Chronology

Jonathan Miller’s career presents a challenge to those who seek to summarise it with economy. The following timeline is therefore heavily abbreviated, taking in key works but with an emphasis on activities – particularly in prose and broadcasting – which are of greater relevance to One Thing and Another. For a definitive Life, I commend to you Kate Bassett’s carefully researched and highly entertaining In Two Minds: A Biography of Jonathan Miller (London: Oberon Books, 2012). This also furnishes the reader with a comprehensive Chronology (pp. 421– 436). In addition, I am indebted to Ronald Bergan and the editor of Miller’s Subsequent Performances for earlier efforts to put such a diverse career into perspective.

1934

Jonathan Wolfe Miller is born in London on 21 July.

1937

Birth of sister, Sarah.

1939–53

Attends various schools during the war, then Arnold House prep school in London (1945–47) and St Paul’s School for Boys, London (1947–53).

1953–56

Studies natural sciences at St John’s College, Cambridge.

Stage:

Out of the Blue, Between the Lines.

Radio:

The Cambridge University Footlights ‘Take the Mike’ (BBC Home), The Man from Paranoia: A Thing for Radio (BBC Home), Under Twenty Parade (BBC Light).

TV:

Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV).

Journalism:

Gadfly, Granta, Varsity.

1956

Marries Rachel Collet.

1956–59

Studies at University College Hospital, London. Qualifies as a doctor.

Radio:

Monday Night at Home (BBC Home), Saturday Night on the Light (BBC Light).

TV:

Tonight (BBC TV).

Stage:

Bright Periods.

Journalism:

Spectator, UCH Magazine.

1960

Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.

Stage:

Beyond the Fringe (Edinburgh).

Radio:

Monday Night at Home (BBC Home).

Journalism:

Queen, Spectator, Twentieth Century, UCH Magazine.

1961

Resigns position at Addenbrooke’s. Takes up part time work at Royal Marsden in Chelsea and London Hospital in Whitechapel.

Stage:

Beyond the Fringe (London).

Radio:

Monday Night at Home (BBC Home).

TV:

Tempo (ABC/ITV).

Journalism:

Lancet, New Statesman, Observer, Sight and Sound, Spectator, Twentieth Century.

1962

Birth of first son, Tom.

Stage:

Beyond the Fringe (New York), Under Plain Cover (Royal Court).

Radio:

The Alberts (BBC Third), The Art Trade Runner (BBC Third).

Journalism:

Daily Herald, New Statesman, Observer, Private Eye, Punch, Sunday Times, Times.

1963

 

Radio:

East-Side Taxi Driver (BBC Third).

TV:

What’s Going On Here? (NBC).

Journalism:

Commentary, New Society, New Statesman, New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Partisan Review, Sunday Times.

1964

Birth of second son, William.

TV:

Monitor (editor; BBC1), A Trip to the Moon (CBS).

Film:

One Way Pendulum (Woodfall).

Stage:

The Old Glory (New York).

Journalism:

New Statesman, New York Review of Books, New York Times, Observer, Partisan Review, Radio Times, Times Literary Supplement.

1965

 

TV:

Monitor (editor; BBC1), BBC-3 (BBC1), Profiles in Courage: The Anne Hutchinson Story (NBC), The Drinking Party (BBC1).

Journalism:

New Statesman, New York Times, Observer.

1966

 

TV:

Alice in Wonderland (BBC1), On the Margin (BBC2), Mr Sludge, the Medium (BBC1), The Death of Socrates (BBC1).

Journalism:

Listener, New York Review of Books, Punch, Radio Times, Sunday Times Magazine, Vogue.

Books:

Designs jacket for The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby by Tom Wolfe.

1967

Birth of third child, Kate.

 

Member of Royal Society study group.

Stage:

Prometheus Bound (Yale).

Journalism:

Guardian, Listener, New York Times, Punch, Times Literary Supplement, Vogue.

1968

 

TV:

Whistle and I’ll Come To You (BBC1), From Chekhov with Love (Rediffusion).

Stage:

The School for Scandal (Nottingham), The Seagull (Nottingham).

Film:

Scotch.

Journalism:

Architectural Design, Listener, Observer, Sunday Times, Vogue.

Books:

Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood.

1969

 

TV:

The Zoo in Winter (BBC2).

Film:

Take A Girl Like You (Columbia; released 1970).

Stage:

Twelfth Night (Oxford and Cambridge Shakespeare Company), King Lear (Nottingham).

Journalism:

Radio Times, Vogue.

1970

Develops work on mesmerism via an honorary research fellowship at University College London.

Stage:

The Merchant of Venice (National Theatre), The Tempest (Mermaid), Hamlet (OCSC).

TV:

Canvas: Illumination (BBC2).

Radio:

Dickens (BBC Radio 3).

Journalism:

Punch.

