Antonia Bird

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Antonia Bird

FRSA
Born27 May 1951
Kensington, England
Died24 October 2013(2013-10-24) (aged 62)
London, England, UK
Occupation(s)Theatre, television & film director & producer
Years active1968–2013

Antonia Jane Bird, FRSA (27 May 1951 – 24 October 2013 [1][2]) was an English producer and director of television drama and feature films.[3][4][5][6][7]

Career[edit]

In 1968, at the age of 17, Bird began working in theatre as an assistant stage manager at Coventry Rep.[1] She worked her way up doing a variety of jobs, including acting, stage management, publicity, theatre administration and directing in repertory and regional theatres. She directed a season of plays at The Studio at Chester Theatre and later joined Leicester's Phoenix Theatre as a director.[8]

Bird was named resident director at the Royal Court Theatre in 1978. She was appointed artistic director of the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs, London's leading venue for new writing. Her first television production was Submariners (1983), an adaptation of one of her Royal Court productions which she directed for the BBC.[9][10] She was recruited by the originators and founding producers of EastEnders, Julia Smith and Tony Holland, to direct the series in 1985; she directed 17 episodes,[11] including the series' first two-hander, between the characters Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) and Angie Watts (Anita Dobson).[12]

The creators of Casualty (1986) recruited her to be one of the series' first directors. She next directed the six-part adaptation of Ann Oakley's The Men's Room (BBC 1991). Her next production was a feature-length film adaptation of A Masculine Ending (1992). Subsequently, Safe (BBC 1993), a story based on the lives of a group of homeless young people in London's West End was awarded the Best Single Drama TV BAFTA. The film also won a British Academy Award and a clutch of festival prizes including the Edinburgh International Film Festival First Film Award and Best British Film at the Dinard Film Festival. The film brought Bird to international attention, but was overshadowed by the success of Priest (BBC/Miramax 1994), which she directed immediately following Safe.[11]

Bird's film Care, broadcast in 2000, dealt with sexual abuse in a children's home, and won the Best Single Drama TV BAFTA. She received a BAFTA Children's Award for the 2009 BBC documentary Off By Heart, about a national poetry competition for schoolchildren.[13]

Bird developed feature films with Sony, Columbia, Warner Brothers, Fine Line and some American independent companies. She returned to London [when?] to shoot Face (UIP/New Line 1997), a gangster film. She was back in the U.S. to develop the horror satire Ravenous, with Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle and David Arquette (20th Century Fox 1999).[14]

In 2005, she produced Faith, a 4Way Pictures/Company Pictures production about the 1984–1985 national miners' strike. She was an executive producer of the 2009 Iraqi film Son of Babylon.[15]

In 2010, she and Kay Mellor realised their story about Mellor's mother in A Passionate Woman (BBC 2010), which the duo directed.[citation needed]

In 2011, Cross My Mind, Bird's next film, was set to start shooting.[16]

In 2012, Bird directed the first four episodes of the first series of Peter Moffat's BBC period drama, The Village.[11] Series 2 episode 1 finishes with the tribute 'For Antonia Bird 1951–2013'.

Affiliations[edit]

Bird was a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Directors Guild of America, Directors UK, BECTU, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. [citation needed]

Death[edit]

Bird died from a rare anaplastic thyroid cancer on 24 October 2013 at the age of 62. She is survived by her husband, the TV editor Ian Ilet.[1]

Filmography[edit]

Television[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
2013 The Village Series 1 [17]
2010 A Passionate Woman [18]
2009 Off by Heart TV documentary
2006 Cracker Special Episode
2005 Spooks
2004 The Hamburg Cell TV movie [19][20]
2003 Rehab TV movie [21]
2000 Care TV movie
1993 Full Stretch
1992 A Masculine Ending TV movie [22]
1991 The Men's Room [23]
1988 Thin Air [24]
1986 – 1987 Casualty
1985 – 1986 EastEnders [25][26]

