John Tydeman
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John Peter Tydeman OBE (30 March 1936 – 1 April 2020) was an English producer of radio and director of theatre plays. He was responsible for commissioning and directing the early plays of Caryl Churchill,
Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brie ...
,
Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
and
Sue Townsend Susan Lillian Townsend, FRSL (née Johnstone, 2 April 194610 April 2014), was an English writer and humorist whose work encompasses novels, plays and works of journalism. She was best known for creating the character Adrian Mole. After writing ...
. Tydeman was the head of
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Radio Drama from 1986 to 1994.


Education and military service

Tydeman was educated at Hertford Grammar School and
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
. He served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Singapore Regiment of the Royal Artillery in Malaya, 1954–1956.


Early BBC career

Even before joining the BBC as a general trainee, following his graduation from Trinity in 1959, Tydeman had received a credit on the
BBC Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and intellectual f ...
, as an actor. He appeared in the radio broadcast of the Cambridge University
Marlowe Society The Marlowe Society is a Cambridge University theatre club for Cambridge students. It is dedicated to achieving a high standard of student drama at Cambridge. The society celebrated its centenary over three years (2007–2009) and in 2008 there wa ...
’s production of
Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
's ''
Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...
''. Tydeman played the Archbishop of Canterbury in a cast led by
Derek Jacobi Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as ''Hamlet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Macbeth'', ''Twelfth Night'', ''The Tempest'', ''King ...
as Edward II, and student contemporaries including John Drummond,
Clive Swift Clive Walter Swift (9 February 1936 – 1 February 2019) was an English actor and songwriter. A classically trained actor, his stage work included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he was best known to television viewers for h ...
and
Richard Cottrell Richard Cottrell (born 15 August 1936) is an English theatre director. He has been the Director of the Cambridge Theatre Company and the Bristol Old Vic in England, and of the Nimrod Theatre in Sydney, Australia. He has also directed for the Ro ...
, directed by Trinity alumnus
Toby Robertson Sholto David Maurice Robertson (29 November 1928, London - 4 July 2012, London), known as Toby Robertson, was the artistic director of the Prospect Theatre Company from 1964 to 1978. He was recognised as having "re-established the good name and ...
. ''Edward II'' was broadcast on 31 March 1959, and Tydeman joined the BBC as a general trainee later in the year, working in various parts of the Corporation, until he settled into the Radio Drama department. There he would cut his teeth on productions that would include many episodes of the popular radio soap, '' The Dales'', as well as forays into the classics. His first radio production credit in drama was ''Operation Toothless'', by Tom Waldron, on the
BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...
on 20 July 1959. Within four years. he would establish himself as one of the most dynamic new talents in radio drama, progressing through soap opera and the relentless demand for popular afternoon entertainment to the challenges of
Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...
’s ''
The Maids ''The Maids'' (french: Les Bonnes, links=no) is a 1947 play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris in a production that opened on 17 April 1947, which Louis Jouvet directed. The pla ...
'' (with
Sian Phillips Sian or Siyan may refer to: __NOTOC__ People *Siân, a Welsh girl's name; list of people with this name Places *Sian, Iran (disambiguation), various places in Iran *Sian, Russia, a rural locality in Amur Oblast, Russia *Xi'an, China, formerly roman ...
), and working with many of the leading actors of the time, from radio stalwarts such as
Mary Wimbush Mary Wimbush (19 March 1924 – 31 October 2005) was an English actress whose career spanned 60 years. Active across film, television, theatre and radio, she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1969 film ''Oh! ...
to rising talents such as Michael Bryant and John Wood. He also put his hand to adapting works such as Rudyard Kipling’s ''
Kim Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...
'', Henry James’s ''
The Turn of the Screw ''The Turn of the Screw'' is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in ''Collier's Weekly'' (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in ''The Two Magics'', published by Macmill ...
'' and Jane Austen’s '' Emma''. Among the writers he would produce were
David Rudkin James David Rudkin (born 29 June 1936) is an English playwright . Early life Rudkin was born in London. Coming from a family of strict evangelical Christians, he was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and read Mods and Greats at St ...
, '' Cries from Casement as His Bones are Brought to Dublin'' (1973), Edward Bond (''Narrow Road to the Deep North''),
William Trevor William Trevor Cox (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the ...
(''Scenes from an Album'') and
David Cregan David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
and Tom Stoppard on many occasions. Although Caryl Churchill’s first play for radio, ''The Ants'' (produced by
Michael Bakewell Michael Bakewell (born 1931) is a British television producer. Bakewell was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire in England. He is best known for his work during the 1960s, when he was the first Head of Plays at the BBC, after Sydney Newman divid ...
, was broadcast three times in 1962-63, the recording was not retained in the
BBC Archives BBC Archives are collections documenting the BBC's broadcasting history, including copies of television and radio broadcasts, internal documents, photographs, online content, sheet music, commercially available music, BBC products (including ...
. For Churchill, as for Stoppard, the freedom of the radio form was significant in the development of their writing. Churchill’s work with Tydeman shows an unfettered imagination at work. The plays ''Identical Twins'', ''Shreber’s Nervous Illness'', ''Henry’s Past'', ''Abortive'', ''Not, Not, Not, Not, Not Enough Oxygen'' and ''Perfect Happiness'' do survive in the BBC, and foreshadow the freedom and discipline of her later stage work.
Kenneth Haigh Kenneth William Michael Haigh (25 March 1931 – 4 February 2018) was an English actor. He first came to public recognition for playing the role of Jimmy Porter in the play ''Look Back in Anger'' in 1956 opposite Mary Ure in London's West End ...
’s performance as twin brothers in ''Identical Twins'', a 'duologue', is a tour-de-force of radio acting and writing.


