Kenneth Griffith
Encyclopedia
Kenneth Griffith was a Welsh
actor and documentary filmmaker.
, Pembrokeshire
, Wales
. Six months after his birth his parents split up and left Tenby, leaving Kenneth with his paternal grandparents, Emily and Ernest, who immediately adopted him. A lively rugby union
scrum-half, he attended the local Wesleyan Methodist
chapel three times every Sunday.
Griffiths passed the Eleven plus
and attended Greenhill Grammar School, where he met English literature
teacher Evelyn Ward, who recognised his writing and acting talent. Before leaving school, his headmaster J.T. Griffth suggested that he drop the English "s" from his name (an anglicisation
).
, taking a job at an ironmonger's weighing nails. This lasted only a day and proved to be the only job he ever had outside of the acting world. He approached the Cambridge Festival Theatre for work, and at the age of 16 was cast by Peter Hoare as Cinna the Poet in a modern-dress version of Julius Caesar
. He became a regular jobbing repertory actor, making his West End theatre
debut in 1938 with a small part in Thomas Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday.
Griffith volunteered for service with the Royal Air Force
in 1939 before the outbreak of World War II
. Before training in Canada
, he returned to see his grandparents in Tenby, who at his request gave him a leather-bound copy of Hitler's book, Mein Kampf
; he later explained in an interview that he wanted to understand what he was fighting against. While training in Canada, he caught scarlet fever
, which resulted in his taking up stamp collecting
. The first stamp he collected was the Siege of Ladysmith
, South Africa
.
In 1941, he made his debut in the first of more than 100 films in which he principally played character roles. Released from the air arm of the Royal Air Force, Griffith returned to London, from where he was invalided out of the RAF in 1942.
He joined the Liverpool
, Lancashire
-relocated Old Vic
, and in repertory. On return from a tour of South Africa
(during which he visited Ladysmith), he met his great friend and fellow Celt Peter O'Toole
.
He can be spotted in many British films between the 1940s and 1980s, notably as Archie Fellows in The Shop at Sly Corner, Jenkins in Only Two Can Play
(1962), the wireless operator Jack Phillips on board the Titanic in A Night to Remember (1958), in the crime caper Track the Man Down
(1955), and especially in the comedies of the Boulting brothers
, including Private's Progress
(1956) and I'm All Right Jack
(1959). He also portrayed the gay
medic Witty in The Wild Geese
(1978) and a whimsical mechanic in The Sea Wolves
(1980).
His work on the 1960s TV programme The Prisoner
is much appreciated by its fans, because of his appearances in the episodes The Girl Who Was Death
and Fall Out
. He has appeared in episodes of Minder
, Lovejoy
and critically acclaimed performances in "War and Peace", "The Perils of Pendragon", Clochemerle
and "The Bus to Bosworth", where his personification of a Welsh schoolteacher out on a field trip won him many accolades back in his homeland of Wales. More recent cinemagoers may have seen him as the "mad old man" in Four Weddings and a Funeral
(1994), as Reverend Jones in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain
(1995), and as the Minister in Very Annie Mary
(2001)
David Attenborough
asked Griffith if he would like to make a film for the BBC on any subject that he chose. This resulted in a series of films on subjects as diverse as the Boer War
in Soldiers of the Widow (BBC tx. 27/5/1967), A Touch of Churchill, A Touch of Hitler (BBC tx. 30/7/1971), the controversial story of Thomas Paine
in The Most Valuable Englishman Ever (BBC, tx. 16/1/1982), David Ben Gurion (The Light), Napoleon Bonaparte (The Man on the Rock), Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Roger Casement
(Heart of Darkness 1992), and on one occasion a film commissioned by Thames Television
on the story of the Three Wise Men
of the New Testament
, A Famous Journey (ITV tx. 20/12/1979). Griffith was ordered out of Iran
by the country's Foreign Minister.
In 1973 Griffith made a documentary film about the life and death of Irish military/political leader Michael Collins
titled Hang Up Your Brightest Colours
(which is a line taken from a letter from George Bernard Shaw
to one of Collins' sisters after his death) for ATV, but the Independent Broadcasting Authority
did not permit it to be screened (it was only shown -- by the BBC
-- in 1993). This was seen by Griffith as blatant censorship, as there was nothing factually inaccurate in the film.
In 1974 Griffith took an opportunity to interview surviving IRA members from the 1916 Easter Rebellion: Maire Comerford, Joseph Sweeney, Sean Kavanagh, John O'Sullivan, Brigid Thornton, Sean Harling, Martin Walton, David Nelligan (or Neligan) and Tom Barry
are all interviewed at the ends of their lives in a programme titled Curious Journey.
