Alan Birkinshaw, FRGS was born on 15 June 1944 and is a British film director, writer, and television and film producer.
12 Facts About Alan Birkinshaw
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2.
The son of two physicians, Birkinshaw always wanted to be an actor, but at 17, having failed his audition at LAMDA, he decided that if he couldn't act it, he'd do it for real.
3.
Alan Birkinshaw travelled to Australia, and after a few months working as a jackaroo in the Australian outback, he became a horse breaker and rodeo rider.
4.
Alan Birkinshaw worked his way up to directing, firstly in television and then via the world of commercials, into television movies and feature films.
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At 24 Alan Birkinshaw was directing television programs for Westward Television and then London Weekend Television, including quiz shows, farming programs, live television news shows and drama.
6.
Alan Birkinshaw directed a ground-breaking, before-its-time, light entertainment show beamed down to the UK from a circling airplane.
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The original screenplay was unworkable and Alan Birkinshaw had to re-write the next day's script overnight, presenting the actors the latest version each day at the breakfast table.
8.
Alan Birkinshaw contributed to two feature films: Don't Open Till Christmas, and directed additional action scenes in the Agatha Christie story Ordeal by Innocence, starring Donald Sutherland.
9.
In 1986, Alan Birkinshaw went to India where he directed an award-winning film on the life of Jawaharlal Nehru, entitled But I Have Promises To Keep, which had been commissioned by Rajiv Gandhi and was made for the Government of India via Doordarshan, the national television network of India.
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Now residing in an apartment in Saket, a suburb of Delhi, Alan Birkinshaw used his spare time to study ancient Indian civilisations and artefacts, and research into his favourite historical subject, the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
11.
Alan Birkinshaw directed the boxing movie Punch starring Donald Sutherland and Swiss actor, Ernst Sigrist, based on a true story of the Swiss champion boxer, Walter Blaser.
12.
Between his assignments in Germany, Alan Birkinshaw directed several episodes of Space Precinct, at the time the most expensive TV series ever made.