1971

 

Stage:

Julius Caesar (OCSC), Danton’s Death (NT).

TV:

West Side Stories (BBC2).

Radio:

Prometheus Bound (BBC Radio 3), Jonathan Miller on the Television Picture (BBC Radio 3).

Lectures:

Thank-Offering to Britain Fund Lecture (“Censorship and the limits of permission”), Royal Institution (“Alternative worlds”).

Journalism:

Vogue.

1972

 

Stage:

Richard II (Los Angeles), The Taming of the Shrew (Chichester), Noye’s Fludde (first opera; Roundhouse).

Radio:

Man: the Double Animal (BBC Radio 3).

Books:

Freud: The Man, His World, His Influence (editor).

Lectures:

Institute of Contemporary Arts.

1973

Appointed associate director of the National Theatre.

Stage:

The Malcontent (Nottingham), Measure for Measure (NT).

TV:

Charles Darwin Lived Here (BBC2), Clay (BBC2).

Radio:

Mesmerism in Nineteenth-Century England (BBC Radio 3).

Lectures:

Conway Memorial Lecture (“The uses of pain”).

Books:

The Uses of Pain.

Journalism:

Times.

1974

 

Stage:

Family Romances (Greenwich), The Marriage of Figaro (NT), The Freeway (NT), Arden Must Die (Sadler’s Wells), Così fan Tutte (Kent Opera).

TV:

The Merchant of Venice (ATV).

1975

Resigns from National Theatre.

Stage:

The Importance of Being Earnest (Greenwich), Bed Tricks (Greenwich), The Cunning Little Vixen (Glyndebourne), Rigoletto (Kent Opera).

TV:

King Lear (BBC1).

Radio:

The Strongest Influence in My Life (BBC Radio 4).

Journalism:

Sunday Times.

1976

 

Stage:

Three Sisters (Guildford), Orfeo (Kent Opera), A Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick (Amnesty).

Lectures:

Marsden Lecture.

Journalism:

New York Review of Books.

1977

 

Stage:

Eugene Onegin (Kent Opera), An Evening Without Bernard Miles (Amnesty).

Lectures:

T. S. Eliot Memorial Lecture.

1978

 

TV:

The Body in Question (BBC2).

Stage:

The Marriage of Figaro (ENO debut).

Books:

The Body in Question.

1979

Appointed associate director of ENO (until 1988).

TV:

The Body in Question (BBC2), Cities (ITV; transmitted 1981), Orfeo (BBC2).

Stage:

She Would if She Could (Greenwich), The Flying Dutchman (Frankfurt), La Traviata (Kent Opera), The Turn of the Screw (ENO), The Secret Policeman’s Ball (Amnesty).

1980

 

TV:

Television Shakespeare (producer; BBC2).

Stage:

Arabella (ENO), Falstaff (Kent Opera).

1981

 

TV:

Television Shakespeare (producer; BBC2).

Stage:

Otello (ENO).

Radio:

Transformations (BBC Radio 4).

1982

Made honorary fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge.

Stage:

Hamlet (Donmar Warehouse), Così fan Tutte (St Louis), Fidelio (Kent Opera), Rigoletto (ENO).

TV:

Television Shakespeare (producer; BBC2), King Lear (BBC2).

Lectures:

Samuel Gee Lecture (“A Gower Street Scandal”).

1983

Awarded CBE. Joins University of Sussex on a three-year research placement, which is ultimately aborted.

TV:

The Beggar’s Opera (BBC2), States of Mind (BBC2).

Stage:

The Magic Flute (Glasgow).

Radio:

Transformations (BBC Radio 4).

Lectures:

MacTaggart Lecture (“Valete”), Ernest Jones Lecture, Happiness Lecture.

Journalism:

The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

Books:

States of Mind: Conversations with Psychological Investigators, The Human Body.

1984

Appointed chairman of Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

TV:

Ivan (BBC2).

Books:

The Facts of Life.

Lectures:

Clark Lectures.

1985

 

Stage:

Don Giovanni (ENO).

Books:

Steps and Stairs.

Lectures:

US tour.

1986

 

Stage:

Long Day’s Journey into Night (Broadway), The Mikado (ENO), Tosca (Maggio Musicale).

TV:

Virtuoso (Channel 4), Origins (BBC2), Così fan Tutte (BBC2), Prisoners of Consciousness (Channel 4).

Lectures:

Royal Society (Images and Understanding symposium), FT Arts Lecture.

Books:

Subsequent Performances.

1987

 

Stage:

The Emperor (Royal Court), The Barber of Seville (ENO), Tristan und Isolde (LA Opera).

TV:

Long Day’s Journey into Night (Showtime), Acting (BBC2).

Radio:

Helen Lessore: A Life Among Paintings (BBC Radio 3).

Journalism:

Cortex.

1988

Appointed artistic director of Old Vic.