Griffith's approach to television and re-creating the past is that of the enthusiastic storyteller who acts out all the parts himself. By doing so, he created a fascinating new way of making documentaries. His special contribution is that he is able to conjure up the emotional spirit of events in history; he treats the viewer in the manner of a confidant, dramatising his point of view.
Griffith's sympathetic portrayal caused some concern given the state of tension in Northern Ireland
and ATV boss Sir Lew Grade
decided to withdraw the film, which was not shown publicly until 1994. At the time Griffith furiously retaliated by making the film for Thames titled The Public's Right to Know, which gave him, or rather the powers that be, a chance to explain themselves. He took no prisoners. The story on Griffith and his Irish republican sympathies was published in the 15 November 1997 edition of the British-based weekly, The Irish Post
, as Beating the Censor, written by Martin Doyle.
Griffith's autobiography was published in 1994 titled The Fool's Pardon by Little, Brown. Until the very end of his life Griffith was angered and deeply frustrated by what he saw as the "degeneration" of British television filmmaking and was widely known within the industry as the most banned filmmaker in the country. His references to the various commissioning directors were well documented referring to "those priggish cuckoos" within the BBC. His final estimations on those 'Television people' were their high regard for two things "Hard cash and statistics".
In 1993 BBC Wales
presented a retrospective season of five of his documentaries, including the suppressed Michael Collins work, opening the season with a biographical study of Griffith called The Tenby Poisoner (BBC Wales, tx. 1/3/1993) in which talents as diverse as Peter O'Toole
, Martin McGuinness
and Jeremy Isaacs
paid tribute to the quixotic documentarist. In addition to this BBC Wales screened a film on Griffith's life in the "Welsh Greats" Series Two, shown in 2008. In 2001 Griffith was finally recognised for his work by being awarded a lifetime achievement award by BAFTA.
The political troubles left Griffith "a frustrated and bemused figure". Screenonline described Griffith as "a world-class documentary film-maker" who knew that "refusing to compromise his views has damaged his career".
A renowned Boer War
historian, Griffith was also a supporter of the Afrikaner
s in South Africa
. Although the traditional left-wing view was that Afrikaners were more tied into apartheid than South Africans of British descent, his take on it in a South African television-funded documentary was "provokingly sympathetic" towards the Afrikaners, implying that the sympathetic attitude of English-speakers "hypocritical"; South African television eventually withdrew its funding. He also made a BBC2 documentary on runner Zola Budd
, which purported to reveal injustices done to her by left-wing demonstrators and organisations during a tour of England in 1988.
, London
), "Michael Collins House". He "proudly" displayed on his wall death threats from the Ulster Volunteer Force (Northern Irish loyalists) "flanked on one side by a friendlier letter from Gerry Adams
". A year or two before Griffith's death he attended a meeting where Gerry Adams praised and thanked him for his documentaries as they had contributed to the peace process. He also cherished Mrs Thatcher
's opinion of him as a "dangerous Marxist", although Griffith did not believe in that ideology. However, he also had a huge plaster medallion of Clive of India fixed to his living room wall. Indeed, his entire house was crammed like an overly stocked antique shop with a collection of predominantly Boer War
memorabilia, the finest in private hands in the country. He also housed thousands of Boer War covers in his philatelic
collection housed in for filing cabinets on the top floor, all catalogued and researched personally and recorded in hand-written volumes.
To date Griffith holds the record for the longest career in films for a Welsh actor (60 years).
Griffith was married three times and had five children: Joan Stock (David), Doria Noar (the actress Eva Griffith) and Carole Haggar (Polly, Huw and Jonathan).
Griffith suffered from complications associated with Alzheimer's disease
in his later years, resulting in an enforced retirement from acting and his documentaries. He died peacefully at home on 25 June 2006 aged 84. He was buried on 4 July 2006, by his request his coffin was decorated with the flags of Wales, the Untouchables of India (of whom he was president for many years), Israel, and the Irish tricolour. The coffin was borne by his family, Bryan Hewitt, and his old friend Peter O'Toole. He is buried in the churchyard at Penally
where he grew up, besides his beloved grandparents, Emily and Ernest. Both Griffith and his grand parent's grave stones are the work of the Welsh-born Master Craftsman and calligrapher and sculptor Ieuan Rees whose work includes the grave stone of Lord Olivier in Westminster Abbey.
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
actor and documentary filmmaker.
