34-503: Birkinshaw may refer to: People with the surname [ edit ] Alan Birkinshaw (born 1944), British film director and producer James Birkinshaw (born 1980), English speedway rider John Birkinshaw , English railway engineer Julian Birkinshaw , English academic Mark Birkinshaw , British physicist Steve Birkinshaw , British fell runner William Birkinshaw Wilkinson (1854–1927), British businessman Topics referred to by
68-469: A few months working as a jackaroo in the Australian outback , he became a horse breaker and rodeo rider. Returning to England, he joined the camera department of Lew Grade 's Associated TeleVision on his 20th birthday. He worked his way up to directing, firstly in television and then via the world of commercials, into television movies and feature films. After leaving ATV, Birkinshaw worked as
102-558: A freelance television cameraman. Such was the demand, he was often working seven days a week – in the television studios during the week and on outside broadcasts at the weekend. He could be working with Billy Fury, Diana Dors and Orson Welles one day, and then go on to cover the Wales - Scotland Football Match at Cardiff the next (that was the weekend of the Aberfan Pit Disaster.) He shot the first faltering steps on dry land of
136-671: A leader in the Easter Rising , who died in the fighting in Dublin in April 1916. O'Rahilly described himself as a rebel who had been expelled from school seven times. He started living in London at the age of 17. Before he founded Radio Caroline, O'Rahilly started training in method acting in London, frequented nightclubs and became acquainted with such entertainment industry figures as Giorgio Gomelsky and Simon Dee . He then ran
170-524: A lot of 'get up and go' and verve. He helped to launch the Animals". He tried to persuade radio stations to play a promotional acetate record by Georgie Fame, a practice that was almost unheard of at the time. He took the record to the BBC to try to get it played, and discovered that the record industry was dominated by EMI and Decca . He then tried to get it played on Radio Luxembourg and again found that
204-599: A night club, the Scene, off Great Windmill Street in Soho , London, where in 1963 the Rolling Stones played, amongst others including Zoot Money and Chris Farlowe . He became the manager of musicians, such as Alexis Korner and Georgie Fame , and helped to persuade the Animals to move to London. Alan Price said of O'Rahilly: "Ronan knew how things were done; he was very hip, he really fancied himself, but he had
238-608: A seven-film Bond contract on grounds that the James Bond character was out of touch with the times, and would not successfully continue into the 1970s. Of this advice, Roger Moore said in his autobiography, My Word Is My Bond , "George took some bad advice ... I knew George then and have met him many times since. He admits he made a mistake". O'Rahilly also appeared in Lazenby's film Universal Soldier where both men were credited as executive producers. O'Rahilly briefly managed
272-555: Is a New Zealand born Britisher. Punch was followed by more work in Germany where Birkinshaw directed several episodes of the action series Zorc , starring the volatile German actor, Klaus Löwitsch and Michele Marian , and three 90 minute episodes of Die Unbestechliche , starring Maja Maranow and Martin Benrath . Between his assignments in Germany, Birkinshaw directed several episodes of Space Precinct , at
306-461: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Alan Birkinshaw Alan Birkinshaw , FRGS (born 15 June 1944) is a British film director, writer, and television and film producer. The son of two physicians, Birkinshaw always wanted to be an actor, but at 17, having failed his audition at LAMDA, he decided that if he couldn't act it, he'd do it for real. He travelled to Australia, and after
340-434: Is still being sold all over the world, and has since become a cult classic film. Realising that making a movie was only one element in the chain of bringing back the investment of movie finance, Birkinshaw set up his own distribution company, West World Films - with moderate success. But it was soon back to production and he produced a cinema documentary Once Upon A Chance which followed a young adventurer travelling around
374-643: The Indian Mutiny of 1857. Questions were asked in the Lok Sabha, Indian Parliament, as to why an English director had been employed to make a film about Indian's National Hero, and not an Indian director. Returning from India, Birkinshaw directed several movies from original stories by Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe with stars such as Oliver Reed , Donald Pleasence , Donald Sutherland , Herbert Lom , Brenda Vaccaro and Moira Lister – Ten Little Indians , The House of Usher and Masque of
