ma Rooney and the other characters she meets as she walks to the station are presented as existing a dream like plane abstracted from the real world. To create the ethereal and dreamlike qualities needed for the play McWhinnie worked alongside Desmond Briscoe to create the effects using echo chambers and other techniques. The play was a critical success.

McWhinnie’s next radio drama was The Disagreeable Oyster (1957), by Giles Cooper, and it also heavily relied on specially created sound effects. The wild plot concerns a man who spends a bizarre weekend away from his wife when he is confronted by two versions of himself. They two versions argue over what is moralistic and appropriate behaviour for a married man. The play begins normal enough but once the main character goes on holiday the everyday sounds begin to become distorted. The play’s experimental nature caused difficulties at the BBC and resulted in a delay of transmission. Comparisons were made with the play’s sound effects to those used in The Goon Show and the use of sped up and distorted voices was defended by Douglas Briscombe who commented “we used them because they seemed appropriate, certainly not because the Goons used them.”[4]

Private Dreams and Public Nightmares (7th October, 1957) was introduced to the public as a Radiophonic Poem and began with a personal introduction by McWhinne himself: “This program is an experiment, an exploration. It has been put together with enormous enthusiasm with equipment designed for other purposes. It’s not a masterpiece, not even a minor one, and it’s not a stunt. We think it is worth broadcasting as a perfectly serious first attempt to find out whether we can convey a new kind of emotional and intellectual experience by means of what we call radiophonic effects.”[5]

Krapp’s Last Tape was specifically written for the actor Patrick Magee by Samuel Beckett. Magee was present at the debut production of the play at the Royal Court theatre in October 1958. McWhinnie was the director and the single act play ran for 38 performances. McWhinnie then went on to direct the radio play Embers (24th June 1959) by Samuel Beckett. The programme won the RAI prize at the Prix Italia[6] awards in 1959. It here that McWhinnie first worked with Patrick Magee who was in the cast alongside Jack MacGowran (who was another preferred actor by Samuel Beckett). Following the setting up of the Radiophonic Workshop one of the first radio dramas to commission work from the unit was McWhinnie’s The Ocean. Written by James Hanley the play revolved around the crew of a World War Two ships crew adrift in a lifeboat. The Radiophonic crew, Daphne Oram and Desmond Briscoe, toiled for seven days creating sound effects and textures which blurred the line between music and sound effects. In the world of theatre McWhinnie directed the production of Harold Pinter’s play The Caretaker which debuted on 27th April 1960 at the Arts theatre. The cast of three was made up of Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence and Peter Woodthorpe. With a new cast the play then toured the UK during the summer of 1961. In 1962 he was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Director (Dramatic) for this version of Pinter’s The Caretaker.

The Stage newspaper dated 13th October 1960 broke the news that McWhinnie would be leaving the BBC after a 13 year relationship with the broadcaster. He had decided to concentrate on freelancing and work as a director in the theatre. The December of the same year McWhinnie opened his first theatre production following this announcement. Based at the Aldwych Theatre The Duchess Malfi was headlined by Peggy Ashcroft, Peter Jeffrey and Patrick Wymark, the father of Jane Wymark who later would feature in the Beasts episode 'Baby'.

McWhinnie’s first work in television was as the writer and producer of Samson and Delilah (16th April 1959), a half hour version of the D H Lawrence story starring Patrick Allen and Sam Kydd. This was followed by a producer only credit on the one-off play Without the Grail (13th September 1960), which featured Sean Connery and Michael Horden in the cast. Written by Giles Cooper the play saw Connery play an agent sent to investigate Horden’s tea plantation owner. McWhinnie’s theatre credits for 1960 included a production of The Duchess of Malfi for the debut season of the newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company. His 1961 theatre workload consisted of a version of Paddy Chayefsky’s The Tenth Man staged at the Comedy Theatre over April and May 1961 and Pinter’s The Caretaker (October 1961) – a near legendary version of the play starring Donald Pleasence, Alan Bates and Robert Shaw - and Rattle of a Simple Man (September 1962) with Edward Woodward as Percy Winthram (the role that Harry H Corbett took in the 1964 film version) at the Garrick Theatre. The Stage newspaper gave the production a rave review: “Donald McWhinnie’s direction keeps the play moving along with a rise and fall of pace that seems exactly right, so that the more serious moments never sag but grip and hold the attention before the comedy takes control again and sweeps breathlessly on.[7]”