Early life
He was born Kenneth Reginald Griffiths in TenbyTenby
Tenby is a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, lying on Carmarthen Bay.Notable features of Tenby include of sandy beaches; the 13th century medieval town walls, including the Five Arches barbican gatehouse ; 15th century St...
, Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. Six months after his birth his parents split up and left Tenby, leaving Kenneth with his paternal grandparents, Emily and Ernest, who immediately adopted him. A lively rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
scrum-half, he attended the local Wesleyan Methodist
Methodist Church of Great Britain
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is the largest Wesleyan Methodist body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain . It is the United Kingdom's fourth largest Christian denomination, with around 300,000 members and 6,000 churches...
chapel three times every Sunday.
Griffiths passed the Eleven plus
Eleven plus
In the United Kingdom, the 11-plus or Eleven plus is an examination administered to some students in their last year of primary education, governing admission to various types of secondary school. The name derives from the age group for secondary entry: 11–12 years...
and attended Greenhill Grammar School, where he met English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
teacher Evelyn Ward, who recognised his writing and acting talent. Before leaving school, his headmaster J.T. Griffth suggested that he drop the English "s" from his name (an anglicisation
Anglicisation
Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...
).
Career
In 1937 he left school and moved to CambridgeCambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, taking a job at an ironmonger's weighing nails. This lasted only a day and proved to be the only job he ever had outside of the acting world. He approached the Cambridge Festival Theatre for work, and at the age of 16 was cast by Peter Hoare as Cinna the Poet in a modern-dress version of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
. He became a regular jobbing repertory actor, making his West End theatre
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
debut in 1938 with a small part in Thomas Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday.
Griffith volunteered for service with the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
in 1939 before the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Before training in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, he returned to see his grandparents in Tenby, who at his request gave him a leather-bound copy of Hitler's book, Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
; he later explained in an interview that he wanted to understand what he was fighting against. While training in Canada, he caught scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
, which resulted in his taking up stamp collecting
Stamp collecting
Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is one of the world's most popular hobbies, with the number of collectors in the United States alone estimated to be over 20 million.- Collecting :...
. The first stamp he collected was the Siege of Ladysmith
Siege of Ladysmith
The Siege of Ladysmith was a protracted engagement in the Second Boer War, taking place between 30 October 1899 and 28 February 1900 at Ladysmith, Natal.-Background:...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
In 1941, he made his debut in the first of more than 100 films in which he principally played character roles. Released from the air arm of the Royal Air Force, Griffith returned to London, from where he was invalided out of the RAF in 1942.
He joined the Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
-relocated Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
, and in repertory. On return from a tour of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
(during which he visited Ladysmith), he met his great friend and fellow Celt Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
.
He can be spotted in many British films between the 1940s and 1980s, notably as Archie Fellows in The Shop at Sly Corner, Jenkins in Only Two Can Play
Only Two Can Play
Only Two Can Play is a 1962 comedy film based on the novel That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis. Sidney Gilliat directed the film from a screenplay by Bryan Forbes....
(1962), the wireless operator Jack Phillips on board the Titanic in A Night to Remember (1958), in the crime caper Track the Man Down
Track the Man Down
Track the Man Down is a 1955 British drama film written by Paul Erickson and directed by R.G. Springsteen.The melodramatic crime caper centers on a robbery at a greyhound racetrack that results in the unintentional murder of a guard...
(1955), and especially in the comedies of the Boulting brothers
John and Roy Boulting
John Edward Boulting and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting , known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for their popular series of satirical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s.-Biography:The twin brothers were born in Bray, Berkshire, England...
, including Private's Progress
Private's Progress
Private's Progress is a 1956 British comedy film based on the novel by Alan Hackney. It was directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting, from a script by John Boulting and Frank Harvey.-Plot:...
(1956) and I'm All Right Jack
I'm All Right Jack
I'm All Right Jack is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney, based on the novel Private Life by Hackney...
(1959). He also portrayed the gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
medic Witty in The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese is a British 1978 film about a group of mercenaries in Africa. It stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger...
(1978) and a whimsical mechanic in The Sea Wolves
The Sea Wolves
The Sea Wolves is a 1980 war film starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven. The film is based on the book Boarding Party by James Leasor, which itself is based on a real incident which took place in World War II...
(1980).
His work on the 1960s TV programme The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
is much appreciated by its fans, because of his appearances in the episodes The Girl Who Was Death
The Girl Who Was Death
"The Girl Who Was Death" is a television episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on 18 January 1968...
and Fall Out
Fall Out (The Prisoner)
"Fall Out" is the seventeenth and final episode of the allegorical British science fiction series The Prisoner, which starred Patrick McGoohan as the incarcerated Number Six...