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#1732794605975408-541: The American rock band The MC5 in the early 1970s. Later in the decade, claiming that people "found it easier to talk about hate than love", and influenced by spiritual leader Ram Dass , he developed the philosophy of "Loving Awareness", which was then heavily promoted on Caroline. In 1976 an album of songs based on the concept was recorded by the Loving Awareness Band, a group assembled by O'Rahilly for
442-555: The Red Death . Birkinshaw also directed the boxing movie Punch starring Donald Sutherland and Swiss actor, Ernst Sigrist, based on a true story of the Swiss champion boxer, Walter Blaser. The boxing sequences were hailed as extraordinary given the time and the budget. There was a certain amount of controversy at the time around Birkinshaw's role as director of Punch , as the movie was a Swiss German French co-production and Birkinshaw
476-606: The Royal Choral Society - The Best of Gilbert and Sullivan. , This was followed by An Orchestral Tribute to the Beatles with Joan Collins presenting the 140 piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Choral Society, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth ll, The Duke of Edinburgh and Paul McCartney . A third concert in the Albert Hall was Not So Silent Night – A Christmas story told in carols. This
510-598: The co-founder of Carphone Warehouse ) and publisher Jocelyn Stevens . In 1965, the Caroline and Atlanta companies merged under the Radio Caroline name, their two ships giving greater coverage of the United Kingdom. Broadcasts ceased in 1968, the ships' operations having been hampered by UK legislation in the previous year, which also saw new competition from the BBC's Radio 1 . O'Rahilly was involved in
544-419: The creation of the offshore radio station, Radio Caroline . He also became manager of George Lazenby , who played James Bond in one film. O'Rahilly was born in Dublin, the third of five children. His parents owned the private port at Greenore , County Louth , on Carlingford Lough . His grandfather Michael O'Rahilly ( The O'Rahilly ) was an important figure in the quest for the independence of Ireland ,
578-539: The director of the London Zoo described Birkinshaw as 'barmy'. One of his early films was Killer's Moon . Killer's Moon was described in the acclaimed "Shepperton Babylon" as the most tasteless movie in the history of the British Cinema. In spite of comments like this, Killer's Moon continues to receive write ups in important film magazines and cinema books, and some 40 years after its first release,
612-660: The early 70's, Birkinshaw directed several promotional films for the Central Office of Information, extolling the virtues of British Steel and other home-grown British products. A safety film was made for the Royal Navy on How to get out of a helicopter when it's crashed into the sea and turned upside down , for which Birkinshaw had to undergo an Aircrew Underwater Escape Training course at the Royal Navy Survival School. A female journalist reviewing
646-517: The film in Ireland, was driving home after the screening, when she lost control of her car which ended upside down in a fast flowing river. Following the instructions in the film she had just seen, she was able to escape with her life. Birkinshaw directed a ground-breaking, before-its-time, light entertainment show beamed down to the UK from a circling airplane. This was for a pirate TV station run by
680-539: The first Round the World solo yachtsman, Francis Chichester, and recorded the visit of American President Richard Nixon to Downing Street. At age 22 he directed and produced his first television drama, A Nice Dream While It Lasted , written by his sister, renowned author Fay Weldon . At 24 Birkinshaw was directing television programs for Westward Television and then London Weekend Television, including quiz shows, farming programs, live television news shows and drama. In
714-533: The greatest works by the world's classical sculptors. The Creation of Adam , based on Michelangelo 's work in the Sistine Chapel is one, and the story of Alexander the Great 's triumphant march into Babylon, original by the famed neo-classical sculptor, Bertel Thorvaldsen , is another. During his spare time, Birkinshaw makes promotional videos of his home town, Kingston upon Thames , on his iPhone, under
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#1732794605975748-625: The life of Jawaharlal Nehru , entitled But I Have Promises To Keep , which had been commissioned by Rajiv Gandhi and was made for the Government of India via Doordarshan , the national television network of India. The film was supposed to take three months in production, but ended up taking a year and a half. Now residing in an apartment in Saket, a suburb of Delhi , Birkinshaw used his spare time to study ancient Indian civilisations and artefacts, and research into his favourite historical subject,
782-502: The production of a number of films, including as executive producer on the Marianne Faithfull film The Girl on a Motorcycle and on Two Virgins featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono . O'Rahilly became manager of the Australian model-turned-actor George Lazenby , who played James Bond in one film. During production of the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service , O'Rahilly talked Lazenby into refusing