Association with Joe Orton

Early in his BBC career, Tydeman became inextricably linked with
Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brie ...
, whom he was widely seen to have discovered. Tydeman saw his championing of Orton as more of a successful rescue from the rejection pile, as he recorded his memories for the BBC at the time of retirement as Head of Radio Drama in 1994. "The truth of that particular story is that I was in the Drama Department, very fresh from university, on an attachment basis as a trainee and a very extraordinary fresh script arrived, which was about to be sent back ... It wasn't like anything else I’d read. It was called ''The Boy Hairdresser'' ... By some chance I read it, and I went to
Donald McWhinnie Donald McWhinnie (16 October 1920 – 8 October 1987) was a BBC executive and later a radio, television, and stage director. Educated at Rotherham Grammar School, McWhinnie worked for the BBC in administrative roles in the 1940s and 1950s and w ...
, who was then Assistant Head of the radio drama department, and I said, 'I think it's remarkable, I think it's quite wrong that it should be sent back.' Donald read it and said, 'Yes, there's a talent here. Why don’t you see the young man'?" Tydeman also told that story to Brian Jarman of the ''Fitzrovia News'' in 2011, in an interview when he was still living in his flat in
Great Titchfield Street Great Titchfield Street is a street in the West End of London. It runs north from Oxford Street to Greenwell Street, just short of the busy A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road. It lies within the informally designated London area of Fitzrovi ...
, parallel to BBC
Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The main ...
where he had worked for more than 30 years. He talked about Orton’s first appearance at Broadcasting House: "Joe was wearing
bovver boot A bovver boot is a type of boot that has been associated with violence. Such boots are generally of sturdy design and may be steel-toed. They have been considered as offensive weapons used by hooligans for kicking opponents while street fighting ...
s and
khaki The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge. Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage relative to sandy ...
. He said he’d just come out of prison. He’d been had up for defacing library books. He was revolutionary. I was a bit daunted." Orton had been released from prison in September, 1962, where he had written much of ''The Boy Hairdresser'', the first script he had written independently of collaborations with his lover,
Kenneth Halliwell Kenneth Leith Halliwell (23 June 1926 – 9 August 1967) was a British actor, writer and collagist. He was the mentor, boyfriend and murderer of playwright Joe Orton. Childhood Halliwell was born in Bebington. He was very close to his moth ...
. The couple had been sent to different prisons for the same offence of defacing library books. After the script’s journey through the radio drama department, Tydeman then guided it through three revisions, and when Orton came in to discuss the final draft, now called ''The Ruffian on the Stair'', he presented Tydeman with a new script. As Tydeman tells it on the BBC History website, Orton said, "I don’t think it’s a radio play." Tydeman flicked through it: it was ''
Entertaining Mr Sloane ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' is a three-act play written in 1963 by the English playwright Joe Orton. It was first produced in London at the New Arts Theatre on 6 May 1964 and transferred to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre on 29 June 1964. Plo ...
''. "I was just dazzled by what I saw. 'Have you got an agent?' And he said, 'No. I haven’t' and I said, 'The best agent is, in my opinion, is Margaret Ramsay,
Peggy Ramsay Margaret Francesca Ramsay (27 May 1908 - 4 September 1991) was an Australian-born British theatrical agent.Christopher Stevens ''Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams'', London: John Murray, 2010, p.409 Early life Peggy Ramsay was bor ...
. Get in touch with her, say that I sent you. And she can be a bit of a cow. But if the chemistry’s right, it’ll be terrific'." "About a week later the phone rang, and it was Peggy, and Peggy Ramsay and I had a very good relationship, and she said, 'What’s this, darling? You’ve been calling me a cow all around London'." "I said, I’ve done no such thing, Peggy. 'Yes, you have. A young man came to see and he said you said I was a cow. I may be a perfect bitch at times, but I’m not a cow. Darling, it’s absolutely brilliant. I’ve been on to
Michael Codron Sir Michael Victor Codron (born 8 June 1930) is a British theatre producer, known for his productions of the early work of Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Simon Gray and Tom Stoppard. He has been honoured with a Laurence Olivi ...
and we’re going to put it on in eight weeks'. " "And they got that play on in at the
Arts Theatre The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. History It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamber ...
, directed by Patrick Dromgoole, before I got the radio play on. I would say it was about ten weeks of Joe Orton having been in my office that they got the play on. As a result of that, Joe and I remained friends all of his short life." ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' opened at the Arts Theatre, London, on 6 May 1964. ''The Ruffian on the Stair'' was first broadcast on the Third Programme on 31 August 1964, with the 19-year-old actor
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 ...
as the ‘ruffian’.


