British actor and author
Roger Lloyd Milner
(2 April 1925–22 February 2014) was a British actor, author and dramatist who is probably best remembered today for appearing in two of the
BBC
’s
A Ghost Story for Christmas
dramas in the 1970s. His "outrageous comedy"
How's the World Treating You?
(1965) gave
Patricia Routledge
her
West End
debut and her
Broadway
debut when it transferred there in 1966.
[1]
[2]
[3]
Early life and career
[
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]
Born in
Hexham
in
Northumberland
to a clergyman father and an Irish mother, Milner attended
St John's School
, a school for the sons of clergymen in
Leatherhead
in
Surrey
. He joined the British Army in 1943 during
World War II
and served in India,
[4]
being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in May 1945. After the War he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (
RADA
) where he graduated with an Acting Diploma in 1948.
[5]
He next attended
The Old Vic
theatre school where he practised honing his writing skills. His first professional acting role was with the Midland Theatre Company in
Coventry
, while his first known television role was as a Sentry in two episodes of the drama
Clementina
(1954).
[6]
He was Lieutenant in the
BBC
television production of
A Man for All Seasons
(1957) with
Bernard Hepton
in the title role.
[7]
Milner's first drama,
Reward in Heaven
, was produced at the
Sheffield Playhouse
in 1958. In 1959 he played Uncle in
Television for Children
,
[8]
and in the same year he married the actress Carol Snape (1934-2018) at
Ryton, Shropshire
. The couple had three sons, Jack, Richard and Henry.
[4]
He wrote the screenplay for the film
The Queen's Guards
(1961), directed by
Michael Powell
. Powell sold the story to
20th Century Fox
and the Queen gave her permission to film the Trooping of the Colour. Powell liked Milner, but said he was "more a sketch artist than a full blown dramatist" and "our collaboration was uneasy."
[9]
He later said the film was "a broken backed feature when it should have been a family saga and an epic of military glory... We shouldn't have tried to compete with
A. E. W. Mason
."
[10]
Milner's next play, the outrageous comedy
How's the World Treating You?
(1965), was first performed at the
New Arts Theatre Club
before transferring to
Wyndham's Theatre
and then to the
Comedy Theatre
.
[4]
It opened at the
Music Box Theatre
in New York starring
Patricia Routledge
,
Peter Bayliss
and
James Bolam
.
[2]
[11]
Philip Grout, the play's director, said that the cast was "helpless with laughter [and] unable to speak for several minutes" during the play’s first read-through. The critic for
The Times
wrote that, except for the third act, the play "... is one of the funniest, best directed, best acted and most sharply timed comedies ever seen in Hampstead". In 1965 Milner played J. G. Henshaw in "The Murder Market", an episode of
The Avengers
.
[6]
His play
The Upper Crust
(1968) played at the
Intimate Theatre
in
Palmers Green
and was directed by
Donald Sinden
and with performances by
Penelope Keith
and
Gwen Watford
. In June 1970 with his wife Carol Snape he acted in the
BBC Radio 4
Afternoon Theatre broadcast
Modest Old Chester
.
[12]
His next stage drama,
My Family Came Over with the Normans
(1972), a play about social class, premiered at the
Perth Theatre
. 1976 saw his
You'll Never Be Another Michael Angelo
open at the
Hampstead Theatre Club
, with the critic of
The Stage
describing it as "a sense of muddle, shot through with intelligence and invention".
