Gavin Millar
Biography
Gavin Millar (11 January 1938 – 20 April 2022) was a Scottish film director, critic and television presenter. Millar was born in Clydebank, near Glasgow, the son of Tom Millar and his wife Rita (née Osborne). The family relocated to the Midlands when he was nine and he was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham. He undertook national service in the Royal Air Force and then read English at Christ Church, Oxford from 1958 to 1961. Millar took a postgraduate film course at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Millar was a film critic for The Listener from 1970 to 1984. He also contributed to Sight and Sound and the London Review of Books. He wrote a new section to Karel Reisz's book The Technique of Film Editing for the 1968 edition. On television, he wrote, produced and presented Arena Cinema for the BBC from 1976 to 1980, and wrote and presented numerous other cinema and visual arts documentaries. In 1980, he directed Dennis Potter's Cream in My Coffee for London Weekend Television, which received a BAFTA nomination. His first feature film as director was 1985's Dreamchild. He would later collaborate with Dreamchild's producer Rick McCallum again on the episode Peking, March 1910, part of George Lucas's television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1993. It was later re-edited to be part of Journey of Radiance when the series became The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones on its DVD release. His 1994 television film Pat and Margaret, featuring Victoria Wood, received a further BAFTA nomination, and Housewife, 49 (2006), a later collaboration with Wood, won the 2007 award. Millar died of a brain tumour on 20 April 2022, aged 84. He was survived by his five children and by six grandchildren.
Known For & Full Filmography8 Titles
Drama Series - 2004, 16 episodes • as Theatre Director
New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.
Drama Series - 1967, 16 episodes • as Self
Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.
Movie - 1995, 2h 15m • as Steve Campbell
Tommy Fawkes wants to be a successful comedian. After his Las Vegas debut is a failure, he returns to Blackpool where his father—also a comedian—started, and where he spent the summers of his childhood.
Movie - 1970, 2h 15m • as Self
The Eye Hears, the Ear Sees is a 1970 documentary exploring the career of Norman McLaren, a Scots-Canadian animator known for his pioneering work in experimental animation, using innovative techniques to blend visual art with sound design.
Movie - 1986, 2h 15m • as Narrator
Documentary about the British film studio. First appeared on the BBC television programme Omnibus.
Movie - 2004, 2h 15m • as Voiceover Interviewer (Archive Footage)
This documentary reunites director Peter Lennon and cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who recount the making of their then controversial but now classic documentary on Ireland in the Sixties. Rocky Road to Dublin was screened for only a few weeks at a single Dublin theatre.
Movie - 1970, 2h 15m • as Narrator
A film, first broadcast in 1970, that celebrates the life and work of author Virginia Woolf through the memories of her friends and relations.
Movie - 1976, 2h 15m • as Self - Interviewer
Interview with French director Jacques Tati, focusing on his on-screen persona, Monsieur Hulot. Produced for the British television series "Omnibus".