Perhaps one his most interesting piece of theatre work for the period was his direction of the production Three staged at the Arts theatre during the first few months of 1961. The play was in fact a trilogy of one act plays each written by a different author. This portmanteau stage play began with Lunch Hour by John Mortimer followed by NF Crisps’ The Form and finishing with A Slight Ache by Harold Pinter. Each story had a fresh cast. In April 1961, along with Peter Brook, Peter Wood and Michael Elliott, McWhinnie was appointed as an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In June he directed a television version of Waiting for Godot (26th June 1961). George Cooper provided the script for 'The Lonesome Road' (21st January 1962), an episode of the ATV play anthology Drama 62, which provided McWhinnie with a producer/director credit on one of the broadcasters flagship play slots. This was followed with a further two episodes during 1963 for the strand, now titled Drama 63, starting with 'Passing Through' (13th January 1963) continuing with 'A Love of Treason' (24th February 1963). He returned to the programme the following year, with the production now called Drama 64, to work on another Giles Cooper script, 'A Wicked World' (8th March 1964). His theatre work for this period included directing another version of The Caretaker in Cambridge during February 1962, Everything in the Garden by Giles Cooper during March at the Arts theatre and Doctor of Philosophy, the first play by author Muriel Spark, at the Arts theatre over October 1962.

1963’s theatrical work included directing the play The Fourth of June based at the St Martins theatre over January and February 1963. Next was a revival of George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma at the Haymarket theatre over the summer of 1963. Featuring prominently in the cast was a young actor called Nicholas Courtney who would later enjoy fame in the role of the Brigadier in Doctor Who. Further theatre work included a venture in to the world of theatre by the TV franchise Associated- Rediffusion who presented a version of the Gert Hofman play Mr Mayor during September 1963. McWhinnie directed John Mills and Anthony Quayle in lead roles. When the play was staged at the Garrick theatre the title was changed to The Power of Persuasion. Next was directing another production based on a Giles Cooper script. Out of the Crocodile was based at the Phoenix theatre during October and November 1963 with a cast that included Kenneth More. This was More’s first stage appearance since 1952. This was followed with The Fourth of June, a play about life in at Eton College, at the Royal Theatre, Brighton during January 1964.

July 1964 would see the press night of McWhinnie’s latest theatrical work, a production of Beckett’s Endgame for the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the Aldwych Theatre in London. Patrick Magee featured in the cast as Hamm. He returned to the BBC to work on the TV anthology series The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling with the episode 'Only a Subaltern' (13th September 1964) which featured Joss Ackland and Barbara Murray in the cast. Staying with the BBC McWhinnie oversaw the Giles Cooper scripted BBC 2 play Carried By Storm (25th October 1964). McWhinnie cast Simon Ward, Ronald Lacey, Nicholas Courtney and future Beasts actor Patrick Magee (as the Duke of Wellington) in roles. This episode was the start of a fruitful association between McWhinnie and Theatre 625 which would provide him with the majority of his work in the next few years. Thursday Theatre instalment 'Point of Departure' (17th December 1964) followed and starred his old friend Jack MacGowran as well as providing an early role for a young actor called John Hurt.  

McWhinnie began an association with the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company which would result in an annual production with the company. The first play was a version of Bill Naughton’s Alfie mounted between September and November 1964. John Neville undertook the title role. His next Theatre 625 instalment was a further adaptation of a Jean Anouilh play, 'Poor Bitos' (7th February 1965), headlined by Patrick Allen and John Neville. Another Giles Cooper script was next, the macabre 'Unman, Wittering and Zigo' (9th February 1965) which would later be made into a little seen film in 1971. McWhinnie had originally directed the radio production of the story (23rd November 1958). The TV production gave actor Hywel Bennett an early role as one of the schoolboys who may have committed a murder. The BBC selected the play, alongside companion BBC 2 production The Houseparty (7th June 1964), to represent the corporation for the 1965 Italia Prize in Venice.

