Old Suttonians Newsletter
In the last couple of years Paul has directed a wide range of shows, mostly for ITV, including music “specials” with artists such as Rod Stewart, Westlife and Simply Red, the Piers Morgan’s Life Stories series, The Pride of Britain Awards, The British Comedy Awards and in 2011, The Royal Variety Performance. LE FORT, Anthony (1961 M) Anthony is working in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. LYNE-PIRKIS, Johnnie (1977 W)
John trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Shortly after graduating, he joined a circus company, touring Mediaeval Jousting Tournaments around Great Britain and Europe as both the Earl Marshall (Ring Master), and various combative knights. For over thirty years since, John has appeared internationally on stage, and on screen. Featuring in many established British TV Dramas, including House of Elliott, House of Cards, Spooks, and playing, Freddie Chalk Marshall, opposite Hugh Laurie in two seasons of the award winning, Jeeves and Wooster.
Meisner Centre in Los Angeles and at the Université De Montréal.
Archives and The National Museum of Computing.
After running two theatre production companies in London from 1998 to 2001, in 2002 John co-founded the multi-award winning, Theatre503 in London, the home of cutting edge new writing, and afforded the title, ‘Britain's most important little theatre’. For this, John received recognition as one of the top 100 people to have contributed the most to British theatre in the twentyfirst century in The Stage Top 100 List for 2003. In 2010, Theatre503 rocked the theatre world by receiving an Olivier for Best Play, for Kartori Hall's, Mountain Top, which subsequently transferred to the West End the same year, and to Broadway in 2011, with Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, directed by Kenny Leon. He is also on the board of directors for Simon Usher's theatre company, Presence. Their most recent work being N.F.Simpson's last play, If So, Then Yes....
MORLING, Rupert (1992 F) Rupert currently heads MBC Action The world’s largest free to air entertainment channel targeting men - out of Dubai.
Since 2011 John has resided in Los Angeles, where he continues his work as both actor and an ambassador for Theatre503. Married to the French film director and actress, Cécile Delepiere, John produced their first film together for his wife's company, Dollkiller Films, the short, Almost There, which they shot in Paris and Los Angeles last year, and was officially selected for the Los Angeles and UK Film Festivals for 2012. He was also Associate Producer on the award winning, pilot for the cult web series, Seriously Wounded for Development Hell Productions. He took a lead role in the independent feature, Echo Drive, due to be released in 2013. Website - www.johnpirkis.com
More recently, he has featured in the feature films, ‘National Treasure II’ and ‘Young Victoria’ opposite Emily Blunt as her uncle, Duke of Cumberland, Earl of Derby. His theatre credits include Shakespeare, Chekhov, Oscar Wilde, Bertolt Brecht, Nick Ward, Jean-Marie Besset among others, on London's West End, and throughout Great Britain and Europe. John also studied with the
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MANSFIELD, Alex (1997 W) Alex produces radio programmes about science and technology for the BBC World Service and Radio 4, including such strands as ‘In Our Time’, ‘Click’, ‘Material World’, ‘The Life Scientific’ and ‘The Infinite Monkey Cage’. In 2011, he ran the BBC’s Domesday Reloaded project in partnership with The National
Throughout his career he has worked with Granada, ITV, UKTV and the BBC - managing a variety of functions, but specialising in channel management. Prior to MBC Action Rupert was the Vice President of Scheduling and Programming at MTV UK (Edinburgh TV Festival channel of the year), followed by Discovery UK. His last role based in the UK was Vice President of Programming and Strategy for Discovery Networks International leading their digital editorial strategy and all new channel launches internationally. He is happy to offer advice on format development, how to pitch programme ideas in both the traditional and digital worlds, as well as offer any advice and support on TV globally and specifically in the Middle East. NELSON, David (1966 C) David left the School to go to Manchester University where he read English and History of Art and became involved with the University Film Society. He then managed to get a place on one of the very first media courses in England, the Radio, Film and TV Production Postgraduate certificate course at Bristol University. From here, he started work at BBC Pebble Mill as a station assistant, moved up to Assistant producer and finally ended his career as a Producer in the News and Current Affairs department, making half-hour regional TV documentaries on almost any subject you can care to name. He also made a couple of programmes for network BBC, namely ‘Jailers ‘about prison officer training, ‘A Drop in the Ocean’ about plastic surgery in Sri Lanka and ‘Death March’ with Auschwitz survivor Kitty Hart-Moxon which involved a trip