Stephen Fry: Willem and Frieda - Defying the Nazis, Biogs
Category: Press Pack ArticleJohn Hay - Director
John has directed TV adaptations such as STIG OF THE DUMP, which won him his first International EMMY, and feature films including THERE’S ONLY ONE JIMMY GRIMBLE, which won the Crystal Bear at Berlin Film Festival and the Golden Gryphon at Giffoni.
Other work includes AUTOGEDDON for the BBC which starred Jeremy Irons and won six international awards including the Jury Prize at Shanghai, and Cause of Death which won John the Golden Spire at San Francisco. John co-wrote and directed LOST CHRISTMAS, which starred Eddie Izzard, Jason Flemyng, Steven Macintosh and Geoffrey Palmer, The film was BAFTA-nominated and won John his second EMMY.
Recently John directed TO OLIVIA, a film about Roald Dahl and the disintegration of his relationship with his wife Patricia Neal after the death of their daughter Olivia. The film starred Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes, Sam Heughan and Geoffrey Palmer. TO OLIVIA was released by Sky Cinema in the UK and around the world. in the US it was selected as the opening film at Annapolis Film Festival.
Debbie Wiseman OBE – Composer https://www.debbiewiseman.co.uk/
One of the UK’s most successful female music ambassadors, Debbie is in demand as a composer and conductor.
Throughout the past 20 years, there are probably few people in the UK who have not heard a theme from one of Debbie’s films or television productions. Whether it is watching Stephen Fry bring to life Oscar Wilde for the big screen, hearing the latest political commentary on a Sunday morning with Andrew Marr, or revelling in the Tudor world of Thomas Cromwell in “Wolf Hall”, Wiseman has gifted us iconic themes of beauty and passion, love and laughter.
Her credits, over 200 of them, for the big and small screen, include WOLF HALL, TO OLIVIA, EDIE, THE WHALE, FLOOD, WARRIORS, JUDGE JOHN DEED, WILDE, HAUNTED, OTHELLO, LAND GIRLS, JOANNA LUMLEY’S NILE, TOM & VIV, JEKYLL, THE INSPECTOR LYNLEY MYSTERIES, THE PASSION, THE GUILTY, BEFORE YOU GO, ARSENE LUPIN, HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT, TOM’S MIDNIGHT GARDEN, LOST CHRISTMAS, STEPHEN FRY IN AMERICA, WPC 56, THE PROMISE, A POET IN NEW YORK, THE ANDREW MARR SHOW, FATHER BROWN, THE CORONER, SHAKESPEARE AND HATHAWAY and DICKENSIAN.
Debbie is a regular presence on Radio 3 and 4. She presented a Radio 4 programme on the composer Joseph Horovitz, and in 2013 Debbie presented Scoring Father Brown for Radio 4, which followed her process of composing the score for the BBC TV series. In October 2014 Debbie was Kirsty Young’s guest on Desert Island Discs, and in March 2015 Debbie presented Same Tune, Different Song on Radio 4, as well as a two-hour special of her favourite music on Radio 3’s Saturday Classics.
In 2004 Debbie was honoured in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list with an MBE for services to the music and film industry. She was awarded Honorary Fellowships at both colleges where she studied, Trinity College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Sussex.
The CD album of Debbie’s original score for the acclaimed BBC series, Wolf Hall, entered the UK’s Classic FM chart at Number 1.
Debbie was one of 11 composers chosen to compose music for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on June 3rd 2012 when she conducted her movement of “New Water Music” on The Georgian barge. She was commissioned to compose the Overture and Finale music for the Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration in May 2016.
In the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s list, June 2018 Debbie Wiseman was awarded the OBE for services to music.
Debbie was voted the most popular living composer in Classic FM’s Hall of Fame 2022 with seven entries: Wolf Hall, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Wilde, The Musical Zodiac, The Mythos Suite, The Music of Kings and Queens, and The Glorious Garden reaching its highest ever position in the chart at number 4.
Wiseman was the official composer and musical director of the Platinum Jubilee Celebration at Windsor in May 2022.