. He has appeared in episodes of Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
, Lovejoy
Lovejoy
Lovejoy is a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer and faker based in East Anglia, a less than scrupulous yet likeable rogue. The episodes were based on a series of picaresque novels by John Grant...
and critically acclaimed performances in "War and Peace", "The Perils of Pendragon", Clochemerle
Clochemerle
Clochemerle is a 1934 French satirical novel by Gabriel Chevallier. It is set in a French village in Beaujolais inspired by Vaux-en-Beaujolais and deals with the ramifications over plans to install a new urinal in the village square.-Adaptation:...
and "The Bus to Bosworth", where his personification of a Welsh schoolteacher out on a field trip won him many accolades back in his homeland of Wales. More recent cinemagoers may have seen him as the "mad old man" in Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...
(1994), as Reverend Jones in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain is a 1995 film written by Ivor Monger and directed by Christopher Monger. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival....
(1995), and as the Minister in Very Annie Mary
Very Annie Mary
Very Annie Mary is a 2001 comedy film and musical from the United Kingdom, written and directed by Sara Sugarman and starring Rachel Griffiths and Jonathan Pryce. It is a coming-of-age tale, set in south Wales, about a woman in her 30s who lives with her verbally abusive father...
(2001)
Documentaries and political activity
In 1965 Huw Weldon and the then director of BBC2BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
David Attenborough
David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA is a British broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years...
asked Griffith if he would like to make a film for the BBC on any subject that he chose. This resulted in a series of films on subjects as diverse as the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
in Soldiers of the Widow (BBC tx. 27/5/1967), A Touch of Churchill, A Touch of Hitler (BBC tx. 30/7/1971), the controversial story of Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
in The Most Valuable Englishman Ever (BBC, tx. 16/1/1982), David Ben Gurion (The Light), Napoleon Bonaparte (The Man on the Rock), Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Roger Casement
Roger Casement
Roger David Casement —Sir Roger Casement CMG between 1911 and shortly before his execution for treason, when he was stripped of his British honours—was an Irish patriot, poet, revolutionary, and nationalist....
(Heart of Darkness 1992), and on one occasion a film commissioned by Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
on the story of the Three Wise Men
Magi
Magi is a term, used since at least the 4th century BC, to denote a follower of Zoroaster, or rather, a follower of what the Hellenistic world associated Zoroaster with, which...
of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, A Famous Journey (ITV tx. 20/12/1979). Griffith was ordered out of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
by the country's Foreign Minister.
In 1973 Griffith made a documentary film about the life and death of Irish military/political leader Michael Collins
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
titled Hang Up Your Brightest Colours
Hang Up Your Brightest Colours
Hang Up Your Brightest Colours is a 1973 film by Welsh actor and filmmaker Kenneth Griffith, about the life and death of Irish Republican leader Michael Collins...
(which is a line taken from a letter from George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
to one of Collins' sisters after his death) for ATV, but the Independent Broadcasting Authority
Independent Broadcasting Authority
The Independent Broadcasting Authority was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television - and commercial/independent radio broadcasts...
did not permit it to be screened (it was only shown -- by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
-- in 1993). This was seen by Griffith as blatant censorship, as there was nothing factually inaccurate in the film.
In 1974 Griffith took an opportunity to interview surviving IRA members from the 1916 Easter Rebellion: Maire Comerford, Joseph Sweeney, Sean Kavanagh, John O'Sullivan, Brigid Thornton, Sean Harling, Martin Walton, David Nelligan (or Neligan) and Tom Barry
Tom Barry
Thomas Barry was one of the most prominent guerrilla leaders in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.-Early life:...
are all interviewed at the ends of their lives in a programme titled Curious Journey.
Griffith's approach to television and re-creating the past is that of the enthusiastic storyteller who acts out all the parts himself. By doing so, he created a fascinating new way of making documentaries. His special contribution is that he is able to conjure up the emotional spirit of events in history; he treats the viewer in the manner of a confidant, dramatising his point of view.
Griffith's sympathetic portrayal caused some concern given the state of tension in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and ATV boss Sir Lew Grade
Lew Grade
Lew Grade, Baron Grade , born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Russian-born English impresario and media mogul.-Early years:...
decided to withdraw the film, which was not shown publicly until 1994. At the time Griffith furiously retaliated by making the film for Thames titled The Public's Right to Know, which gave him, or rather the powers that be, a chance to explain themselves. He took no prisoners. The story on Griffith and his Irish republican sympathies was published in the 15 November 1997 edition of the British-based weekly, The Irish Post
The Irish Post
The Irish Post is a UK Newspaper for the Irish community in Britain. It was founded by the late journalist Breandán Mac Lua and Tony Beatty, a businessman from County Waterford. Thomas Crosbie Holdings acquired the paper in 2003...