Film[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
2021 Oi For England's Green

and Pleasant Land

Executive Producer
2009 Son of Babylon Executive Producer
2005 Faith Producer
1999 Ravenous [27][28][29]
1997 Face [30]
1995 Mad Love [31]
1994 Priest [32][33]
1993 Safe [34]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Kate Hardie "Antonia Bird obituary", The Guardian, 28 October 2013
  2. ^ The day she died is given as 25 October 2013 in Obituary: Antonia Bird, telegraph.co.uk, 27 October 2013; accessed 30 July 2014.
  3. ^ "BBC Four - From EastEnders to Hollywood: Antonia Bird". BBC. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  4. ^ Welsh, Irvine (15 December 2013). "Antonia Bird remembered by Irvine Welsh". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  5. ^ Eyre, Richard; Hardie, Kate; Cousins, Mark; Morton, Samantha; Gillen, Aidan; Peake, Maxine (5 May 2016). "Samantha Morton and Maxine Peake salute the genius of late director Antonia Bird". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  6. ^ Margolis, Zoe (28 October 2013). "Antonia Bird was a film-makers' role model of passion and fury". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  7. ^ "BBC Arts - BBC Arts - Bold, brave, empowering: The films of Antonia Bird". BBC. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  8. ^ Simon Farquhar "Obituary: Antonia Bird, Television director with a flair for gritty realism", The Independent, 30 October 2013.
  9. ^ Submariners, bfi.org.uk; accessed 30 July 2014.
  10. ^ "Play Not-Quite-For Today", TVCream.co.uk; accessed 30 July 2014.
  11. ^ a b c Antonia Bird at IMDb
  12. ^ From EastEnders to Hollywood: Antonia Bird, BBC Four, 26 May 2016.
  13. ^ "Antonia Bird, film and TV director, dies". BBC. 26 October 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  14. ^ Maane Khatchatourian. "Antonia Bird, Director of 'Ravenous', Dead". Variety. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  15. ^ Anderson, John (2 February 2010). "Son of Babylon (Review)". Variety. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  16. ^ Macnab, Geoffrey (14 February 2011). "Antonia Bird's Cross My Mind to shoot in May". Screen Daily. Media Business Insight. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  17. ^ "BBC One - The Village, Series 1 - Maxine Peake Interview". BBC. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  18. ^ "A Passionate Woman | Film | The Guardian". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  19. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (8 September 2011). "9/11 films: how did Hollywood handle the tragedy?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  20. ^ "Hamburg Cell | Film | The Guardian". www.theguardian.com. 21 July 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  21. ^ "BBC 2 | Rehab" (PDF).
  22. ^ "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 12 April 1992. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  23. ^ "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 25 September 1991. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  24. ^ "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 15 April 1988. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  25. ^ "BBC One - EastEnders: Iconic Episodes, Den & Angie". BBC. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  26. ^ "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 24 February 1995. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  27. ^ "Gut reaction". The Guardian. 10 September 1999. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  28. ^ "FILM REVIEW; His Favorite Dessert? Ladyfingers, of Course! (Published 1999)". 19 March 1999. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  29. ^ "BBC One - Ravenous". BBC. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  30. ^ "Face | Film | The Guardian". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  31. ^ "FILM REVIEW; Young Romance, Volatility And the Repercussions (Published 1995)". 26 May 1995. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  32. ^ "Priest | Film | The Guardian". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  33. ^ "FILM REVIEW; Gay Priest, Iconoclasm And Style (Published 1995)". 24 March 1995. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  34. ^ "BBC Programme Index". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 13 October 1993. Retrieved 13 August 2023.

External links[edit]

Additional sources[edit]

  • Ciecko, Anne T. "Sex, God, Television, Realism, and the British Women Filmmakers Beeban Kidron and Antonia Bird", Journal of Film and Video, Spring 1999, pp. 22–41
  • McCabe, Bob. "East End Heat", Sight and Sound, October 1997, pp. 10–12
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