McWhinnie’s annual theatre engagement with the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company took place between May and July 1965 with a production of The Cavern by Jean Anouilh. Between February and March 1966 McWhinie directed a production of The Astrakahn Coat for the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company with a cast that included Judi Dench, James Villiers and Harold Innocent. During 1965 McWhinnie directed the Broadway production of Bill Naughton’s comedy All in Good Time at the Royale Theatre. The play, starring Donald Wolfit and Richard Dysart, opened on 18th February 1965 and closed soon afterwards on 27th March 1965 after receiving poor press and failing to find an audience.

1967 started with McWhinnie overseeing a trilogy of plays for Theatre 625 scripted once more by Giles Cooper starting with 'Sword of Honour 1: Men At Arms' (2nd January 1967) which featured Edward Woodward as a staunch Roman Catholic, Guy Crouchback, preparing for war in 1939. The following week 'Sword of Honour 2: Officers and Gentlemen' (9th January 1967) saw Crouchback undergoing tragic and comic adventures during the Second World War. The trilogy completed with 'Sword of Honour 3: Unconditional Surrender' (16th January 1967) in which Crouchback ponders his future at the end of the war. McWhinnie’s close association with Giles Cooper continued into his theatre work. The Cooper play Happy Family was presented during March 1967 at the St Martins theatre with McWhinnie directing. His first contribution to the long running BBC Play of the Month came with 'The Moon and Sixpence' (12th November 1967) adapted by Clive Exton from the W Somerset Maugham novel. McWhinnie directed Charles Gray in the lead role. Another collaboration with Cooper for Theatre 625 came at the end of 1967. 'Kittens Are Brave' (26th November 1967) featured Geoffrey Bayldon and George Murcell in the cast. His final Theatre 625 production for the year was 'Lieutenant Tenant' (4th December 1967) adapted by Scot Finch from the play by Pierre Gripari.

Next was an episode of The Wednesday Play, 'Monsieur Barnett' (24th January 1968), another adaptation of a Jean Anouilh work and featuring Michael Redgrave as an ageing millionaire reflecting on his life in a Parisian hairdressers. This was followed by his first work on the long running anthology drama programme Thirty Minute Theatre – 'The Interview' (28th February 1968). The script was written by Barry Bermange who would also write McWhinney’s next entry in the series. Theatre wise McWhinnie directed the first performance of William Corlett’s play Tinker’s Curse at the Nottingham Playhouse over January and February 1968. Between May and July 1968 McWhinnie directed the play Vacant Possession produced by the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company

Next was an episode of the ambitious BBC themed drama anthology series The Jazz Age. The 1920s era was the theme for this series of productions and McWhinnie oversaw the ninth episode in the run, 'Thark' (5th November 1968), a haunted house comedy based on the play by Ben Travers. Fay Weldon provided the script for McWhinnie’s next directing task. 'Smoke Screen' (15th January 1969) was a Wednesday Play episode which saw Edwin Richfield as a successful advertising executive who has worked on promoting a popular brand of cigarettes. When his mother is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer he comes under attack from his family and friends.   

Coming just over a year after his debut direction for Thirty Minute Theatre McWhinnie was given a second episode, 'Invasion' (10th April 1969), which has a fascinating premise. A group of middle class people are attending a dinner party whilst in the corner of the room a TV set is showing news reports on the Vietnam War. As people become bored with the chatter at the dinner party they turn their attention to the TV reports and become overwhelmed by the horror of the war. The dinner party continues as one by one the guests die, the colour drained from them, crushed by the images of war, in their seat. Meanwhile the babble of trivial chatter and gossip continues as their demise is unnoticed by the other guests. This continues until only one guest is left, their back to the screen, munching away on their food unaware and alone. The production of the play was no less experimental in its approach. Director McWhinnie did not engage with the traditional rehearsal period and instead he worked out only a framework which allowed the actors to improvise the dinner party. The only direction given to the actors was when they should become distracted from the conversation by the horror and violence transmitted on the television. The production garnered glowing reviews including Ann Purser for The Stage who wrote “As an experiment in a new form of drama it worked remarkably well – no tricks for tricks sake, but using silence and fading colour for a specific and obvious purpose…The play was without question a powerful emotional experience.[8]”

