Benjamin Till
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Till is an English composer, director and film maker, who specializes in furthering the unusual genre of the through-composed Musical Documentary, where contributors often tell their stories through the medium of specially written song.
, Shropshire
, and spent much of his childhood in the Northamptonshire
town of Higham Ferrers
, attending the Ferrers School. He was also very active in the Northamptonshire Music School, playing in various youth orchestras and chamber ensembles as a competent cellist.
.
As a composer, Benjamin's work at York included, music for Arthur Miller
's The Crucible
, a lunchtime concert piece, based on text by Siegfried Sassoon
entitled Golgotha, and the aforementioned The Black Cat. Also at York, Benjamin performed the virtuosic vocal marathon, Eight Songs for a Mad King
, a monodrama by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, where the singer needs to cover more than five octaves.
Till's directing credits during his time at Mountview included Lluïsa Cunillé's Libration (graduation piece), which was performed at the Theatre Museum
in Covent Garden.
(two hundred bells in seventeen London churches), and wrote a piece of music to feature them all playing in harmony, alongside a choir of people who live or work in one of the areas around the churches. This twelve-minute composition, which included a staggering 4000 individual bell strikes was featured on BBC Radio 3
's In Tune and the Today Programme alongside in depth coverage by BBC London
(who sponsored the piece with Arts Council England
).
The piece received its premiere performance on 11 July 2009 at St. Mary le Bow Church, London.
, 1997).
, 1996 and Blewbury
Theatre, Oxfordshire
, 2002 - Director, adaptor and composer), Someone Whistled an opera (Pleasance Theatre, May 1997 - Composer, director), An Evening of Opera Excerpts (Royal Theatre, Northampton, August 1997 - Director), Madam Butterfly (Royal Albert Hall
and Tour, 1998 and 2000 - Assistant director), Aida
(Royal Albert Hall and NIA
, Jan-Mar 2001 - Assistant director), A Christmas Carol
(Royal Festival Hall
, December 2001 - Assistant director), Boy George
's Taboo
(West End, 2001–2003 - Resident director),
Verdi's Macbeth
(Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
, 2002 - Assistant director), Little Lil (Hen and Chickens Theatre
, May 2003 - Director), Little By Little (Arts Theatre
, London, July 2004 - Director)
In 1997, Till was approached by playwright, Sir Arnold Wesker, to collaborate with him on a on-woman musical play that he had written in 1990. The piece was called Letter to a Daughter, and this was the UK premiere, opening at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, on Benjamin's birthday, August 8, 1998.
, Brick Lane
and 28 Weeks Later
, the last of which he also worked closely with the two young leads, Imogen Poots
and Mackintosh Muggleton.
, who were looking for people to make a two-minute short film, on the subject of "Untold London." The pitch was for a musical film, featuring the different communities who use and enjoy Hampstead Heath
. Benjamin was one of ten directors chosen to make their films, and Hampstead Heath: The Musical was born. The film was nominated for a Royal Television Society
award.
BBC producer, Penny Wrout, then commissioned him to make a three-minute musical film for the Children In Need
telethon, showcasing the bizarre and wacky ways that people were raising money for the popular charity: the film was shown twice during the telethon in November that year.
's Three-Minute Wonder season. The project was called The Busker Symphony, and a four-movement piece he composed was performed by buskers past and present at various locations around London. Each film featured one movement from the Symphony, variously entitled Andante, Adagio, Scherzo and Finalé: the films were broadcast in April 2006.
, and followed a lorry driver's journey up the A1, from London
to Edinburgh
, during which he met various people along the way, who all tell their stories either in song, or set to a specially composed soundtrack.
The film starts with Londoners singing their thoughts while stuck in city traffic, then further up the road a young Polish man is introduced, he is deliberating whether or not to leave England and return to Poland, then a lady who was involved in a severe car accident and the mysterious stranger who helped her, a choir of ex-miners, lamenting the demise of the coal industry, a young man who lost his brother in an accident on the A1, two motorbikers railing at the government red tape that threatens to stifle people's independence and a Berwick-upon-Tweed
resident who is campaigning to have the Scottish border redrawn, to make his town part of Scotland, where he feels it rightly belongs.
The film was broadcast on August 29, 2008, and became the fourth most-praised programme aired on Channel 4 that month, based on telephone calls to the station, to congratulate the makers.
to celebrate their own, and Wesker's, 75th birthday. The play was aired in November 2007.
star, Matt Lucas
.
Early years
Till was born to Richard Till and Noelle Till (née Garner), in OswestryOswestry
Oswestry is a town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483, and A495 roads....
, Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, and spent much of his childhood in the Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
town of Higham Ferrers
Higham Ferrers
Higham Ferrers is a market town in the Nene Valley in East Northamptonshire, England, close to the Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire borders. It forms a single urban area with Rushden to the south and has an estimated population of 6,086...