816-548: The production title Laughin' Dog . He has also written 3 books, 2 for children, “Heidi and the Elephant” and “The Fat Swan”, and an adventure novel entitled “The Road to Malabar” about the hunt for the Peacock Throne, using the pen name, Rayle Mackenzie. (Mackenzie is Birkinshaw's middle name. ) Ronan O%27Rahilly Aodogán Ronan O'Rahilly (21 May 1940 – 20 April 2020) was an Irish businessman best known for
850-785: The purpose. Several members of the band went on to form the Blockheads . In December 2007, O'Rahilly was inducted as a Fellow of the Radio Academy . O'Rahilly was inducted into the Hall Of Fame at the PPI Radio Awards, held at the Lyrath Hotel, Kilkenny , Ireland, on 12 October 2012. In 2012, O'Rahilly was diagnosed with vascular dementia and returned to live in County Louth , Ireland, in sight of
884-404: The reappearance of Radio Caroline in several forms during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1966, O'Rahilly gave businessman Phil Solomon a share in Radio Caroline, and with him set up Major Minor Records , whose acts including The Dubliners and David McWilliams were then promoted by the station. O'Rahilly also attempted, but failed, to set up a Caroline TV station. In 1968, he became involved in
918-470: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Birkinshaw . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Birkinshaw&oldid=890031635 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description
952-487: The shows were "owned" by major labels EMI, Decca, Pye and Philips . They were essentially " payola " shows, featuring only music from labels willing and able to pay for them to be played. He then set about creating the pirate radio station Radio Caroline , which began broadcasting in 1964 from a ship, the MV Caroline, anchored in international waters off the coast of Essex , eastern England. The idea for
986-553: The station was based partly on a plan by Australian music publisher Allan Crawford (who had spent almost two years planning the launch of Radio Atlanta ) and also on Radio Veronica , which had been broadcasting off the Netherlands since 1960. Radio Caroline was largely funded by financier John Sheffield (great uncle of Samantha Cameron ) and Carl Ross (creator of the Ross fishery frozen food business and grandfather of David Ross ,
1020-529: The then infamous Ronan O'Rahilly , who began the first-ever pirate radio station, Radio Caroline in the 1960s. Soon after that, he turned to documentaries and commercials and then moved into the world of feature films. In the mid 1970s, Birkinshaw's production of Alice in Wonderland ran into difficulties when the RSPCA banned him from using live flamingos in the croquet scene. In an interview with ITN,
1054-414: The time the most expensive TV series ever made. Making films and documentaries in far flung locations like Cuba, Florida and Singapore was becoming the norm for Birkinshaw, and after directing several documentaries about the making of the famous Unipart Calendar, he realised that there was life other than in movies, and his passion for telling stories took him into the world of sculpture, recreating some of
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1088-701: The world in less than 48 hours on £50. The premiere of this took place in the ABC Cinema in London's Shaftesbury Avenue. In the early 80's, Birkinshaw made another cinema documentary about the Henley Royal Regatta , and a short cinema thriller which he wrote and directed called Dead End . This was followed by several concerts in the Albert Hall, The first, a dramatized concert which Birkinshaw also wrote, featuring Gilbert and Sullivan (played by Peter Cellier as Gilbert and John Rapley as Sullivan) watching their works performed by guest soloists and
1122-616: Was in the presence of HRHs Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. After signing a contract on the back of a napkin in a restaurant on the Champs-Élysées, Birkinshaw was hired to direct an action adventure movie variously called Greed and Invaders of the Lost Gold . This movie was shot in the Philippines and starred Stuart Whitman , Harold Sakata , Edmund Purdom and English actress Glynis Barber . The original screenplay
1156-567: Was unworkable and Birkinshaw had to re-write the next day's script overnight, presenting the actors the latest version each day at the breakfast table. Birkinshaw also contributed to two feature films: Don’t Open Till Christmas (using the pseudonym Al McGoohan as writer and additional director), and directed additional action scenes in the Agatha Christie story Ordeal by Innocence , starring Donald Sutherland . In 1986, Birkinshaw went to India where he directed an award-winning film on
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