Amongst his theatre work during this period was a musical version of Hamlet written by Humphrey Searle and staged at the Royal Opera House in London from April 1969. He also directed two one-act plays by Barry Bermange, The Interview and No Quarter, at Hampstead Theatre Club during June 1969. His other main television project for the year was bringing to the screen a one –off version of Noel Coward’s This Happy Breed to BBC viewers. The cast featured Frank Finlay and Dandy Nichols.

McWhinnie began the new decade with The Dead (3rd January 1970), a Granada produced adaptation of the James Joyce story of the same name. The script was by Hugh Leonard and the cast included Ray McAnally and Pauline Delaney. He was then assigned to work on two episodes of the BBC drama anthology series Solo which was a series of monologues by famous historical figures. Margaret Tyzack played Isabella Beeton, the author of one of the most famous cookbooks in the entire world, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, in the episode 'Margaret Tyzack as Mrs Beeton' (4th February 1970). Mcwhinnie’s second directorial effort for the series was 'Eileen Atkins as Mrs Mary Kingsley' (25th February 1970). Kingsley was a famous Victorian traveller. McWhinnie’s next BBC production was 'Howards End' (19th April 1970) for the BBC Play of the Month series.

McWhinnie was then hired by Associated-Rediffusion Television to steer their ITV Playhouse production 'The Creeper' (7th September 1970) with a cast that included Alan Badel and Tom Chadbon. Theatre work for the start of the decade included a version of George Bernard Shaw’s The Apple Cart at The Mermaid Theatre during March 1970 with John Neville and Maurice Denham. From November 1970 until January 1971 McWhinnie was engaged to direct a touring production of the play Meeting at Night. The cast included Wilfrid Hyde White.  

His first assignment for 1971 was the ITV Saturday Night Theatre episode 'The Dead' (2nd January 1971) adapted from the short story by James Joyce and featuring Ray McAnally in a story set in a wintry Dublin in the 1890s. The production was selected as one of independent television’s entries to the 1972 International Festival in Monte Carlo. The Stage review celebrated McWhinnie’s input stating “Donald McWhinnie’s direction caught and developed the changing mood of the story with handsome economy.[9]” Next was the penultimate episode of the BBC’s biographical period drama Elizabeth R which starred Glenda Jackson in the title role. 'The Enterprise of England' saw McWhinnie direct a cast which included such stalwarts as Robert Hardy, John Woodvine and Ronald Hines. McWhinnie’s third Thirty Minute Theatre engagement was 'Soldier Ants' (27th September 1971) with his fourth coming only a few months later in the form of 'The Gardeners of My Youth' (15th November 1971).

ATV employed McWhinnie to direct the first two episodes of their drama series Home and Away – 'The Cold Wind Doth Blow' (14th February 1972) and 'A Risky Virtue' (21st February 1972). Sandwhiched between these two episodes was the transmission of another BBC Play of the Month from McWhinnie – 'Stephen D' (20th February 1972), based on the James Joyce story. The Sextet was an anthology series of BBC television dramas based around the theme of sexuality which retained the same cast (Denholm Elliott, Billie Whitelaw and Richard Vernon) for each play. McWhinnie directed the episode 'Night Duty' (20th June 1972) which centred on a night worker at a mental institute. His penultimate Thirty Minute Theatre production was 'Thrills Galore' (4th September 1972), though the most enduring and important episode he directed was the last. 'Krapp’s Last Tape' (29th November 1972) was written by Samuel Beckett especially for Patrick Magee to perform and Magee reprised his role for the TV production. This would directly lead to McWhinnie casting Magee in his Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes'.

