Charles B. G. Sturridge (born 24 June 1951) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

director and screenwriter. He is the recipient of a BAFTA Children's Award and four

BAFTA TV Award The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the BAFTA. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in 1955, consisted of six categories. Until ...

s. He has also been nominated for three

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

Early life and education

Sturridge was born in London, England, to Alyson P. (née Burke, later Williams) and Jerome F. Sturridge. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

Career

Sturridge began his career as an actor. He appeared in ''

Zigger Zagger ''Zigger Zagger'' is a 1967 play by Peter Terson which was the first work to be commissioned by the National Youth Theatre who revived it at Wilton's Music Hall in 2017 for its 50th anniversary.National Youth Theatre, played Markland in

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for h ...

's film '' if....'' (1968) and portrayed the young

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

in ''

Edward the Seventh ''Edward the Seventh'' is a 1975 British historical drama series, made by ATV in 13 episodes. Based on the biography of King Edward VII by Philip Magnus, it starred Annette Crosbie as Queen Victoria, Timothy West as the elder Edward VII, w ...

'' (1975). After directing episodes of ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'', '' Strangers'', ''

World in Action ''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television for ITV from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its product ...

'', ''

Crown Court The Crown Court is the court of first instance of England and Wales responsible for hearing all Indictable offence, indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals lied to it by the Magistrates' court, magistrates' court ...

'' and ''The Spoils of War'' by his late twenties, he gained international recognition for his work on the eleven-part television adaptation of

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

's ''

Brideshead Revisited ''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles ...

'' which won over 17 awards including two Golden Globes and six British Academy awards. He scripted a film version of J. G. Farrell's ''

Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

'' made for

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...

in 1988 and directed by

Christopher Morahan Christopher Thomas Morahan CBE (9 July 1929 – 7 April 2017) was a British stage and television director and production executive. Biography Early life and career Morahan was born on 9 July 1929 in London, the son of film production designer ...

. Since then the films Sturridge has directed have included '' Runners'', ''

A Handful of Dust ''A Handful of Dust'' is a novel by the British writer Evelyn Waugh. First published in 1934, it is often grouped with the author's early, satirical comic novels for which he became famous in the pre– World War II years. Commentators have, ...

'', ''

Where Angels Fear to Tread ''Where Angels Fear to Tread'' (1905) is a novel by E. M. Forster. The title comes from a line in Alexander Pope's ''An Essay on Criticism'': "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread". The BBC adapted the novel for television in 1966 as ...

'', and '' FairyTale: A True Story'', based on the Cottingley Fairies story which won the BAFTA for Best Children's film 1998. He wrote and directed '' Lassie'' (2005), a remake of Eric Knight's children's story. He also directed the black-and-white segment " La Forza del Destino" in the anthology film ''

Aria In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

'' (1987). Other television work includes ''Soft Targets'' (1982), '' A Foreign Field'' (1985) and ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

'' (1996), which won six Emmys including Best Series and the Royal Television Society's Team award. In 2001, he wrote and directed ''

Longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

'', based on Dava Sobell's best selling life of the clockmaker

John Harrison John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea. Harrison's solution revol ...

which won the BANFF TV Festival Best Series award, two PAWS awards and five BAFTAs. In 2000, he formed Firstsight Films whose first production was an account of Sir

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of ...

's ''Endurance'' expedition, which Sturridge wrote and directed. The serial '' Shackleton'' (2002), which starred

Kenneth Branagh Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...

, was shot on location in the Arctic. It won the BAFTA for Best Series and Best Costume, and the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'' Audience award for Best Drama 2002, as well as being nominated for seven Primetime Emmys, winning for music and photography. Sturridge also contributed to ''

Beckett on Film ''Beckett on Film'' was a project aimed at making film versions of all nineteen of Samuel Beckett's stage plays, with the exception of the early and unperformed ''Eleutheria''. This endeavour was successfully completed, with the first films bei ...

'', part of a collaborative effort to film all of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

's plays with

Anthony Minghella Anthony Minghella, (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He won the Academy Award for Best Directo ...

Michael Lindsay-Hogg Sir Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 5th Baronet (born 5 May 1940) is an American-born television, film, music video, and theatre director. Beginning his career in British television, Lindsay-Hogg became a pioneer in music film production, directing ...

, and

Neil Jordan Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish film director, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. His first book, '' Night in Tunisia'', won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. He won an Academy ...

and

Patricia Rozema Patricia Rozema (born 20 August 1958) is a Canadian film director, writer and producer. She was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge in 1980s from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave. Early life Rozema was born in King ...

. Following Minghella's death in 2009, Sturridge became a director for his final project, the television series ''

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' is a series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith set in Botswana and featuring the character Mma Precious Ramotswe. The series is named after the first novel, published in 1998. Twenty-two novels have been p ...