, as Beating the Censor, written by Martin Doyle.
Griffith's autobiography was published in 1994 titled The Fool's Pardon by Little, Brown. Until the very end of his life Griffith was angered and deeply frustrated by what he saw as the "degeneration" of British television filmmaking and was widely known within the industry as the most banned filmmaker in the country. His references to the various commissioning directors were well documented referring to "those priggish cuckoos" within the BBC. His final estimations on those 'Television people' were their high regard for two things "Hard cash and statistics".
In 1993 BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
presented a retrospective season of five of his documentaries, including the suppressed Michael Collins work, opening the season with a biographical study of Griffith called The Tenby Poisoner (BBC Wales, tx. 1/3/1993) in which talents as diverse as Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, Martin McGuinness
Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. McGuinness was also the Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish presidential election, 2011. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland....
and Jeremy Isaacs
Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Isaacs is a British television producer and executive, winner of many BAFTA awards and international Emmy Awards. He was also General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .-Early life:...
paid tribute to the quixotic documentarist. In addition to this BBC Wales screened a film on Griffith's life in the "Welsh Greats" Series Two, shown in 2008. In 2001 Griffith was finally recognised for his work by being awarded a lifetime achievement award by BAFTA.
The political troubles left Griffith "a frustrated and bemused figure". Screenonline described Griffith as "a world-class documentary film-maker" who knew that "refusing to compromise his views has damaged his career".
A renowned Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
historian, Griffith was also a supporter of the Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
s in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Although the traditional left-wing view was that Afrikaners were more tied into apartheid than South Africans of British descent, his take on it in a South African television-funded documentary was "provokingly sympathetic" towards the Afrikaners, implying that the sympathetic attitude of English-speakers "hypocritical"; South African television eventually withdrew its funding. He also made a BBC2 documentary on runner Zola Budd
Zola Budd
Zola Pieterse, better known by her maiden name of Zola Budd , is a former Olympic track and field competitor who, in less than three years, twice broke the world record in the women's 5000 metres and twice was the women's winner at the World Cross Country Championships...
, which purported to reveal injustices done to her by left-wing demonstrators and organisations during a tour of England in 1988.
Personal life
Griffith, a Protestant, named his home (No. 110 Englefield Road, IslingtonIslington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
), "Michael Collins House". He "proudly" displayed on his wall death threats from the Ulster Volunteer Force (Northern Irish loyalists) "flanked on one side by a friendlier letter from Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...
". A year or two before Griffith's death he attended a meeting where Gerry Adams praised and thanked him for his documentaries as they had contributed to the peace process. He also cherished Mrs Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's opinion of him as a "dangerous Marxist", although Griffith did not believe in that ideology. However, he also had a huge plaster medallion of Clive of India fixed to his living room wall. Indeed, his entire house was crammed like an overly stocked antique shop with a collection of predominantly Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
memorabilia, the finest in private hands in the country. He also housed thousands of Boer War covers in his philatelic
Philately
Philately is the study of stamps and postal history and other related items. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting, which does not necessarily involve the study of stamps. It is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps...
collection housed in for filing cabinets on the top floor, all catalogued and researched personally and recorded in hand-written volumes.
To date Griffith holds the record for the longest career in films for a Welsh actor (60 years).
Griffith was married three times and had five children: Joan Stock (David), Doria Noar (the actress Eva Griffith) and Carole Haggar (Polly, Huw and Jonathan).
Griffith suffered from complications associated with Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
in his later years, resulting in an enforced retirement from acting and his documentaries. He died peacefully at home on 25 June 2006 aged 84. He was buried on 4 July 2006, by his request his coffin was decorated with the flags of Wales, the Untouchables of India (of whom he was president for many years), Israel, and the Irish tricolour. The coffin was borne by his family, Bryan Hewitt, and his old friend Peter O'Toole. He is buried in the churchyard at Penally
Penally
Penally is a coastal village near Tenby in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The village is known for its Celtic Cross, Penally Abbey, with neighbouring St.Deiniol's Well, and Penally Training Camp .Served by Penally railway station Penally is a coastal village near Tenby in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The...
where he grew up, besides his beloved grandparents, Emily and Ernest. Both Griffith and his grand parent's grave stones are the work of the Welsh-born Master Craftsman and calligrapher and sculptor Ieuan Rees whose work includes the grave stone of Lord Olivier in Westminster Abbey.