Granada TV employed McWhinnie to direct three episodes of their anthology drama series Country Matters  based on short stories by A E Coppard and H E Bates. The series made a quite a stir at the time due to its realism and just how relentless rural life could be. One of the more controversial episodes was McWhinnie’s production 'The Mill' (27th August 1972) based on the story by H E Bates. Rosalind Ayres starred as the naïve Alice Hartop a 17 year old girl who moves into an old mill owned by the Hollands. Mrs Holland (Brenda Bruce) has dropsy and is bedridden whilst Mr Holland (Ray Smith) makes sexual advances towards young Alice. She eventually ends up pregnant. The play was filmed on location in Derbyshire in Monsal Dale and the surrounding Peakland villages and was selected to represent ITV at the 1973 Prix Italia Radio and Television Festival.

A second series was commissioned the following year with McWhinnie on directing chores for two episodes which ended the sophomore run; 'The Ring of Truth' (4th March 1973) and 'The Four Beauties' (11th March 1973) were both adapted from short stories by H E Bates. 'The Four Beauties' is worthy of note as it starred Michael Kitchen who McWhinnie would later reuse in his Beasts instalment 'What Big Eyes'. 'The Ring of Truth' was set in the 1930s and tells of a young man, prompted by a dream, who sets off to discover the secret behind his father’s death. This quest eventually leads him to mysterious girl in a northern town. Next was a brief return to the BBC for their Play of the Month with the episode 'A Room with a View' (15th April 1973) based on the story by E M Forster.

He continued his work for ITV with the Yorkshire Television production 'Afternoon at the Festival' (6th May 1973), an episode of ITV Sunday Night Theatre in which McWhinnie again worked with Rosalind Ayres. The play was written by David Mercer and also featured Leo McKern and Adrienne Corri in the cast. ITV anthology work continued with 'Mr Loveday’s Little Outing' (1st June 1973), an instalment of Between The Wars, a series which adapted work set in the years between the First and Second World Wars. Oranges and Lemons was a series of plays themed around the location of the Eastend docklands of London. McWhinnie directed the play 'A Funny Kind of Joke' (4th November 1973) written by PJ Hammond which opened the series with a cast containing James Bolan and Barbara Ferris in a tale of infidelity and revenge. 

The Yorkshire Television single drama Click (14th February 1974) had originally been scheduled for transmission on 29th October 1973, but was postponed. The drama starred Maurice Roeves, Ann Bell and George Baker. McWhinnie directed the Charles Humphreys penned script. Next was an episode of the Granada Television series Childhood – 'An Only Child' (28th April 1974). He was then employed by the BBC once more for work on their period drama Fall of Eagles which dramatized the fall of three European dynasties – the Hohenzollerns, the Romanovs and The Habsburgs. McWhinnie oversaw the tenth episode, 'Indian Summer of an Emperor' (17th May 1974). Future Beasts actor T P McKenna was amongst the cast. McWhinnie's penultimate episode of the BBC Play of the Month was 'The Wood Demon' (17th November 1974) which was based on the play by Anton Chekhov. After this brief return to the corporation McWhinnie was employed by Anglia Television for directing duties on the one-off drama production Fallen Angels (1974), adapted from the work by Noel Coward. Sacha Distel, Joan Collins and Susannah York featured. 1975 would see McWhinnie return to the BBC to work on three episodes of the ambitious failure Churchill’s People starting with 'The Conquerors' (3rd February 1975) followed by 'The Wallace' (3rd March 1975) and 'America! America!' (7th April 1975). He stayed with the BBC for a two part production of Moll Flanders (26th November and 3rd December 1975) based on the novel by Daniel Defoe and starring Ian Ogilvy. Prior to his work on Beasts McWhinnie was involved in the three-part drama John Macnab (14th – 28th April 1976) directing all three episodes. See below for more information on this production. His only other television work for the year was the Beasts episode 'What Big Eyes'. 

