Stephen Poliakoff - tell me all you know

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This is a personal and rather urgent question - any background information would be a great help!

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 28 November 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

He directed Close My Eyes which was about incest = he is a dirty man

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, that's a start. Is he nice? Does he have a fearsome reputation? Is he a good writer? Is he a good director?

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Close my eyes was pretty to look at, but was a bit flat in terms of pace.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

he has a brother who is a chemistry professor with mad hair, if that helps?

― liz (lizg), Friday, 28 November 2003 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

Nobody else watched SP's "Friends and Crocodiles" on BBC1 but a few hours ago?

Quite a piece, I thought; startlingly pertinent, and good to see something which focuses seriously on the recent past (ahem, heads down "Life on Mars"...). It had a good deal of gravitas about it, Poliakoff staking his claim to cover the last 25 years as few else would or could; here was someone who lived through these times, taking account of the political and personal - the cultural detail and the unconscious. A writer indeed who has been political in all the least expected places, and never been tagged as such (very good BBC4 documentary afterwards confirmed some of this). As ever, he favours the unexpected, triple-guessing the viewer; he tenderly presents thought and eccentricity as above and beyond the world of routine and conformity. He uses background characters extraordinarily well; figuring as much more than just the historiographical vectors they could have been.

This was epic television; a TV film which, across two hours, was successful in dramatising recent history - and was able to communicate a passionate concern and inquisitiveness. And what about the lead characters and performances? Damian Lewis and Jodhi May; seems absurd that I didn't know of them or had even heard of them much before this...

― Tom May (Tom May), Monday, 16 January 2006 00:31 (twenty years ago)

He did The Lost Prince, which was great (and repeated at New Year, having first been shown in Spring 2003). Never thought I'd cry at the sight of a boy playing the trumpet. There's a bit of blurb about Poliakoff himself at that link.

― Mike W (caek), Monday, 16 January 2006 01:02 (twenty years ago)

I never actually saw TLP; even after greatly enjoying "Perfect Strangers" and (particularly) "Shooting the Past". Probably, and indeed maybe mistakenly, because I suspected a concession to heritage - current historical dramas on TV indeed have a lot to answer for. I had indeed planned to tape it upon its New Year repeat, but somehow failed to do so; which I am particularly regretting after F&C and the bits of "Caught on a Train" I caught again earlier on BBC4.

I am still largely more interested in him doing dramas set around the present/the recent past, however... an instinct borne out by just how good "Friends and Crocodiles" was - in my opinion.

― Tom May (Tom May), Monday, 16 January 2006 02:17 (twenty years ago)

It felt a lot like a tick list of 25 years of memes and clichés, however, not bad overall although not as gripping as the trailers led me to believe.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 16 January 2006 07:11 (twenty years ago)

Ed is right smack bang OTM, I think.

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 16 January 2006 10:13 (twenty years ago)

I didn't watch it. I have an innate, perhaps mistaken, aversion of anything which is being hyped as big event 'quality' television.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 16 January 2006 10:50 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Gulp!

― Tom D., Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:25 (eighteen years ago)

Further explanation needed.

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:29 (eighteen years ago)

i should have watched than one with kelly reilly.

― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:30 (eighteen years ago)

I mixes him up with Steven Berkoff

― Mark G, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:31 (eighteen years ago)

Explanation: He's fucking shit

― Tom D., Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:31 (eighteen years ago)

I disagree. Of the two recent ones I really enjoyed the first but was (to be kind) distracted by Walliams in the second.

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:37 (eighteen years ago)

OK he might not be shit but "Friends and Crocodiles" surely was

― Tom D., Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:38 (eighteen years ago)

I've met him, but I know next to nothing about him except that he is a playwright/director who went to my school.

― Just got offed, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:41 (eighteen years ago)

Enjoyed Joe's Palace altho it was slow.

― blueski, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:42 (eighteen years ago)

Me too.

Walliams was one big, ripe summer ham in last night's one, though.

― Neil S, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:44 (eighteen years ago)

xp re Crocs...

Yeah, not his best work, iirc that's the one with Robert Lindsay and the one with the flashbacks to a big party isn't it? I do get them mixed up.

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:46 (eighteen years ago)

Louis - what was he like?

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:48 (eighteen years ago)

AFAIR he was charming, affable, very writerly, and not particularly engaging. It was a long time ago.

― Just got offed, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 11:54 (eighteen years ago)

very writerly, and not particularly engaging.

just like his plays.

― jed_, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 13:30 (eighteen years ago)

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