Neil Hardwick
Encyclopedia
Robert Neil Hardwick is a British
-born Finnish
theatre
and TV
director and writer. He was raised in Teversal, near Nottingham
. His father was a teacher
, and Neil Hardwick has described himself as "a second generation non-miner".
At age 11, Hardwick was admitted to boarding school
with a scholarship
. Already in his school years, Neil wrote, directed and often starred in many of his own plays. At age 18, he was drafted to work in the UK nuclear energy
commission. Additional studies at the University of Cambridge
led to a change in profession. There he found philosophy
and the world of theatre at a new level.
After graduating from the University of Cambridge, Hardwick moved to Finland in 1969. He started his career as the voice of the English language
school tapes of Finnish primary and high schools in the middle 1970s, and to the children of the 1960s and 1970s he became famous as the policeman of the children's language program Hello Hello Hello (1975). Hardwick's reputation as a Finnish director and keen-eyed depictor of the Finnish lifestyle stems from the YLE
TV2 comedy series Tankki täyteen and Reinikainen. In Reinikainen, the protagonist is an elderly single policeman from the countryside, who is transferred to a city, where his verbal skill, cunning and nonchalant attitude often defuses dramatic situations and saves the day. His most artistically ambitious work is the TV series Pakanamaan kartta, dealing with total short term memory loss
and ecoterrorism.
Hardwick has directed several revue
s and humour
shorts, but is at his best as a depictor of the pathetically humorous daily life of the small man. He has also patiently acted as a bridge builder between the Finnish and English cultures, brought plays to Finland, and explained the Finnish lifestyle in British TV programs. He has repeatedly voiced his exasperation with the Finnish nanny state
mentality, but has also said that Finland is the only country where he "is someone". Hardwick is one of the few well-known immigrants to Finland who have learned the Finnish language fluently. His liberal views on immigration brought him into the negative attention of the late caricaturist Kari Suomalainen
, whose nativist and anti-immigrations views were at odds with Hardwick.
During 1995 Hardwick served as Professor of Cinematic Arts in the Academy of Fine Arts
.
The voice of his son, Sam Hardwick, can be heard in a number of Nightwish
songs.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-born Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
director and writer. He was raised in Teversal, near Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. His father was a teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, and Neil Hardwick has described himself as "a second generation non-miner".
At age 11, Hardwick was admitted to boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
with a scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
. Already in his school years, Neil wrote, directed and often starred in many of his own plays. At age 18, he was drafted to work in the UK nuclear energy
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
commission. Additional studies at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
led to a change in profession. There he found philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and the world of theatre at a new level.
After graduating from the University of Cambridge, Hardwick moved to Finland in 1969. He started his career as the voice of the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
school tapes of Finnish primary and high schools in the middle 1970s, and to the children of the 1960s and 1970s he became famous as the policeman of the children's language program Hello Hello Hello (1975). Hardwick's reputation as a Finnish director and keen-eyed depictor of the Finnish lifestyle stems from the YLE
Yleisradio
The Finnish Broadcasting Company , abbreviated to YLE , is Finland's national broadcasting company, founded in 1926. YLE is a public-broadcasting organization which shares many of its characteristics with its British counterpart, the BBC, on which it was largely modelled...
TV2 comedy series Tankki täyteen and Reinikainen. In Reinikainen, the protagonist is an elderly single policeman from the countryside, who is transferred to a city, where his verbal skill, cunning and nonchalant attitude often defuses dramatic situations and saves the day. His most artistically ambitious work is the TV series Pakanamaan kartta, dealing with total short term memory loss
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
and ecoterrorism.
Hardwick has directed several revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
s and humour
Humour
Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...
shorts, but is at his best as a depictor of the pathetically humorous daily life of the small man. He has also patiently acted as a bridge builder between the Finnish and English cultures, brought plays to Finland, and explained the Finnish lifestyle in British TV programs. He has repeatedly voiced his exasperation with the Finnish nanny state
Nanny state
A nanny state is the perception of a situation characterised by governmental policies of over-protectionism, economic interventionism, or heavy regulation of economic, social or other nature....
mentality, but has also said that Finland is the only country where he "is someone". Hardwick is one of the few well-known immigrants to Finland who have learned the Finnish language fluently. His liberal views on immigration brought him into the negative attention of the late caricaturist Kari Suomalainen
Kari Suomalainen
Kari Yrjänä Suomalainen was Finland's most famous political cartoonist. His first cartoon appeared in the start of the year 1950, showing an infant boy contemplating two toys: a tank and a dove carrying an olive branch. The boy is saying: "Tank.....
, whose nativist and anti-immigrations views were at odds with Hardwick.
During 1995 Hardwick served as Professor of Cinematic Arts in the Academy of Fine Arts
Academy of Fine Arts (Finland)
The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Finland provides the highest university-level theoretical and practical training in the country in fine arts....
.
The voice of his son, Sam Hardwick, can be heard in a number of Nightwish
Nightwish
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. Formed in 1996 by songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen, Nightwish's current line-up has five members, although Tarja has been replaced by Anette Olzon and the...
songs.