Stage:

Andromache (Old Vic), One Way Pendulum (Old Vic), Bussy D’Ambois (Old Vic), The Tempest (Old Vic), Candide (Old Vic), The Taming of the Shrew (RSC debut).

TV:

My God (Channel 4), The Emperor (BBC2), Four Virtuosos (Channel 4).

Books:

Laughing Matters: A Serious Look at Humour (co-editor).

Journalism:

Granta.

1989

 

Stage:

The Liar (Old Vic), King Lear (Old Vic), La Traviata (Glimmerglass), Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (LA Opera).

TV:

Who Cares? (BBC2), Dialogue in the Dark (BBC2), Moving Pictures (Channel 4).

Lectures:

Darwin College Lecture (“Communication without words”), Squiggle Foundation (“King Lear in rehearsal”), Kennedy Lecture.

Journalism:

Independent.

1990

 

Stage:

Don Giovanni (Maggio Musicale).

TV:

What’s So Funny About That? (BBC1), Born Talking (BBC2).

Books:

The Don Giovanni Book: Myths of Seduction and Betrayal (editor).

1991

 

Stage:

La Fanciulla del West (La Scala), Katya Kabanova (New York Met), Turn of the Screw (LA), The Marriage of Figaro (Vienna), Così fan Tutte (Maggio Musicale), The Magic Flute (Tel Aviv), Fidelio (Glimmerglass).

TV:

Who Cares Now? (BBC2), Madness (BBC2).

1992

 

Stage:

The Double Dealer (Gate), Roberto Devereux (Monte Carlo), Manon Lescaut (La Scala), The Marriage of Figaro (Maggio Musicale), Il Matrimonio Segreto (Glimmerglass), Ermione (Omaha), Die Gezeichneten (Zürich).

Books:

The Afterlife of Plays.

Journalism:

Scientific American.

1993

 

Stage:

The St Matthew Passion (London), Maria Stuarda (Monte Carlo), Capriccio (Berlin), Maria Stuarda (Buxton Festival), Fedora (Bregenz Festival), Ariadne auf Naxos (Broomhill), Falstaff (Zürich).

1994

 

Stage:

Der Rosenkavalier (ENO), Anna Bolena (Monte Carlo), L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Glimmerglass), La Bohème (Maggio Musicale).

TV:

The St Matthew Passion (BBC2).

Lectures:

New York (“Going unconscious”), National Gallery (From the Look of Things series), Royal Exchange.

Journalism:

Observer Magazine.

1995

 

Stage:

Così fan Tutte (Royal Opera House debut), She Stoops to Conquer (Gate), Pelléas et Mélisande (New York Met), Tamerlano (Glimmerglass), Carmen (ENO), Anna Bolena (Munich).

Journalism:

Guardian.

Lectures:

Sunday Times Lecture (“On apologizing”).

1996

 

Stage:

Idomeneo (Maggio Musicale), Il Matrimonio Segreto (Zürich), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Almeida), The Bear (Ischia), Rodelinda (Broomhill), La Traviata (ENO), Ariadne auf Naxos (Maggio Musicale).

TV:

Voices of Victorian London (BBC2).

Journalism:

Sight and Sound.

1997

Made honorary doctor of literature by Cambridge University, as well as honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

Stage:

Mitridate, re di Ponto (Salzburg Festival), The Rake’s Progress (New York Met), La Traviata (Paris).

TV:

Jonathan Miller’s Opera Works (BBC2).

Lectures:

Rivers Lecture.

1998

 

Stage:

The Marriage of Figaro (New York Met), Nabucco (Zürich), The Magic Flute (Santa Fe Opera).

TV:

Dr Miller and the Islanders (BBC2), Jonathan Miller on Reflection (BBC2).

Exhibitions:

Mirror Image: Jonathan Miller on Reflection (curated; National Gallery).

Books:

On Reflection.

1999

 

Books:

Nowhere in Particular.

Stage:

The Beggar’s Opera (Broomhill).

Lectures:

The Michelin Distinguished Visiting Lecture.

2000

 

Stage:

As You Like It (Gate), Ermione (Santa Fe Opera), I Puritani (Munich).

2001

 

Stage:

Don Pasquale (Maggio Musicale), Die schweigsame Frau (Zürich).

Exhibitions:

Jonathan Miller: Paper and Metal Works (Flowers East).

Journalism:

Social Research.

2002

OBE for services to music and arts.

Stage:

Camera Obscura (Almeida), King Lear (Ontario), Eugene Onegin (Santa Fe Opera), Così fan Tutte (Bornholm), Capriccio (Turin).

Radio:

The Nation’s Health (BBC Radio 4).

Lectures:

Los Angeles (“The gaze: looking as it appears in pictures”).

2003

 

Stage:

Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Zürich), Cleopatra (Graz Opera), Oedipus Rex (Graz Opera), The Elixir of Love (Stockholm).