[1]
Career change
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]
During this period of great success Milner was seriously injured in a car accident which left him with life threatening injuries. However, he survived but the accident seems to have affected his confidence in his writing skills and undermined the inventiveness of his comedy. Unable to write and with children to support Milner returned to acting, taking such roles on television as the antique shop owner in
A Warning to the Curious
(1972), and the clergyman in
Lost Hearts
(1973), both part of the
A Ghost Story for Christmas
strand for the
BBC
; Mortimer Brown, a photographer, in the three-part story, ' The Doll ', (1975); Ticket Collector in
Raven
(1977); the Rev. Barnwell in
Penmarric
(1979); the Rev. Francis Chaffney in
Prince Regent
(1979); as Wilcox the butler in
Brideshead Revisited
(1981), playing opposite two of his acting heroes,
John Gielgud
and
Laurence Olivier
. He appeared as Anicca in the
Doctor Who
episode '
Kinda
' (1982); as Solomon Gills in the mini-series
Dombey and Son
(1983); as Henry Herewith in the children's comedy
All Change
(1989-1991) opposite
Frankie Howerd
; the Headmaster in
Dark Season
(1991), and Pratt in
Middlemarch
(1994).
[1]
[6]
[7]
Stage appearances
[
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]
His stage appearances included
The School for Wives
at the
Sheffield Playhouse
(October 1955); Foigard in
The Beaux' Stratagem
(June ? July 1957) at the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
; Len in
The Real McCoy
(August 1964) at the Sheffield Playhouse; Bus Driver/Bus Conductor in
Flibberty and the Penguin
(December 1971 ? January 1972) at the
Swan Theatre
in
Worcester
; Scruple in
The Recruiting Officer
(April 1972) at the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
; Badger in
Toad of Toad Hall
(December 1975 ? January 1976) at the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
; Greville William Allnutt in a national tour of
For the West
for the
English Stage Company
(started 11 May 1977) and playing at the
National Theatre
, in London and the
Royal Court Theatre (Upstairs)
in London, among other venues; and Graaberg in
The Wild Duck
(1980 ? 1981) at the
Lyric Theatre
in
Hammersmith
.
[13]
Later works
[
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]
Eventually, Milner regained confidence in his writing ability and resumed writing dramas, working with the television producer
Innes Lloyd
from the
BBC
on
PQ17
(1981) concerning how during just one week in
World War II
24 British merchant ships were sunk in the Arctic.
[1]
He played Admiral Naismith in the production.
[7]
Other later works penned by Milner included several biographies, including
Reith
(1983), a biography about the founder of the
BBC
,
Lord Reith
;
Amy
(1984), was about
Amy Johnson
, the pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from
London
to
Australia
and who disappeared during a
ferry flight
. The television film
Across the Lake
(1988) saw
Anthony Hopkins
play
Donald Campbell
, the British speed record breaker who broke eight absolute world speed records on water and on land in the 1950s and 1960s. The film followed the last sixty days in the life of Campbell.
[1]
Roger Milner died in February 2014 in
Aylesbury
in
Buckinghamshire
aged 89.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Baker, Richard Anthony
.
Obituary for Roger Milner
,
The Stage
, 8 April 2014
- ^
a
b
Theater: British 'How's the World Treating You?'; Roger Milner's Comedy Opens at Music Box Patricia Routledge and Peter Bayliss in Cast
,
The New York Times
, 25 October 1966
- ^
How's the World Treating You?
,
Playbill
, October 1966
- ^
a
b
c
Milner, Roger.
About the Author
,
How's the World Treating You?
(1965), Dramatists Play Service, Inc. (1967),
Google Books
, p 3
- ^
Roger Milner
, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art database
- ^
a
b
c
Acting Credits for Roger Milner
, Aveleyman database
- ^
a
b
c
Filmography of Roger Milner
,
British Film Institute
(BFI) database
- ^
Television for Children
,
British Film Institute
(BFI) database
- ^
Powell, Michael
. Million Dollar Movie, Random House, p 409
- ^
Powell. 412
- ^
How's the World Treating You? (Oct 24, 1966 - Nov 26, 1966)
,
Internet Broadway Database
- ^
Modest Old Chester
, BBC Radio 4 Programmes Index,
Radio Times
, June 1970
- ^
Past Productions featuring Roger Milner
,
Theatricalia
database
External links
[
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]