TV series and programs
- Hello hello hello 1975 (children's English language course; writer and actor)
- Kielipuoli potilas 1978 (comedy series; writer and director)
- Tankki täyteen 1978-1980 (comedy series; writer and director)
- Parempi myöhään 1979-1980 (entertainment series; sketch writer)
- Ollaan kuin kotonanne 1981-1982 (entertainment series; sketch writer)
- Reinikainen 1982-1983 (comedy series; writer and director, a role in the last episode)
- Saippuakauppias 1984 (palindromic comedy, writer and director)
- Sisko ja sen veli 1986 (dark comedy series; writer and director)
- Musta tuntuu 1985 (crime series; writer and director)
- Niilin lähteillä 1987 (autobiographical series; writer)
- Hardwick 1988-89 (live talk show)
- Nyhjää tyhjästä 1991 (improvisation show from Ryhmäteatteri; host and director)
- Pakanamaan kartta 1991 (drama series; writer and director)
- Paluu Timbuktuun (travel series; host)
- Napaseutu 1994 (comedy series; co-writer with Raila Leppäkoski and director)
- Huomenta, Ilona, hyvästi 1996 (director)
- Hyvät, pahat ja rumat 1997 (live talkshow; co-host with Pauli Aalto-Setälä)
- Verisiskot 1997 (comedy series;director)
- Troubleshooter 2001 (comedy series with magic; director)
- Muisti palaa pohjaan 2004 (Finnish food memories; host)
- "Alright?Alright!" 2005 (English teaching comedy series; writer and director)
Theatre directions
- Noises OffNoises OffNoises Off is a 1982 play by English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it was born in 1970, when Frayn was standing in the wings watching a performance of Chinamen, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave...
(Finnish), Tampereen teatteri 1983 - Waiting for GodotWaiting for GodotWaiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
(Finnish) Tampereen teatteri 1984 - What the Butler Saw (Finnish), Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 1985
- Noises Off (Finnish), Suomen Teatterikorkeakoulu 1986
- Rumors (Swedish) Lilla teatern 1991
- Nyhjää tyhjästä(Finnish impro) Ryhmäteatteri 1991
- Rumors (Finnish) Lilla teatern 1992
- Other People's Money (Swedish and Finnish) Lilla teatern 1992
- Me And My GirlMe and My GirlMe and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....
(musical, Swedish) Svenska teatern 1996 - Out of OrderOut of Order (play)Out of Order is a 1990 farce written by English playwright Ray Cooney. It had a long run at the Shaftesbury Theatre starring Donald Sinden and Michael Williams....
(Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2000 - Out of OrderOut of Order (play)Out of Order is a 1990 farce written by English playwright Ray Cooney. It had a long run at the Shaftesbury Theatre starring Donald Sinden and Michael Williams....
(Finnish) Tampereen työväenteatteri 2000 - Stepping OutStepping Out (play)Stepping Out is a play written by Richard Harris in 1984. It was produced in the West End, London, where it received the Evening Standard Comedy of the Year Award, and on Broadway, New York.-Plot:...
(Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri, 2000 - The Merry Wives of WindsorThe Merry Wives of WindsorThe Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
(opera, Finnish) Seinäjoen kaupunginteatteri 2000 - CopenhagenCopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
(Finnish), Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2001 - Noises OffNoises OffNoises Off is a 1982 play by English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it was born in 1970, when Frayn was standing in the wings watching a performance of Chinamen, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave...
(Finnish), Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2002 - Noises OffNoises OffNoises Off is a 1982 play by English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it was born in 1970, when Frayn was standing in the wings watching a performance of Chinamen, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave...
(Finnish) Tampereen työväenteatteri 2003 - Fantasticks (musical, Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri, 2003
- Mulle kaikki heti (revue, Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2004
- Quartet (Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2004
- Pohjanmaan kautta (opera, Finnish) Ilmajoen musiikkijuhlat 2004
- Perfect Days (Finnish) Tampereen työväenteatteri 2005
- Hitchcock Blonde (Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2005
- Leading ladiesLeading LadiesLeading Ladies is a theatrical comedy play by Ken Ludwig.-Synopsis:Set in York, Pennsylvania in 1958, this farce centers on two down-on-their-luck Shakespearean actors, Leo Clark and Jack Gable...
(Finnish), Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2005 - Lampaansyöjät (Finnish) Pyynikin kesäteatteri 2006
- Glorious! (Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2006
- The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
(Swedish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri/Lilla teatern 2007 - The ProducersThe Producers (musical)The Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich...
(musical, Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2007 - The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
(Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri/Lilla teatern 2007 - Rumors (Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2008
- Spring Awakening (musical, Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2009
- Magic! (magic show) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri/Lilla teatern 2009
- Arsenic and Old Lace, Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2010
- Moliére: The MiserThe MiserL'Avare is a 1668 five-act satirical comedy by French playwright Molière. Its title is usually translated as The Miser when the play is performed in English....
(Swedish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri/Lilla Teatern 2011 - La Cage aux Folles (musical, Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri/Arena-näyttämö 2011
- Striking 12 (musical, Finnish) Helsingin kaupunginteatteri 2011
Sources
- Teatteriin 3/2006, page 7