Later BBC career

One of the most prolific of radio directors, Tydeman directed 27 of
Rhys Adrian Rhys Adrian Griffiths (28 February 1928 – 8 February 1990) was a British playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for his radio plays, which are characterised by their emphasis upon dialogue rather than narrative. Radio dramatist Rhys A ...
’s more than 30 plays for radio, including the
Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...
winning ''Evelyn'' (1970) and Prix Futura winning ''The Clerks'' (1979). (
Michael Bakewell Michael Bakewell (born 1931) is a British television producer. Bakewell was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire in England. He is best known for his work during the 1960s, when he was the first Head of Plays at the BBC, after Sydney Newman divid ...
directed five of Adrian’s plays, and Ronald Mason directed two.) He commissioned and directed
Sue Townsend Susan Lillian Townsend, FRSL (née Johnstone, 2 April 194610 April 2014), was an English writer and humorist whose work encompasses novels, plays and works of journalism. She was best known for creating the character Adrian Mole. After writing ...
’s first Mole script for
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
, when the character was still known as Nigel, in ''The Diary of Nigel Mole Aged 13 ¾'', and he then entered into a correspondence with the fictional Adrian who submitted his poetry efforts to Tydeman at the BBC. It was Tydeman who brought Townsend together with the publisher Methuen after that first broadcast. Tydeman himself became a quasi-fictional character in Townsend's Mole novels. Tydeman became Assistant Head, Radio Drama (AHDR) in 1979, and succeeded Ronald Mason as Head of Radio Drama (HDR) in 1986. He retired from the BBC in 1994, but continued to produce radio plays as an independent.


Other activities and honours

Tydeman’s association with Peggy Ramsay continued after he introduced her to Joe Orton. After Ramsay died in 1991 he became a trustee for the Peggy Ramsay Foundation, leading to his continued support for new writing after he left the BBC, particularly through administering the Foundation’s annual grant to the
Pearson Playwrights' Scheme Pearson Playwrights' Scheme (formerly Thames Television Theatre Writers Scheme) is a British organisation established in 1973 to support theatre writing. It runs the Pearson Award for Best New Play. History In 1973, Howard Thomas, then managing ...
, (originally the
Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...
Theatre Writers Scheme and later to become the
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
Playwrights Scheme). Tydeman's stage productions included Caryl Churchill's ''Objections to Sex and Violence'' (
Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...
, 1975),
David Buck David Keith Rodney Buck (17 October 1933 – 27 January 1989) was an English actor. Buck was born in London, the son of Joseph Buck and Enid Marguerite (née Webb). He starred in many television productions from 1959 until 1989. One of his ea ...
's dramatisation of
Robert Nye The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, hono ...
’s ''Falstaff'' (
Fortune Theatre The Fortune Theatre is a 432-seat West End theatre on Russell Street, near Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster. Since 1989 the theatre has hosted the long running play ''The Woman in Black''. History The site was acquired by author, playw ...
, 1984) and
Emlyn Williams George Emlyn Williams, CBE (26 November 1905 – 25 September 1987) was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor. Early life Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at 1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flints ...
's ''
Night Must Fall ''Night Must Fall'' is a play, a psychological thriller, by Emlyn Williams, first performed in 1935. There have been three film adaptations, '' Night Must Fall'' (1937); a 1954 adaptation on the television anthology series ''Ponds Theater'' sta ...
'' (
Haymarket Theatre The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote ...
, 1996). He was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(OBE) in the 2003 New Year Honours for services to radio broadcasting. He received numerous other awards, including the
Radio Academy The Radio Academy is a registered charity dedicated to "the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production". It was formed in 1983 and is run via a board of trustees, with a chair and a deputy chair ...
’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2010.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tydeman, John 1936 births 2020 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge BBC executives BBC radio producers British radio producers English theatre directors Officers of the Order of the British Empire Prix Italia winners