''. In 2010, he returned to Manchester and ''Coronation Street'' to direct the story of the making of its first episode ''

The Road to Coronation Street ''The Road to Coronation Street'' is a 2010 British drama first broadcast on BBC Four. It is a dramatisation of the creation of '' Coronation Street'', the UK's longest-running television soap opera, from conception to its first transmission in ...

''. This television film won both the RTS and BAFTA awards for Best Single Drama 2011 and a Gold Medal at the New York Film and TV Festival in Las Vegas. In 2011, Sturridge directed a seven-minute short film, "Astonish Me", written by Stephen Poliakoff to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

. The film was shown in Odeon Cinemas in August 2011 and made available on the WWF website and YouTube. Sturridge's first professional theatre production was a musical version of Charles Dickens' '' Hard Times'' which he co-wrote and directed at the Belgrade Theatre Coventry; since then, occasional theatre work includes in 1985 ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' ( rus, Ча́йка, r=Cháyka, links=no) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises t ...

'' (also co-translator) with

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, tw ...

Natasha Richardson Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009) was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, Richardson was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaugh ...

and

Jonathan Pryce Sir Jonathan Pryce (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2021 he was ...

, and

's ''

Endgame Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to: Film * ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film) * ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film * ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...

'' (2006) with

Kenneth Cranham Kenneth Cranham (born 12 December 1944) is a Scottish film, television, radio and stage actor. Early life Cranham was born in Dunfermline, Fife, the son of Lochgelly-born Margaret McKay Cranham (née Ferguson) and Ronald Cranham, a London-bor ...

and

Peter Dinklage Peter Hayden Dinklage (; born June 11, 1969) is an American film, television and stage actor. He received international recognition for portraying Tyrion Lannister on the HBO television series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), for which he ...

which opened at Dublin's Gate Theatre on the centenary of Beckett's 100th birthday, and later transferred to the Barbican. He also directed Handel's ''

Tolomeo ''Tolomeo, re d'Egitto'' ("Ptolemy, King of Egypt", HWV 25) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel to an Italian text by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's ''Tolomeo et Alessandro''. It was Handel ...

'' (1998) for Broomhill Opera. In 2007, Sturridge joined the board of the Directors and Producers Rights Society, which, in 2008, widened its responsibilities and changed its name to

Directors UK Directors UK (previously DPRS) is the professional association for British directors working in the audiovisual sector, with over 4,500 members. The organisation is both a collective management organisation for the distribution of secondary rights ...

. The DUK currently has over 4,000 members and represents the creative and economic rights of UK film and television directors, with

Paul Greengrass Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of historic events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras. His early film ' ...

as President and Sturridge as the elected Chair.

Personal life

Sturridge married actress

Phoebe Nicholls Phoebe Sarah Nicholls (born 1957) is an English film, television, and stage actress. She is known for her roles as Cordelia Flyte in '' Brideshead Revisited'' and as the mother of John Merrick in '' The Elephant Man''. Personal life Nicholls ...

on 6 July 1985; they have two sons, including actor

Tom Sturridge Thomas Sidney Jerome Sturridge is an English actor. His early films include ''Being Julia'' (2004), ''Like Minds'' (2006), and ''The Boat That Rocked'' (2009). He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performances in ...

, and a daughter, actress Matilda Sturridge.

Filmography

Director

*1981: ''

'' *1982: '' Soft Targets'' *1983: '' Runners'' *1987: ''

'' (segment) *1988: ''

'' *1991: ''

'' *1993: '' A Foreign Field'' *1996: ''

'' *1997: '' FairyTale: A True Story'' *2000: ''

'' *2002: '' Shackleton'' *2005: '' Lassie'' *2008: ''

'' *2010: ''

'' *2011: '' Astonish Me'' *2012: ''

The Scapegoat A scapegoat is a goat used in a religious ritual or the victim of scapegoating, the singling out of a party for unmerited blame. Scapegoat or The Scapegoat may also refer to: Places * Scapegoat Wilderness, a Wilderness Area in Montana ** Scapeg ...

'' *2016: ''

Churchill's Secret ''Churchill's Secret'' is a British drama television film first broadcast on ITV1 on 28 February 2016. The screenplay was written by Stewart Harcourt based on the book ''The Churchill Secret: KBO'' by Jonathan Smith. It stars Michael Gambon as ...

'' *2018: ''

Marcella Marcella is a Roman cognomen and Italian given name, the feminine version of Marcello (Mark in English). Marcella means warlike, martial, and strong. It could also mean 'young warrior'. The origin of the name Marcella is Latin. Marcella may refer ...

Actor

*1967: ''

'' (TV Series) - Bertie (final appearance)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sturridge, Charles 1951 births Living people English television directors English male screenwriters English television writers Film directors from London Writers from London BAFTA winners (people) People educated at Stonyhurst College Alumni of University College, Oxford