To mark the 70th birthday of Samuel Beckett the Royal Court theatre staged a new production of Beckett’s Endgame, overseen by McWhinnie, during May 1976. Patrick Magee was cast as Hamm and Stephen Rea portrayed Clov. This was followed by McWhinnie directing two single act plays for the retrospective – Play and That Time, which were presented during May and April 1976. For BBC Scotland McWhinnie directed John Macnab (14th April – 28th April 1976), a three-episode adaptation of the John Buchan novel. Set in 1920s Scotland the play tells the story of three members of the establishment (James Maxwell, Derek Godfrey and Bernard Horsfall) who seek excitement by poaching on the estates of Scottish landowners. The production had a scathing review published in The Stage written by Charles Barron. As well as describing all the characters as paper thin he went on “Perhaps producer Pharic Maclaren and his director, Donald McWhinnie, were wrong to allow the story to stretch to three episodes. An enforced economy – amputation to half the length – would have tightened the dialogue and strengthened the action.[10]”

McWhinnie continued to ping pong between his work for independent television and the BBC with work on the drama series Wings for the BBC creating the episode 'Business as Usual' (23rd January 1977). A decade after his first contribution to the BBC Play of the Month strand McWhinnie made his sixth and final episode, 'The Country Wife' (13th February 1977), from the play by William Wycherley. This was a full blooded costume drama featuring Anthony Andrews and Phil Daniels amongst the cast. Next for McWhinnie was directing performance sequences for an edition of the BBC arts programme Lively Arts hosted by Melvyn Bragg. 'Shades: Three Plays by Samuel Beckett' (17th April 1977) focussed on the work of the playwright. The three plays were Ghost Trio, …but the clouds… (which featured Billie Whitelaw and Ronald Pickup) and Not I. Beckett was guarded about the programme and wrote to the BBC demanding to know the content of the programme before taking part. He also requested a meeting with the director, McWhinnie, before he would consent to the programme adapting his work.  

After this excursion into the arts McWhinnie landed back at ITV to direct two episodes of the twice-weekly drama Rooms (10th and 11th May 1977) which featured Jill Gascoigne in one of the main roles. During 1978 McWhinnie worked on Thames Television’s Armchair Thriller series with the six-part storyline 'A Dog’s Ransom' (7th – 23rd March 1978). The Last Campaign (3rd January 1978) was a single drama from Anglia. McWhinnie directed the script by Hugh Leonard which was based on the novel The Captains and The Kings by Jennifer Johnston. The programme starred Frank Finlay and was set in an Irish village where the friendship between an old man and a young boy is misconstrued.

During 1978 the BBC finalised plans to produce the complete cycle of 36 Shakespeare plays over a six year period. The first episode of the BBC Television Shakespeare season was to have been McWhinnie’s production of Much Ado About Nothing starring Penelope Keith, Anthony Andrews, Arthur Lowe and Michael York. The programme was announced as the first episode during December 1978 but was suddenly pulled from the schedules and replaced with Romeo and Juliet. No reason was given for the sudden dropping of the production though newspaper reports reported that its postponement was due to the need for reshoots, however, no reshoots were carried out and the episode was abandoned and replaced by a new adaptation. For whatever reason the McWhinnie production was considered unsuitable for broadcast by the BBC management.

McWhinnie was engaged by Anglia to direct the ITV Playhouse offering 'Queen of a Distant Country' (12th July 1978) which had a cast which included Liza Goddard. What Every Woman Knows (13th August 1978) was a play produced by BBC Scotland and adapted from the story by JM Barrie. McWhinnie directed and Hannah Gordon and Moultrie Kelsall starred. McWhinnie was next employed by Anglia Television to direct the play Memories (24th October 1978), written by William Trevor. BBC Scotland employed McWhinnie to work on The Miser (27th March 1979), an adaptation of the play by Moliere with an impressive performance by Rikki Fulton. Other work for the year included directing an episode of the first season of Tales of the Unexpected for Anglia Television. Roald Dahl’s short story 'William and Mary' (7th April 1979), which had been previously filmed for Dahl’s ‘Way Out anthology series the previous decade, starred Elaine Stritch and Marius Goring. He also made his first episode of Rumpole of the Bailey for Thames Television debuting with the episode 'Rumpole and the Age for Retirement' (3rd July 1979). 

