Jonathan Myerson (born 12 January 1960 in Cardiff, Wales) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and novelist, writing principally for television and radio. His partner is novelist

Julie Myerson Julie Myerson (born Julie Susan Pike; 2 June 1960) is an English author and critic. As well as fiction and non-fiction books, she formerly wrote a column in ''The Guardian'' entitled "Living with Teenagers", based on her family experiences. She ...

. Myerson's first play ''Making a Difference'' was commissioned by the Oxford Playhouse Company. A subsequent work, ''Diary of a Nobody'' was written for the National Theatre. His work includes '' Number 10'', a five-part series for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

about a fictional

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and his staff in

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, including an episode in which Saint Helena is invaded by

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. His animated film of '' The Canterbury Tales'' was nominated for an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

(as

animated short film Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

) in 1999 and won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film in addition to four Emmys. He has also written scripts for several British television drama series including ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused o ...

'', '' Holby City'', '' EastEnders'', ''

Jupiter Moon ''Jupiter Moon'' is a science fiction soap opera television series first broadcast by British Satellite Broadcasting's Galaxy channel in 1990. 150 episodes were commissioned and made, but only the first 108 were broadcast before the closure of ...

'' and '' The Legend of William Tell'' as well as being involved in animation. He has written scripts for '' Testament: The Bible in Animation'' and '' The Canterbury Tales'' (as being head director and executive director) and voice directed ''

Animated Tales of the World ''Animated Tales of the World'' is a 2001 animated series that aired on HBO and S4C. It was produced by Children's Television Trust International and Christmas Films for S4C and Channel 4. The series is an anthology serie adapting a unique s ...

''. In June 2017, Myerson's ''That was Then'' was broadcast in five parts as BBC Radio Four's ''

15 Minute Drama ''15 Minute Drama'', previously known as ''Woman's Hour Drama'', was a BBC Radio 4 Arts and Drama production strand that was broadcast between 1998 and 2021. It consisted of 15-minute episodes, broadcast every weekday 10:45–11:00 am (i.e. ...

''. His radio dramatizations include ''The Republicans'', a suite of six plays about recent US presidents first broadcast in 2018. Myerson is the author of two novels, ''Noise'' (1998) and ''Your Father'' (1999) and is a founding partner of The Writer's Practice, a literary consultancy. He was a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

councillor for Clapham Town Ward, Lambeth from 2002 to 2006Opinions: 'Town hall blues' by Jonathan Myerson , Prospect Magazine May 2007 issue 134
/ref> , he is the Course Director, MA in Creative Writing (Novels) at City University London's Journalism Department.

Family

He lives in South

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

with novelist

, and two of their three children, Chloe and Raphael. The family was secretly the subject of the "Living with Teenagers" column in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper before later being identified. It was revealed in 2009 that their third child, Jake, had several years earlier been thrown out of the family home by the parents for smoking

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

. Both he and his wife have been criticized for their lack of empathy and poor understanding of youth culture. In an article in ''The Guardian'', Myerson reported that, upon hearing his son would achieve "A" grades at GCSE, he said: "He needs to fail one of these GCSEs. He needs to realise what he's doing."

External links

Jonathan Myerson
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Myerson, Jonathan 1960 births Living people British male novelists Labour Party (UK) councillors Councillors in the London Borough of Lambeth British television writers Welsh television writers British male television writers British television directors Welsh television directors Welsh voice directors Writers from Cardiff British animated film directors Welsh novelists 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British male writers