Stephen Poliakoff

Stephen Poliakoff CBE (born December 1, 1952 in Holland Park in West London, England) is an acclaimed British playwright, director and scriptwriter, widely judged amongst Britain's foremost television dramatists.

In 1969, while still a pupil at the capital's Westminster School, he attracted sufficient attention for Granny, a play written and directed by him, to be reviewed in The Times newspaper. Following studies at King's College, Cambridge he continued to write stage plays, becoming writer-in-residence for the National Theatre at the age of 24, but became increasingly interested in the medium of television.

His two latest dramas are scheduled to be broadcast in 2007: Joe's Palace on BBC One, and Capturing Mary on BBC Two. The Culture Show will also screen a Poliakoff special, including an interview between Poliakoff and Mark Kermode and a new TV play, A Real Summer, on 10 November.

He lives in London and is married to fellow scriptwriter Sandy Welch, with whom he has two children. He was awarded a CBE in the Queen's 2007 Birthday Honours list. His brother, Martyn Poliakoff, is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham.

Stage Plays
All London except where otherwise stated:
Granny (also directed) Westminster School, 1969
Lay-By (co-writer) Edinburgh Festival, August 1971
Pretty Boy Royal Court, June 1972
Berlin Days Little Theatre, 1973
Sad Beat Up Little Theatre, 1974
The Carnation Gang Bush, 1974
Clever Soldiers Hampstead, 1974
Heroes Royal Court, July 1975
Hitting Town Bush, 1975
City Sugar Bush, October 1975; Comedy Theatre, March 1976; Phoenix Theatre (New York), January 1978
Strawberry Fields NT Young Vic, August 1976; NT Cottesloe, 1977; Manhattan Theatre Club (New York), May 1978
Shout Across the River Warehouse Croydon, 1978; Phoenix Theatre (New York), December 1979
American Days ICA, June 1979; Manhattan Theatre Club (New York), December 1980
The Summer Party Crucible Theatre, Sheffield 1980
Favourite Nights Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, November 1981
Breaking the Silence RSC The Pit, November 1984
Coming In To Land National Theatre Lyttelton, January 1987
Playing With Trains RSC The Pit, November 1989
Sienna Red Richmond Theatre, May 1992
Sweet Panic (also directed) Hampstead, February 1996
Blinded By the Sun National Theatre Cottesloe, September 1996
Talk of the City (also directed) RSC Swan, Stratford 1998; Young Vic February 1999
Remember This National Theatre Lyttelton, October 1999
Sweet Panic revival (also directed) Duke of York’s, November 2003

Films
Runners (director Charles Sturridge, 1983)
Hidden City (1998)
Close My Eyes (1991)
Century (1994)
Food of Love (1997)

Television Dramas/Films Made for Television
All (originally) made for British television unless otherwise stated.
Caught on a Train (1980)
Termeszet (Hungary, 1981)
Doppelte Welt, Die (West Germany, 1985)
She's Been Away (1989)
Frontiers (co-written with Sandy Welch, 1996)
The Tribe (1998)
Shooting the Past (1999)
Perfect Strangers (2001)
The Lost Prince (2003)
Friends and Crocodiles (2006)
Gideon's Daughter (2006) Capturing Mary (2007)

Joe's Palace (2007)

Joe's Palace (screened last night)
Joe's Palace is a BBC television drama, (co-produced by the BBC and HBO) and written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff. It was first aired on BBC One on 4 November 2007. It is linked, by the central character of Joe, to the upcoming Poliakoff drama Capturing Mary which is due to be aired (on BBC Two) on 12 November 2007.

Cast
Danny Lee Wynter as Joe, the central character - a doorman and caretaker.
Sir Michael Gambon as Elliot Graham, Joe's employer - a billionaire financier.
Rupert Penry-Jones as Richard - a cabinet minister.
Kelly Reilly as Charlotte - his mistress.
Rebecca Hall as Tina - an employee of the local delicatessan.

Plot
The action revolves around the character of Joe (also the narrator), a not particularly bright teenager who has just left school and finds himself in the employ of Elliot Graham, an agoraphobic billionaire. Joe's task is to act as doorman/caretaker for one of Graham's houses, a palatial property in central London. Graham himself refuses to live in the house and instead resides in a more modest property over the road. Nevertheless Graham employs a whole brace of servants (including Joe's mother - how he got the job) to keep the place spotless even though it has no apparent use. Joe is originally hired to work afternoons only but, following the departure of the first caretaker (played by Clive Russell), Joe takes over the whole day and is also allowed to sleep there at night if he so wishes.
It becomes apparent very early on that the house is associated with bad memories and vibes. None of the staff remain for very long - Joe's mother disappears off to Spain with her new lover, the first caretaker smashes most of the plates before very nearly throwing himself off the roof, and even a homeless person whom Joe invites back for company senses the bad vibes about the place. Joe, it seems, is not intelligent enough to have that sort of imaginiation, so none of this appears to affect him.
Graham appears obsessed with finding out some dark secret concerning of his father's wealth (Graham inherited the wealth but his father was self-made) and has hired many accountants and historians to research this. He states that he would like to spend his money to do good, but he has to know where it came from first. He even sends Joe onto the Antiques Roadshow with a collection of antiques worth nearly a million pounds to see if he can glean any more about their origin. This dark secret appears to be tied up in the bad vibes concerning the house. Meanwhile Joe, on Graham's permission, allows the house to be used by a Richard, a cabinet minister and friend of Graham's as a place for assignations with his mistress Charlotte. Joe grows quite a (platonic) attraction to Charlotte and is not pleased when Richard eventually turns up with a new mistress - though he continues to see Charlotte on occasion as a friend.
Eventually, on Joe's ill-informed suggestion, Graham hires Tina, a shop-girl from the local delicatessen (which both Joe and Graham frequent) to go through his paperwork, and she does eventually find the dark secret. It transpires that Graham's father had done business with German companies in the 1930's. These dealings were not treasonous, they had ceased when war was declared, but this nevertheless made Graham's father complicit in some of the earlier actions of the Holocaust. The antiques were stolen from Holocaust victims. Graham attempts suicide on hearing this, but is prevented from killing himself by Joe.
The drama ends with Joe himself moving on (presumably to the house that will feature in Capturing Mary), and Graham now using his money for good, and having traced the rightful owners of the antiques.