McWhinnie’s only television project for 1980 was Thames Television’s eight part dramatization of Nancy Mitford’s novel Love in A Cold Climate (29th October – 17th December 1980) which cast Judi Dench and Michael Aldridge in lead roles. The director stayed with Thames working on two episodes of the comedy drama Funny Man with Jimmy Jewell in the lead role – 'Grown Up Girlie' (28th May 1981) and 'Hearth and Home' (4th June 1981). McWhinnie's only other television for the year was directing and producing an episode of Yorkshire Television’s Celebrity Playhouse. 'Eden End' (20th December 1981) was adapted by McWhinnie himself from the story by J B Priestley. Eileen Atkins starred.

Theatre work for the year included a production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at the Bristol Hippodrome. The cast included Ralph Bates, Tom Baker, Tom Bell and Irene Handle. The production was designed by Voytek who had provided memorable design work for the TV series Mystery and Imagination as well as later credits as a director on series such as Callan. From May 1981 until August 1981 he directed the play Translations for the National Theatre, first based at Hampstead Theatre in London and later at the Lyttelton Theatre. McWhinnie was nominated for an Olivier Award for director of the year in 1981 for his work on this stage presentation.

Back to BBC 2 was next for McWhinnie with a play written by Stewart Parker to mark the centenary of the birth of James Joyce. The play, Joyce in June (30th December 1982), acts a biographical sketch of the young author, delving into the mind and creative process of Joyce during this period. The events of the play take place on 17th June 1904, the day after the events in the novel. Stephen Rea and Gabriel Byrne also figured in the cast. Live from Pebble Mill was a series of live television plays broadcast from the BBC’s Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham. McWhinnie was involved in one of the five episodes, 'Cargo Kings' (6th March 1983). The series strived to recapture the dramatic form of the live broadcast and the series was conceived and produced by Robin Midgley, the head of drama at BBC Birmingham. 

Also for the BBC McWhinnie directed two episodes of the series Maybury which featured Patrick Stewart as a psychiatrist (29th July and 5th August 1983). This would be McWhinnie’s final directing work for the BBC. He returned to the series Rumpole of the Bailey to oversee two episodes – 'Rumpole and the Golden Thread' (18th October 1983) and 'Rumpole and the Female of the Species' (1st November 1983). Towards the end of 1983 McWhinnie directed a production of Lovers Dancing by Charles Dyer at the Noel Coward Theatre in London with Colin Blakely and Paul Eddington in the cast.

McWhinnie was assigned as the director for both seasons of London Weekend Television’s Mapp and Lucia which were adapted from the work by E F Benson and featured Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales as the two social rivals in 1930s England. The first season of five episodes were transmitted 14th April – 12th May 1985 with a second season of a further five episodes transmitted 3rd – 31st May 1986. He also contributed a fourth, and final, episode to Rumpole of the Bailey with the episode 'Rumpole and the Judge’s Elbow' (9th February 1987). McWhinnie died on 8th October 1987 and was survived by his wife, the playwright Pauline Macauley, and his son Paul. His final directing effort, an episode of The ITV Play series, was transmitted posthumously. 'Chekov in Yalta' (14th August 1988) featured Tom Courtney as Chekov and was based on a stage play by John Driver and Jeffrey Haddow which detailed a visit by the Moscow Arts Theatre Company to Chekhov’s villa in 1900.

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1] Ann Jellicoe and Donald McWhinnie interviewed by Robert Rubens in Transatlantic Review No 12, Spring 1963, p27

[2] Donald McWhinnie, “A Season of New Radio Plays”, Radio Times, March 26^th 1954, page 8

[3] Special Sound: The Creation and Legacy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Louis Niebut, Oxford University Press (2010), page 35

[4] Donald Briscoe, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, page 9

[5] Donald McWhinnie, Private Dreams and Public Nightmares, Radio Times, October 4^th, 1957, page 27

[6] Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio and website award. It was first was awarded in 1948.

[7] “Two Vivid Hours With Two Players” by DFB, The Stage, Thursday 27^th September 1962, page 13

[8] “An Experiment That Worked Remarkably Well” by Ann Purser, The Stage, Thursday 17^th April 1969, page 12

[9] “Immaculate Acting in Sensitive Adaptation” by John Philips, The Stage, Thursday 7^th January 1971, page 11

[10] “Buchan Serial Dull, Prosey and Slow” by Charles Barron, The Stage, Thursday 22^nd April 1976, page 13