Richard Fawkes is an award-winning writer and director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

.

Early years

Fawkes was educated at the Royal Masonic School, Bushey, then spent eighteen months as an instructor at the Outward Bound

Outward Bound

Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...

 School in Kenya with Voluntary Service Overseas

Voluntary Service Overseas

Voluntary Service Overseas is an international development charity that works through experienced volunteers living and working as equals alongside local partners. It is the largest independent volunteer-sending organization in the world...

. A graduate of the University of Wales Lampeter (BA English Honours), he joined the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 as a general trainee in 1967.

Career

Leaving the BBC in 1971, he joined a commercials production company before going freelance as an Assistant Director for such people as Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott

Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...

, Tony Scott, Hugh Hudson, Cliff Owen and Jack Gold. His many film credits as a director include the award-winning Channel 4

Channel 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...

 series Tom Keating on Painters, Circle Within the Square (which won a prize at the Mesa Festival, Florida) and The Original Three Tenors, a documentary about Caruso, Gigli

Beniamino Gigli

Beniamino Gigli was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism...

 and Björling

Jussi Björling

Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th Century, Björling appeared frequently at the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala in Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as well as at other major European opera...

 presented by Nigel Douglas. His stage credits include Waltzing in the Clouds (Covent Garden Festival) and A Dog's Life, a one-man show with John Leeson

John Leeson

John Leeson is a British actor who is best known for voicing K-9 on the television series Doctor Who from 1977 to 1979, and again in the 1980–1981 season. He was called back to do the voice of K-9 again for the 2006 episode "School Reunion" and again for the 2008 Doctor Who episode "Journey's End"...

 (‘the voice of K9

K-9 (Doctor Who)

K-9, or K9, is the name of several fictional robotic canines in the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who, first appearing in 1977...

’), plus the operas The Yeomen of the Guard (for Opera Holland Park

Holland Park

Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...

), Faust

Faust (opera)

Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...

, The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The 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...

and Verbum Nobile by Moniuszko.

He wrote the librettos for Survival Song (nominated for an Olivier Award) and Biko, both with music by Priti Paintal

Priti Paintal

Priti Paintal is an East Indian composer, performer, music producer and promoter who lives and works in England.-Life:Priti Paintal was born in New Delhi, India, and is the daughter of the distinguished Indian scientist Prof Autar Singh Paintal. She trained in both Indian and Western music...

. He is the author of nine books including a history of Welsh National Opera, Notes From a Low Singer (the autobiography of operatic bass Michael Langdon which he ghosted) and Opera on Film. His History of Opera and History of Classical Music, both for Naxos Audiobooks, won Talkie Awards. He has written plays for the stage, television and radio, and, for Radio 2, series on Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...

 and Johnny Hallyday

Johnny Hallyday

Johnny Hallyday is a French singer and actor. An icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career, he was considered by some to have been the French Elvis Presley. He was married for 15 years to one of the most popular French female singers: Sylvie Vartan...

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External links=

• Homepage of Richard Fawkes