Filmography
- The Farmers Wife (1941)
- Love On The DoleLove on the DoleLove on the Dole is a novel by Walter Greenwood, about working class poverty in 1930s Northern England. It has been made into both a play and a film.-The novel:...
(1941) - The Black Sheep of WhitehallThe Black Sheep of WhitehallThe Black Sheep of Whitehall is a 1942 British, black-and-white, comedy, war film, directed by Will Hay and Basil Dearden, and; starring Will Hay as Professor Will Davis, John Mills and Basil Sydney...
(1942) - Hard Steel (1942)
- The Great Mr Handel (1942)
- Young and WillingYoung and WillingYoung and Willing is a 1943 American comedy film made by Paramount Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It was produced and directed by Edward H...
(1943) - The Shop at Sly Corner (1947)
- Fame is the SpurFame is the Spur (film)Fame is the Spur is a 1947 British drama film directed by Roy Boulting. It stars Michael Redgrave, Rosamund John, Bernard Miles, David Tomlinson, Maurice Denham and Kenneth Griffith. A British politician rises to power, abandoning on the way his radical views for more conservative ones...
(1947) - Bond StreetBond Street (film)Bond Street is a 1948 British drama film directed by Gordon Parry and based on a story by Terence Rattigan. It starred Jean Kent, Roland Young, Kathleen Harrison and Derek Farr...
(1947) - ForbiddenForbidden (1949 film)Forbidden is a British thriller film, directed by George King in Technicolor, and starring Ronald Shiner, Hazel Court, and Douglass Montgomery...
(1949) - Blue Scar (1949)
- Helter SkelterHelter Skelter (1949 film)Helter Skelter is a 1949 British romantic comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Carol Marsh, David Tomlinson and Mervyn Johns. A police detective becomes involved with a wealthy socialite....
(1949) - WaterfrontWaterfront (1950 film)Waterfront is a 1950 British drama film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Robert Newton, Kathleen Harrison and Avis Scott. A sailor abandons his family, in the Liverpool slums...
(1950) - High TreasonHigh Treason (1951 film)High Treason is a 1951 British espionage thriller filmed in the style of such American "docudramas" as The House on 92nd Street and T-Men. It is a sequel to the Oscar-winning 1950 film Seven Days to Noon. Director Roy Boulting, co-director and co-writer of the first film, also directed and...
(1951) - 36 Hours36 Hours36 Hours is a 1965 American suspense film, based on the short story "Beware of the Dog" by Roald Dahl, starring James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, and Rod Taylor, and directed by George Seaton...
(1953) - Track the Man DownTrack the Man DownTrack the Man Down is a 1955 British drama film written by Paul Erickson and directed by R.G. Springsteen.The melodramatic crime caper centers on a robbery at a greyhound racetrack that results in the unintentional murder of a guard...
(1955) - The Green Buddah (1955)
- The PrisonerThe PrisonerThe Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
(1955) - Private's ProgressPrivate's ProgressPrivate's Progress is a 1956 British comedy film based on the novel by Alan Hackney. It was directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting, from a script by John Boulting and Frank Harvey.-Plot:...
(1956) - 19841984 (1956 film)1984 is a 1956 film based on the novel of the same name by George Orwell. This is the first cinema rendition of the story, directed by Michael Anderson, and starring Edmond O'Brien, Donald Pleasence, Jan Sterling, and Michael Redgrave...
(1956) - The Baby and the BattleshipThe Baby and the BattleshipThe Baby and the Battleship is a colour 1956 British comedy film directed by Jay Lewis and starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough and André Morell. It is based on the 1956 novel by Anthony Thorne with a screenplay by Richard De Roy, Gilbert Hackforth-Jones and Bryan Forbes...
(1956) - Tiger in the SmokeTiger in the SmokeTiger in the Smoke is a 1956 British crime film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Tony Wright, Bernard Miles and Christopher Rhodes. It is based on the 1952 novel The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham, although the film omits the principal character of...
(1956) - The Naked TruthThe Naked Truth (1957 film)The Naked Truth is a 1957 British film comedy starring Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas and Dennis Price. Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton and Joan Sims also appear...
(1957) - Blue Murder at St Trinian'sBlue Murder at St Trinian'sBlue Murder at St Trinian's is British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School. Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the second of the series of five films and stars Terry-Thomas, George Cole, Joyce Grenfell, Lionel Jeffries and Richard...
