Robin Midgley

Robin Midgley (10 November 1934 – 19 May 2007) was a director in theatre, television and radio and responsible for some of the earliest episodes of Z-Cars and for the television version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Wars of the Roses.^[1]

Early life

Midgley was born in Torquay and educated at Blundell's School and King's College, Cambridge, where he directed plays with casts including Jonathan Miller, Sylvia Plath and Daniel Massey.

Midgley married, first, the playwright and psychotherapist Liane Aukin, and, in 1991, the dancer and choreographer Denni Sayers. His two sons from his first marriage are Baptist Minister Rev. Benjamin Midgley and Child Psychotherapist Dr. Nicholas Midgley.

Career

After Cambridge, Midgley was employed as a drama producer for BBC Radio and was posted to Jamaica, where he worked closely with the comedian and broadcaster Charles Hyatt.

Midgley’s first London stage production, Kill Two Birds, was at the

, produced several times at the Haymarket, in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, and 1985. This became a great favourite with audiences and was developed at the Haymarket from its first shorter schools version into the full-blown musical we know today.

Midgley was later in charge of the

, Belfast (1992–98).

His theatrical productions have included:^[3]

• Boris Vian's Victor for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych in 1964
• Athol Fugard’s 1968 play Mille Miglia about Stirling Moss
• Alan Ayckbourn's play How the Other Half Loves with Robert Morley in 1970
• William Douglas-Home's Lloyd George Knew My Father in 1972, starring Ralph Richardson and Peggy Ashcroft
• Her Majesty's Theatre in 1977.^[4]
• Albery Theatre in 1977, starring Roy Hudd as Fagin
• The 1979 West End revival of My Fair Lady produced by Cameron Mackintosh at the Adelphi Theatre with Tony Britton, Liz Robertson, Dame Anna Neagle, Richard Caldicot and Peter Land
• Someone Like You at the Strand Theatre
  in 1990
• Lyric, Hammersmith

Later life

In later life Midgley gave acting lessons to young singers at the

Sources

• Obituary - Robin Midgley, The Guardian, 23 May 2007

http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/LeicesterTheatres/HaymarketTheatreLeicester.htm

External links

• Robin Midgley at
  IMDb
  15654
• Robin Midgley at the Internet Broadway Database