Philip Saville

Philip Saville

Directing

Biography

Philip Saville (sometimes credited as Philip Savile, born 28 October 1930, London) is a British actor who turned to television direction and screenwriting in the late 1950s. During the 1960s he directed several important television plays, such as Harold Pinter's A Night Out (1960) for ABC's Armchair Theatre anthology series, and the lost Madhouse on Castle Street (1963) for the BBC. The later production became famous as the first acting appearance of the American folk singer Bob Dylan, whom Saville had flown over to the UK specifically to take part in the play. Other notable programmes on which Saville worked included Out of the Unknown (1965) and the Boys from the Blackstuff (1982) for which Saville received a BAFTA to add to his earlier BAFTA for Hamlet. In film Saville directed The Fruit Machine (1988, released as Wonderland in the USA), Metroland (1997) and The Gospel of John (2003). Saville has been called one of the UK's top 100 directors of all time. He is active in film and television as of 2006, and has a masterclass studio in London specializing in dramatic improvisation. Philip Saville has recently completed a special documentary on Harold Pinter Pinter's Progress for Sundance international television channels and UK's Sky Arts. Saville is currently developing further arts programming with Sundance and British TV company 3DD Productions including Discovering Hamlet now in production. Description above from the Wikipedia article Nina Axelrod, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography Movies

Acting

The Night of the Full MoonMOVIE

The Night of the Full Moon

Story of how American secret agent pursued by enemy agents, hides out at remote English farm

Login to unlock library

The Night of the Full Moon

Poster for The Journal of Bridget Hitler

The Journal of Bridget Hitler

An Irishwoman married to a German in pre-First World War Liverpool prepares to meet her brother-in-law – a young man named Adolf Hitler. Years later she is interviewed on television about her life. Part of the BBC2 Playhouse strand.

Login to unlock library

The Journal of Bridget Hitler

Poster for Murder at 3am

Murder at 3am

A police detective suspects that his sister's boyfriend is a murderer.

Login to unlock library

Edward "Teddy" King / Jim King

Poster for The Great Van Robbery

The Great Van Robbery

Interpol detective Caesar Smith tracks robbers of the Royal Mint van. He travels to Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Paris and establishes the guilt of a London coffee importer.

Login to unlock library

The Great Van Robbery

Poster for The Betrayal

The Betrayal

Fourteen years after he was blinded in a WWII concentration camp, a Canadian perfume executive travels to London on business and recognizes the voice of the traitor who betrayed him and his fellow prisoners to the Germans.

Login to unlock library

Poster for A Piece of Cake

A Piece of Cake

Set in the austere post–World War II British world of rationing, Cyril dreams up an ode to an imaginary character named Merlin Mound who can provide anything one can wish. Merlin becomes real and grants his host's wishes; not by conjuring the items out of thin air, but depriving them from other people's ownership, which leads to trouble.

Login to unlock library

A Piece of Cake

Poster for The Straw Man

The Straw Man

A newly married man is convicted of murdering a former lover in his apartment, and sentenced to hang. With a payout on his life worth 20,000 pounds, the insurance company sends an investigator to find out the truth.

Login to unlock library

An Honourable MurderMOVIE

An Honourable Murder

A modern boardroom take on Julius Caesar.

Login to unlock library

An Honourable Murder

Poster for Three Crooked Men

Three Crooked Men

Three men arrive in a small town to pull the local bank heist.

Login to unlock library

Three Crooked Men

Poster for Bang! You're Dead

Bang! You're Dead

Two small boys are playing in a wood. The younger boy has a revolver and, not understanding that the gun differs from his toy pistol, plays 'highwayman' on the road and holds up a cyclist; the gun goes off, killing the cyclist. Both boys are unaware of the tragic consequences of their game. The body and the gun are found by Bob Carter, who had recently quarreled with the victim in the presence of their workmates, and both men had uttered threats. The evidence is strong, and Bob is arrested for murder...

Login to unlock library

Bang! You're Dead

Production

Poster for Metroland

Metroland

In late-1970s suburban London, Chris and Marion have settled into a comfortable yet all-too-predictable middle-class existence. Chris receives an unexpected visit from his free-spirited friend Toni, a reunion that reminds him of a more carefree time in 1960s Paris. Now, with lingering doubts about his marriage bubbling up, Chris must make the choice between revisiting his youthful abandon with Toni or facing the here and now with Marion.

Login to unlock library

Poster for The Gospel of John

The Gospel of John

A word for word depiction of the life of Jesus Christ from the Good News Translation Bible as recorded in the Gospel of John.

Login to unlock library

The Gospel of John

Poster for The Fruit Machine

The Fruit Machine

Eddie and Michael are two 16-year-old gay friends from Liverpool. Berated by his father for his camp behavior, Eddie runs away from his Liverpool home and joins Michael, a streetwise hustler, who is also on the run.

Login to unlock library

The Fruit Machine

Poster for The Creditors

The Creditors

Gustave meets Adolph who tries to show him that Gustave’s fiancée doesn’t love him.

Login to unlock library

Poster for The Madhouse on Castle Street

The Madhouse on Castle Street

A man mysteriously locks himself in a room in a boarding house leaving only a note saying he has decided to "retire from the world". His worried sister and the other boarders then try to discover why. This TV play is missing believed wiped from the BBC archives.

Login to unlock library

The Madhouse on Castle Street

Poster for The Madhouse on Castle Street

The Madhouse on Castle Street

A man mysteriously locks himself in a room in a boarding house leaving only a note saying he has decided to "retire from the world". His worried sister and the other boarders then try to discover why. This TV play is missing believed wiped from the BBC archives.

Login to unlock library

The Madhouse on Castle Street

Poster for Pinter's Progress

Pinter's Progress

A personal take on working with Harold Pinter via intimate conversations with actors, directors and writers who share their experiences of the man and his work.

Login to unlock library

Pinter's Progress

Poster for Design for Living

Design for Living

Design for Living presents a trio of neurotic but intensely artistic characters: Gilda, Otto and Leo. Set in Paris, Otto and Leo both fall in love with Gilda. She cannot make up her mind which man she loves, so the three decide to live together in a platonic friendship. Among Coward's trademark sparkling wit, the play explores deeper themes including infidelity, the pressures of fame on an unstable mind, and morality (or immorality) of a menage a trois.

Login to unlock library

Design for Living

Poster for Discovering Hamlet

Discovering Hamlet

Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great tragedy to life. Christopher Plummer, David Tennant, John Nettles, John Simm, Sir Trevor Nunn, Franco Zeffirelli, Philip Saville, and others explore the enduring appeal of the Prince of Denmark more than 400 years after his stage debut.

Login to unlock library

Discovering Hamlet

Poster for Meriel the Ghost Girl

Meriel the Ghost Girl

Livingston, a psychic investigator, is asked to attend a seance. Can it be that he has finally discovered a genuine supernatural phenomenon!?

Login to unlock library

Meriel the Ghost Girl

Gallery

Philip Saville portrait

Philip Saville | WatchedThis | WatchedThis - Movie & TV Discovery