(1957) - Chain of EventsChain of EventsChain of Events is a 1958 British film directed by Gerald Thomas from a play by Leo McKern. It starred Susan Shaw, Dermot Walsh, Jack Watling, Freddie Mills and Joan Hickson....
(1957) - Lucky JimLucky Jim (film)Lucky Jim is a 1957 British comedy film directed by John Boulting and starring Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and Hugh Griffith. It is an adaptation of the 1954 novel Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis....
(1957) - The Two Headed Spy (1957)
- A Night to Remember (1958)
- The Man UpstairsThe Man UpstairsThe Man Upstairs is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 23 January 1914 by Methuen & Co., London. Most of the stories had previously appeared in magazines, generally Strand Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan or Collier's Weekly in the United...
(1958) - Carlton-Browne of the FO (1958)
- Tiger BayTiger Bay (film)Tiger Bay is a 1959 British crime drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson and produced and co-written by John Hawkesworth. It stars John Mills as a police superintendent who investigates a murder, his daughter Hayley Mills, in her first major film role, as a girl who witnesses the murder, and Horst...
(1959) - I'm All Right JackI'm All Right JackI'm All Right Jack is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney, based on the novel Private Life by Hackney...
(1959) - LibelLibel (film)Libel is a 1959 British drama film. It stars Olivia de Havilland, Dirk Bogarde, Paul Massie, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Robert Morley. The film's screenplay was written by Anatole de Grunwald and Karl Tunberg from a 1935 play of the same name by Edward Wooll, and it was directed by Anthony Asquith.The...
(1959) - SuspectSuspect (1960 film)Suspect is a 1960 British thriller film directed by Roy Boulting and John Boulting. It starred Tony Britton, Virginia Maskell, Ian Bannen, Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence...
(1960) - Snowball (1960)
- Expresso BongoExpresso BongoExpresso Bongo, a 1958 West End musical and a 1959 film, was a satire of the music industry. It was first produced on the stage at the Saville Theatre, London on 23 April 1958. Its book was written by Wolf Mankowitz and Julian More, with music by David Heneker and Monty Norman, also the...
(1960) - Circus of HorrorsCircus of HorrorsCircus of Horrors is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. It starred Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain and Donald Pleasence....
(1960) - A French MistressA French MistressA French Mistress is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Cecil Parker, James Robertson Justice, Ian Bannen, Raymond Huntley, Irene Handl and Thorley Walters.-External links:* at Yahoo Canada movies...
(1960) - The Frightened CityThe Frightened CityThe Frightened City is a 1961 British film about extortion rackets and gang warfare in the West End of London. It stars Sean Connery, who plays a burglar called Paddy Damion. He is lured into a protection racket by oily mobster Harry Foulcher , in order to support his partner in crime , who is...
(1960) - Rag DollRag Doll (film)Rag Doll is a 1961 British B-movie crime film, directed by Lance Comfort and starring actor and singer Jess Conrad. The film gained a new audience in the 2000s in response to Conrad's elevation to cult status as a purveyor of late-1950s and early-1960s pre-Beatles British kitsch, and received a...
(1961) - PayrollPayroll (film)Payroll is a 1961 British crime thriller starring Michael Craig, and based on the novel by Derek Bickerton. The story is about a gang of villains that stage a wages robbery, which turns into a disaster. Most of the film was shot on location in and around Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne...
(1961) - The Frightened CityThe Frightened CityThe Frightened City is a 1961 British film about extortion rackets and gang warfare in the West End of London. It stars Sean Connery, who plays a burglar called Paddy Damion. He is lured into a protection racket by oily mobster Harry Foulcher , in order to support his partner in crime , who is...
(1961) - We Joined the NavyWe Joined the NavyWe Joined the Navy is a 1962 British CinemaScope comedy film based on the novel of the same name by John Winton, directed by Wendy Toye and starring Kenneth More, Lloyd Nolan, Joan O'Brien, Derek Fowlds, Graham Crowden, Esma Cannon and John Le Mesurier....
(1961) - Only Two Can PlayOnly Two Can PlayOnly Two Can Play is a 1962 comedy film based on the novel That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis. Sidney Gilliat directed the film from a screenplay by Bryan Forbes....
(1962) - The Painted SmileThe Painted SmileThe Painted Smile is a 1962 British thriller film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Liz Fraser, Kenneth Griffith, Peter Reynolds and Tony Wickert...
(1962) - Heavens Above!Heavens Above!Heavens Above! is a 1963 British satirical comedy film starring Peter Sellers, directed by John and Roy Boulting, who also co-wrote along with Frank Harvey, from an idea by Malcolm Muggeridge...
