28 November 2019

Spitalfields Life: So Long, Jonathan Miller

Jonathan Miller, English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist, and medical doctor, died this week at the age of eighty-five.

What isn't covered in the Wikipedia article linked above, his family origins, is nicely treated in a blog post by The Gentle Author with a description of his conflicted views of his Spitalfields Jewish origins.
“I’m not interested in my ancestry,” “I’m descended from chimpanzees but I am not interested in them either.”

2 comments:

Gail Benjafield said...

The Gentle Author blog is just lovely. Wonderful interview with Miller, and remarkable photographs. I shall look for more on that Blog.

For those of us who remember Beyond the Fringe, only Alan Bennett still remains. His body of work certainly matches that of Miller. All four were great talents in their own way.

Gail B

Anonymous said...

Thank you John. I was not aware that he had passed away. I am a big fan of the diaries of Alan Bennett, who was with Miller, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook in Beyond the Fringe. Classic humour. Cheers, BT