|
|
|
Dave Rice
Dave Rice is a UK based Freelance Writer living and working in the Liverpool area.
He has been writing professionally for many years and his work has appeared in numerous UK journals and magazines.
Dave has been keeper of the authorised Michael J Bird Tribute website since July 2002.
Since then he has been campaigning to get all of Michael Bird's work released on DVD so that it can be enjoyed by a wider audience.
In addition to "The Lotus Eaters", during the 1970s and 80s Michael Bird created and wrote "Who Pays the Ferryman?", "The Aphrodite Inheritance", "The Dark Side of the Sun" and "Maelstrom" for the BBC and a several series for Yorkshire Television in the mid 1980s.
In July 2006, when it appeared that his files were more comprehensive than those at the BBC, Dave was commissioned to write the sleeve notes and 16 page booklet to accompany the BBC's release on DVD of The Lotus Eaters.
In 2009 Dave was invited to contribute to a collection of essays on the relationship between Greece and Britain Since 1945 to be published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
|
|
|
|
 |
Michael J Bird - The life and work of the man who created The Lotus Eaters
Early in 1973 a group were on Crete filming a BBC drama series The Lotus Eaters. The star, Ian Hendry, was an alcoholic and at times difficult to handle. He was refusing to rehearse a crucial scene. The director turned to the series' writer and creator, Michael J. Bird, for help.
Bird disappeared and returned with a shotgun, which he pointed at Hendry. The actor, for once, was lost for words. Trying to stare down Bird didn't work, the writer was on higher ground, and the shotgun in his hands looked very much part of him. The director remembered tales of Bird's wartime service as a spook. Hendry must have heard the same tales: he picked up his script and continued as though nothing had happened.
The director believes it was not fear that made the actor change his stance - it was Bird's showmanship and mysterious past which Hendry, an artist of considerable talent, appreciated. The cast and crew were in no doubt. Michael Bird was more than the average television writer.
Print: $14.50
|
|
|
|
|
|
![[]](http://static.lulu.com/images/persuasion/footer/line.gif?20091217135956)