(1963) - Rotten to the CoreRotten to the CoreRotten to the Core is a 1965 British comedy film directed by John Boulting.It includes a young Anton Rodgers as the leader of a group of criminals, who attempt to stage an elaborate heist towards the end of the film....
(1965) - The WhisperersThe WhisperersThe Whisperers is a 1967 British drama film directed by Bryan Forbes. It is based on the 1961 novel by Robert Nicolson.- Plot :The Whisperers tells the story of an impoverished old woman living alone in a seedy apartment who enjoys a rich fantasy life as an heiress...
(1967) - The BoBoThe BoboThe Bobo is a 1967 British comedy film starring Peter Sellers and co-starring his then-wife Britt Ekland. Based on the 1959 novel Olimpia by Burt Cole, also known as Thomas Dixon, Sellers is featured as the would-be singing matador, Juan Bautista...
(1967) - The Lion in WinterThe Lion in Winter-Synopsis:Set during Christmas 1183 at Henry II of England's château in Chinon, Anjou, Angevin Empire, the play opens with the arrival of Henry's wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he has had imprisoned since 1173...
(1967) - Great CatherineGreat CatherineGreat Catherine is a 1968 British comedy film directed by Gordon Flemyng, based on a play by George Bernard Shaw, and starring Peter O'Toole, Zero Mostel, Jeanne Moreau and Jack Hawkins...
(1968) - The Assassination BureauThe Assassination BureauThe Assassination Bureau Limited is a black comedy film made in 1969 based on an unfinished novel, The Assassination Bureau, Ltd by Jack London...
(1969) - The GamblersThe Gamblers (1970 film)The Gamblers is a 1970 American drama film directed by Ron Winston and starring Suzy Kendall, Don Gordon and Pierre Olaf. A confidence trickster goes for a trip of a luxury cruise liner where he is himself conned out of his money. It is loosely based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Gambler...
(1970) - RevengeRevenge (1971 film)Revenge is a 1971 British thriller film directed by Sidney Hayers and starring Joan Collins, James Booth and Sinéad Cusack. A family seek brutal revenge on the man who attacked their daughter.-Cast:* Joan Collins - Carol Radford...
(1971) - S*P*Y*S (1974)
- CallanCallan (film)Callan is a 1974 British thriller film directed by Don Sharp and starring Edward Woodward, Eric Porter and Carl Möhner. It was based on the television series Callan.-Cast:* Edward Woodward ... David Callan* Eric Porter ... Hunter...
(1974) - Sky RidersSky RidersSky Riders is a 1976 American action film directed by Douglas Hickox and starring James Coburn, Susannah York and Robert Culp. A woman and her children are kidnapped in Athens and held in a mountain-top monastery as hostages by a revolutionary terrorist movement...
(1976) - Why Shoot the Teacher (1976)
- The Wild GeeseThe Wild GeeseThe Wild Geese is a British 1978 film about a group of mercenaries in Africa. It stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger...
(1978) - The Sea WolvesThe Sea WolvesThe Sea Wolves is a 1980 war film starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven. The film is based on the book Boarding Party by James Leasor, which itself is based on a real incident which took place in World War II...
(1980) - MinderMinder (TV series)Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
(TV Series) (1980) - Who Dares WinsWho Dares Wins (film)Who Dares Wins is a 1982 British film starring Lewis Collins, Judy Davis, Richard Widmark and Edward Woodward, directed by Ian Sharp. The title is the motto of the elite Special Air Service ....
(1982) - RemembranceRemembranceRemembrance is the act of remembering, the ability to remember or a memorial. It may refer to:-Events:*:Category:Remembrance days**Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, a commemorative day observed by Argentina...
(1982) - Shaka ZuluShaka Zulu (TV Series)Shaka Zulu was a 1986 television serial directed by William C. Faure and written by Joshua Sinclair for the South African Broadcasting Corporation . It is based on the story of Shaka, king of the Zulu nation from 1816 to 1828, and the writings of the British traders who dealt with him...
(1987) - Four Weddings and a FuneralFour Weddings and a FuneralFour Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...
(1994) - The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a MountainThe Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a MountainThe Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain is a 1995 film written by Ivor Monger and directed by Christopher Monger. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival....
(1995) - Very Annie MaryVery Annie MaryVery Annie Mary is a 2001 comedy film and musical from the United Kingdom, written and directed by Sara Sugarman and starring Rachel Griffiths and Jonathan Pryce. It is a coming-of-age tale, set in south Wales, about a woman in her 30s who lives with her verbally abusive father...
(2001)