, attending the Ferrers School. He was also very active in the Northamptonshire Music School, playing in various youth orchestras and chamber ensembles as a competent cellist.
Education
Till studied music and composition at The University of York, then trained on the directing course at London's Mountview Theatre SchoolMountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts is an independent drama school situated in the Wood Green area of North London. It was founded in 1945 by Peter Coxhead and Ralph Nossek as 'The Mountview Theatre Club', an amateur repertory company staging a new production for a six-day run every second week...
.
As a composer, Benjamin's work at York included, music for Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
, a lunchtime concert piece, based on text by Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
entitled Golgotha, and the aforementioned The Black Cat. Also at York, Benjamin performed the virtuosic vocal marathon, Eight Songs for a Mad King
Eight Songs for a Mad King
Eight Songs for a Mad King is a monodrama by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with a libretto by Randolph Stow, based on words of George III. The work was written for the South-African actor Roy Hart and the composer's ensemble the Pierrot Players, and premiered on 22 April 1969...
, a monodrama by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, where the singer needs to cover more than five octaves.
Till's directing credits during his time at Mountview included Lluïsa Cunillé's Libration (graduation piece), which was performed at the Theatre Museum
Theatre Museum
The Theatre Museum in the Covent Garden district of London, England, was the United Kingdom's national museum of the performing arts. It was a branch of the UK's national museum of applied arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum...
in Covent Garden.
Oranges and Lemons
In early 2009, Till recorded all the bells mentioned in the nursery rhyme, Oranges and LemonsOranges and Lemons
"Oranges and Lemons" is an English nursery rhyme and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as #3190.-Lyrics:Common modern versions include:...
(two hundred bells in seventeen London churches), and wrote a piece of music to feature them all playing in harmony, alongside a choir of people who live or work in one of the areas around the churches. This twelve-minute composition, which included a staggering 4000 individual bell strikes was featured on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
's In Tune and the Today Programme alongside in depth coverage by BBC London
BBC London
BBC London is the BBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London and parts of the surrounding area. Its output includes the daily BBC London News and the weekly Politics Show on television, the BBC London 94.9 radio station and local coverage of the...
(who sponsored the piece with Arts Council England
Arts Council England
Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...
).
The piece received its premiere performance on 11 July 2009 at St. Mary le Bow Church, London.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Shows directed for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe include: Living Together, Falling Apart, (Roman Eagle Lodge, 1995); The Big Book for Girls, (1994 and 1995); and We Are Here, Are You There? (Bedlam TheatreBedlam Theatre
Bedlam Theatre is a student-run theatre owned by the University of Edinburgh and notable for being the oldest student-run theatre in Britain.It is housed in the former New North Free Church building at the foot of George IV Bridge in Edinburgh; a building which was designed by Thomas Hamilton, an...
, 1997).
Other theatre
Alice Through the Looking Glass (Fox Theatre, Palmers GreenPalmers Green
Palmers Green is a place in the London Borough of Enfield. It is a suburban area situated 7.6 miles north of Charing Cross. Postally, it is in London N13...
, 1996 and Blewbury
Blewbury
Blewbury is a village and civil parish at the foot of the Berkshire Downs about south of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Prehistory:...
Theatre, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, 2002 - Director, adaptor and composer), Someone Whistled an opera (Pleasance Theatre, May 1997 - Composer, director), An Evening of Opera Excerpts (Royal Theatre, Northampton, August 1997 - Director), Madam Butterfly (Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
and Tour, 1998 and 2000 - Assistant director), Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
(Royal Albert Hall and NIA
National Indoor Arena
The National Indoor Arena is a large indoor arena and is owned by the NEC Group. It is situated in central Birmingham, England and was opened in 1991, as the largest indoor arena at the time in the UK...
, Jan-Mar 2001 - Assistant director), A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
(Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
, December 2001 - Assistant director), Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
's Taboo
Taboo (musical)
Taboo is a stage musical with a book by Mark Davies , lyrics by Boy George, and music by George and Kevan Frost....
(West End, 2001–2003 - Resident director),
Verdi's Macbeth
Macbeth (opera)
Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
(Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, 2002 - Assistant director), Little Lil (Hen and Chickens Theatre
Hen and Chickens Theatre
The Hen and Chickens Theatre is a fringe venue for theatre and comedy situated above a pub at Highbury in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre management was awarded to actress Felicity Wren in 1999.-External links:*...
, May 2003 - Director), Little By Little (Arts Theatre
Arts Theatre
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.-History:...
, London, July 2004 - Director)
In 1997, Till was approached by playwright, Sir Arnold Wesker, to collaborate with him on a on-woman musical play that he had written in 1990. The piece was called Letter to a Daughter, and this was the UK premiere, opening at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, on Benjamin's birthday, August 8, 1998.
