A polymath (Greek: πολυμαθής, polymathēs, "having learned much"; Latin: homo universalis, "universal man") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. WIKIPEDIA
Apparently Jonathan Miller (1934-2019) disliked being referred to as a polymath. Too bad. If a 90 minute BBC Arena documentary barely scratches the surface of your achievements, you’re a polymath. He’s been described as having two brains, which enabled him to effortlessly waft between the worlds of science and the arts. Medical practitioner, writer, comedy actor, stage designer, opera director, film and TV producer, darling of the chat show circuit (Michael Parkinson interviewed him several times, as did Clive James) and finally a sculptor – he did it all.
For many, he will be remembered for starring alongside Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett in the satirical comedy series Beyond The Fringe in the early 1960’s. Others will remember him for his major documentary series covering topics as diverse as anthropology, zoology, atheism and mental illness.
He came from good Jewish stock. His father was one of the pioneers of child psychiatry and an artist and his mother had her first novel published at 23. His father carried out research into shell shock victims of the First World War. He describes his parents as Bloomsbury Jewish intellectuals and there seems to have been little warmth in his upbringing.
From left, Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. Beyond the Fringe.
At St Pauls College London, Miller studied biology alongside, and came firm friends with, such future luminaries as Oliver Sachs and Eric Korn. “Three Jewish boys who were passionate about biology”, says Miller. He adored the Natural History Museum.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Miller went to Cambridge in 1953 to study medicine. Whilst working as a house surgeon at University College, Miller was asked to take part in a late night review at the Edinburgh Festival (Miller always had a talent for comedy and was a wonderful mimic). This ultimately led to him starring in Beyond The Fringe. He was a very physical comedian and would gyrate around the stage. Eric Idle of Monty Python fame admired the mocking of authority in this series and it inspired him to seek a career in comedy.
Miller’s wife Rachel was described as the anchor, the serenity in his hyper manic life and Sachs believes he may not have achieved as much in his life without her.
Inevitably, Miller toured New York with the Beyond the Fringe team in 1962 and took advantage of the opportunity to mingle with New York intellectuals, writers and comedians – eventually writing for the New Yorker.
Upon returning to London, Miller decided to pursue a career in TV and film production as his life began to drift away from medicine. As an outsider, not someone who had risen through the TV “ladder”, Miller felt he wasn’t bound by the normal conventions of interviewing people and documentary production. He quickly became a top line director without any formal training and this led him to direct Alice In Wonderland for TV in 1966. He believed the story to be about the attitudes of Victorian England to the “mystery and sanctity” of childhood. He dispensed with the animal characters and wanted the production to be a melancholy journey to growing up.
A scene from Alice In Wonderland with Anne-Marie Mallik as Alice and Peter Cook on the far left.
In 1968 he began a career as a theatre director at the Nottingham Playhouse. He was highly regarded for never talking down to a young actor thus making him/her feel confident. He wanted to explore a playful inventiveness in his directing – perhaps a benefit of not having been formally trained. Later, he directed at the Old Vic at the invitation of Lawrence Olivier. Miller believes that his training as a doctor – looking for minute details in how people carry themselves and talk when trying to diagnose them – assisted him in his directing career.
Miller didn’t abandon medicine entirely and in 1978 he produced the ground breaking series “The Body In Question” which was an investigation into the human body and the history of medicine. Miller has been described as the consummate teacher, but a strong stomach was required as some of the footage was confronting. Later, he produced a program on the challenges of Parkinson’s disease.
Oliver Sachs believed that Miller never really left medicine, it’s just that the clinical life couldn’t contain him nor could the theatre/directing life. In the early 1980’s Miller was directing Shakespeare for the BBC. In 1979 he was approached by conductor Roger Norrington to direct an opera. Once again the lack of formal training proved no impediment and he has directed more than 60 operas where he is renowned for his innovation. One performance of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tuti featured a guy talking on a mobile phone. In 1987 he directed Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado for the English National Opera starring Eric Idle and he dispensed with all references to Japan. Instead he used the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup as inspiration.
In 1995 Miller relished the paradox of being a Jewish atheist directing Bach’s St Matthew Passion as a theatrical spectacle.
It was inevitable that Miller’s all-encompassing network of interests would include the visual arts. He developed an interest in abstract sculpture and collage.
I have to confess that it wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that I became aware of Miller via his series “Madness”, screened on the ABC late at night, which presented a social history of mental illness. Confronting and informative, it was unforgettable television.
His interests fell under 4 main categories; art, science, anthropology and philosophy, and the world is so much the poorer without him.
References;
BBC Arena
The Conversation - Jonathan Miller, The Man With Two Brains
