Roger Michell

Roger Harry Michell (5 June 1956 – 22 September 2021) was a British theatre, television and film director. He was best known for directing films such as Notting Hill and Venus, as well as the 1995 made-for-television film Persuasion.

Early life and education Roger Harry Michell was born on 5 June 1956 in Pretoria, Union of South Africa. He was not South African, as is sometimes mistakenly assumed, but was born there because his father was a British diplomat who had been posted to South Africa. On account of his father's job, Michell spent parts of his childhood in Beirut, Damascus, and Prague; he and his family were in Prague during the 1968 invasion.

In 1985, Michell joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where, as Resident Director for six years, he directed plays by Shakespeare, Havel, Nelson, Bond, Farquhar, Darke, and others, including Richard Nelson's Some Americans Abroad, which transferred to Broadway in 1990. In 1989, Michell was appointed the Judith E. Wilson Senior Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. three-month course especially designed to help theatre directors understand the camera. Subsequently, his first piece of television was the three-part Leigh Jackson thriller Downtown Lagos, produced by Michael Wearing, which in turn led to the award-winning adaptation of Hanif Kureishi's autobiographical novel The Buddha of Suburbia, starring Naveen Andrews, which he scripted with the novelist.

For the next decade, Michell chose for personal reasons to work only in the UK, and in 2003 directed The Mother, his second collaboration with Hanif Kureishi, starring Anne Reid and Daniel Craig.

Michell was in negotiations to work with Craig yet again in 2006 on what became the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, but after months of unfruitful script conferences, and in spite of good relationships with the producers, he jumped ship.

He continued to work in theatre, at Hampstead Theatre with Richard Nelson's Farewell to the Theatre; at the Royal Court with Joe Penhall's Birthday, which he also filmed starring Stephen Mangan, and Nina Raine's Tribes; and at the Old Vic, Penhall's Mood Music, starring Ben Chaplin. His next film was 2010's Morning Glory, a comedy starring Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford set in the world of morning news, produced by J. J. Abrams. After working with Ellie Goulding on the mini rom-com How Long Will I Love You?, Michell directed the much-lauded two-part TV drama The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, written by Peter Morgan, and telling the true-life story of a retired schoolteacher accused of murder. Jefferies was in fact not only innocent, but one of Michell's teachers at school. The film went on to win Michell a second BAFTA, as well as RTS and other awards.

Next came his own adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel, starring Sam Claflin and Rachel Weisz; the acclaimed documentary Nothing Like a Dame for the BBC, featuring Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, and Judi Dench; the euthanasia-focused family drama Blackbird with Kate Winslet, Sam Neill, Susan Sarandon, Rainn Wilson, Mia Wasikowska, and Lindsay Duncan; and The Duke, with Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent, which premiered to universal acclaim at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. His final film, Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts, a documentary about Queen Elizabeth II, was released in 2022 for her Platinum Jubilee.

Personal life and death Michell was married to the actress Kate Buffery; they had two children.

Roger Michell died from a heart attack in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, on 22 September 2021, at the age of 65.

Filmography

Downtown Lagos (1992) (TV Mini Series) The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) (TV) The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) (David Bowie Music Video) Ready When You Are, Mr Patel (1995) (TV Documentary, episode of Omnibus) Persuasion (1995) (TV) My Night with Reg (1996) Titanic Town (1998) Notting Hill (1999) Changing Lanes (2002) The Mother (2003) Enduring Love (2004) Venus (2006) Morning Glory (2010) Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) How Long Will I Love You, Version 2 (2013) (Ellie Goulding Music Video) Le Week-End (2013) The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies (2014) (TV Mini Series) Birthday (2015) (TV film) My Cousin Rachel (2017) National Theatre Live: Consent (2017) (Film of play he also directed) Nothing Like a Dame (2018) (Documentary) Blackbird (2019) The Duke (2020) Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts (2022)