Casting
From 2004 to 2006, Till worked as a casting assistant to casting director, Shaheen Baig, and worked on such films as Control, Notes on a ScandalNotes on a Scandal
Notes on a Scandal is a 2003 drama novel by Zoë Heller. It is about a female teacher at a London comprehensive school who begins an affair with an underage pupil...
, Brick Lane
Brick Lane (film)
Brick Lane is an award-winning 2007 British drama film directed by Sarah Gavron and adapted from the novel of the same name by Monica Ali. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by Laura Jones and Abi Morgan, and Tannishtha Chatterjee played the lead role...
and 28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later
28 Weeks Later is a 2007 British/Spanish film sequel to the 2002 post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Days Later. 28 Weeks Later was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and released in the United Kingdom and United States on 11 May 2007...
, the last of which he also worked closely with the two young leads, Imogen Poots
Imogen Poots
Imogen Gay Poots is an English actress, best known for playing Tammy in the 2007 film 28 Weeks Later, Prue Sorenson in the 2010 remake of the controversial TV drama Bouquet of Barbed Wire and as Jean Ross in the BBC's Christopher and His Kind.-Early life:Poots was born in Hammersmith, London,...
and Mackintosh Muggleton.
BBC Films
In early 2005, he submitted a pitch to BBC London NewsBBC London News
For other uses of the BBC London brand, see BBC London .BBC London News is the BBC's regional television news programme for the English region encompassing London and surrounding suburbs...
, who were looking for people to make a two-minute short film, on the subject of "Untold London." The pitch was for a musical film, featuring the different communities who use and enjoy Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath is a large, ancient London park, covering . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London clay...
. Benjamin was one of ten directors chosen to make their films, and Hampstead Heath: The Musical was born. The film was nominated for a Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
award.
BBC producer, Penny Wrout, then commissioned him to make a three-minute musical film for the Children In Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
telethon, showcasing the bizarre and wacky ways that people were raising money for the popular charity: the film was shown twice during the telethon in November that year.
The Busker Symphony
In 2006 he made four short films for Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's Three-Minute Wonder season. The project was called The Busker Symphony, and a four-movement piece he composed was performed by buskers past and present at various locations around London. Each film featured one movement from the Symphony, variously entitled Andante, Adagio, Scherzo and Finalé: the films were broadcast in April 2006.
A1: The Road Musical
In April 2008, Till started work on his largest-scale project to date, A1: the Road Musical, again for Channel 4. The half-hour film was produced by EndemolEndemol
Endemol is an international television production and distribution company based in the Netherlands, with subsidiaries and joint ventures in 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Poland,...
, and followed a lorry driver's journey up the A1, from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, during which he met various people along the way, who all tell their stories either in song, or set to a specially composed soundtrack.
The film starts with Londoners singing their thoughts while stuck in city traffic, then further up the road a young Polish man is introduced, he is deliberating whether or not to leave England and return to Poland, then a lady who was involved in a severe car accident and the mysterious stranger who helped her, a choir of ex-miners, lamenting the demise of the coal industry, a young man who lost his brother in an accident on the A1, two motorbikers railing at the government red tape that threatens to stifle people's independence and a Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....
resident who is campaigning to have the Scottish border redrawn, to make his town part of Scotland, where he feels it rightly belongs.
The film was broadcast on August 29, 2008, and became the fourth most-praised programme aired on Channel 4 that month, based on telephone calls to the station, to congratulate the makers.
Coventry Market: The Musical
On November 4, 2008, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire screened the premiere of Coventry Market: The Musical, a film made by Till to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the town's indoor market. Drawing on the whole community surrounding the market, and those who work in it or patronise it, the film spawned a large multi-platform project, with many radio hours dedicated to its creation, and the stories of some of those featured in it, as well as online blogs and news documentaries shown in the region.Radio
Till worked with long-term friend, Sir Arnold Wesker, again in 2007, when he was asked to write the featured song (to Wesker's lyrics) and incidental music for Wesker's radio play, The Rocking Horse, commissioned by the BBC World ServiceBBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
to celebrate their own, and Wesker's, 75th birthday. The play was aired in November 2007.
Other information
Benjamin has spent a good deal of the last seven years working on a new musical, entitled Blast, developing it firstly as a stage project, and then adapting his own script for film. There is a demo recording of the show, featuring, among others, Little BritainLittle Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
star, Matt Lucas
Matt Lucas
Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas is an English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and...
.
External links
- www.benjamintill.com Benjamin Till's official website
- www.thebuskersymphony.com The Busker Symphony official website
- www.blastthemusical.com Blast official website
- www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/people/coventry_market_musical/ BBC Coventry and Warwickshire's Coventry Market project