A BBC senior producer who brought actress Dame Judi Dench to Winchester has died at the age of 85.
John Miller had a lengthy career, where he started reading politics at Nottingham University, before joining the BBC as a general trainee.
He then became a producer in Schools TV before being seconded to UNESCO to create the Broadcasting Training Institute in Kuala Lumpur, where he returned to the BBC Open University as a senior producer.
John has been a guest interviewer at the National Theatre; for many literary festivals and was a regular contributor to the Cheltenham Festival. His address book was a veritable Who’s Who of the literary world, stage and screen and he brought many of those friends to festivals in the south of England. He was Artistic Director of the Winchester Festival from 1998-2011.
His many books have included authorised biographies of Ralph Richardson, Peter Ustinov and Judi Dench, indeed writing no less than four books with Dame Judi.
He collaborated with John Geilgud on his memoirs for radio, TV and two subsequent books and he was BAFTA nominated for the Huw Weldon award for the Best Arts Programme of 1988 for An Actor’s Life, John’s TV profile of the great man. He also collaborated with John Mills on his updated autobiography Up in the Clouds, Gentlemen Please.
For the Millennium celebrations John wrote and produced Men in Scarlet - a Son et Lumiere history of the Chelsea Pensioners, staged at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.
In 2016 John masterminded the Alresford Historical & Literary Society’s Golden Anniversary, bringing John Julius Norwich, Robert Hardy and Edna O’Brien to the town.
A great supporter of local charities, John brought special guests to events to raise funds for both Bishop’s Sutton and Ropley Churches and he brought Dame Judi Dench to Winchester on no less than four occasions, twice to raise funds for Home-Start Winchester, most recently in October 2021.
John lived in Bishop’s Sutton for 40 years and is survived by his wife Aileen.
A date for a funeral service has yet to be announced.
Words by Sue Gentry.
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