Paul Bryers (born 1 August 1955 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

) is a British

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

and fiction

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

Biography

Paul Bryers studied Modern history, politics and economy at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

. Later he joined the

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its Masthead (British publishing), masthead was simpl ...

’s training scheme for journalists. He worked there for two years, and then became a reporter and presenter for the British commercial television station Southern ITV. Later he became producer and director, covering conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and South America.

Film, television and radio

After his career as a reporter, Paul Bryers became especially known for his documentaries and docudramas for the television channels

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, Channel 5 and PBS. He wrote the

radio play Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

, ''The Floating Republic'', about the

Nore Mutiny The Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. They were the first in an increasing series of outbreaks of maritime radicalism in the Atlantic World. Despite their temporal proximity, the mutinies d ...

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's ...

which was broadcast on Saturday 4th December 1982 and starred Brian Cox as the mutineer Richard Parker. Bryers got quickly noticed by docudramas as ''A Vote For Hitler'' (1988) about the

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

in 1938 and the subsequent

1938 Oxford by-election The 1938 Oxford by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Oxford, held on 27 October 1938. The by-election was triggered when Robert Croft Bourne, the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament di ...

, and ''A Strike Out of Time'' (1990), a docudrama about the miners’ strike in 1985. In 2001 he made the four-part TV series ''Queen Victoria's Empire'' with

Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films '' Citizen X'' (1995) a ...

, which won the ''Outstanding achievement award'' at the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...

in 2002. Besides documentaries and docudramas Bryer adapted some classics of the world literature for television. In 1992 he made the TV film ''Incident in Judea'', an adaptation of the biblical chapters from the novel

The Master and Margarita ''The Master and Margarita'' (russian: Мастер и Маргарита) is a novel by Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940 during Stalin's regime. A censored version, with several chapters cut by ...

Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...

with Mark Rylance in the role of Yeshua (Jesus) and John Woodvine in the role of

Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of ...

, and in 1992 he made a screen version of the theater play The Golden Years by

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...

about the

conquest of Mexico The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Mexico or the Spanish-Aztec War (1519–21), was one of the primary events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. There are multiple 16th-century narratives of the eve ...

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...

, with

Robert Powell Robert Powell (; born 1 June 1944) is an English actor who is known for the title roles in '' Mahler'' (1974) and ''Jesus of Nazareth'' (1977), and for his portrayal of secret agent Richard Hannay in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1978) and its s ...

as the conquistador Cortés and

Ronald Pickup Ronald Alfred Pickup (7 June 1940 – 24 February 2021) was an English actor. He was active in television, film, and theatre, beginning with a 1964 appearance in ''Doctor Who''. Theatre critic Michael Billington described him as "a terrific sta ...

as Montezuma.

The author Paul Bryers

Paul Bryers is also the author of several novels, published between 1976 and 2003. He got the ''British Arts Council Award for Best First Novel''. In 2008 he started writing ''The Mysteries of the Septagram'', a series of novels for children and teenagers. The first in the series, ''Kobal'', was published in 2008 and was nominated for the ''Waterstone's Book of the Year Award''. Thereafter followed ''Avatar'' (2009) and ''Abyss'' (2010). His next novel for children and young adults is to be published by Hachette Children's Books in August 2013. Called 'Spooked:The Haunting of Kit Connelly' it tells the story of a girl whose meeting with her own ghost changes her life.

The author Seth Hunter

In 2008 Paul Bryers started another series of books under the pseudonym Seth Hunter.Waterstone Publishers, Author Seth Hunter
The stories play in the time of the

War of the First Coalition The War of the First Coalition (french: Guerre de la Première Coalition) was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that suc ...

, an armed conflict between the

revolutionary France The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and an alliance of European powers, later known as the ''First Coalition''. The hero of these novels is called Nathan Peake.

Filmography

*1988 – A Vote for Hitler (TV film, Channel 4) *1989 – The Survivor's Guide (Documentary TV series, Channel 4) *1990 – A Strike Out of Time (TV film, Channel 4) *1991 – Incident in Judaea (TV film, Channel 4) *1992 – The Golden Years (TV film, Channel 4) *1993 - The Essential History of Germany (Documentary, BBC Two) *2001 – Tales from the Tower (Docudrama, The Learning Channel) *2001 – Queen Victoria's Empire (Documentary TV series, PBS) *2002 – Harem (Docudrama series, Channel 4) *2003 – Seven Wonders of the Industrial World – The Line (TV series, BBC Two) *2004 – The Great Nazi Cash Swindle (Documentary, Channel 4) *2005 – Murder at Canterbury (Docudrama, BBC Two) *2005 – Flood at Winchester (Docudrama, BBC Two) *2005 – Nelson’s Trafalgar (Docudrama, Channel 4)

Bibliography

Novels

*1978 – Hollow Target *1978 – Cat Trapper *1982 – Hire Me a Base Fellow *1987 – Coming First *1991 – The Adultery Department *1995 – In a Pig’s Ear *1998 – The Prayer of the Bone *2003 – The Used Women’s Book Club

The Mysteries of the Septagram

*2008 – Kobal *2009 – Avatar *2010 – Abyss

Seth Hunter

*2008 – The Time of Terror *2009 – The Tide of War *2010 – The Price of Glory *2011 – The Winds of Folly *2012 - The Flag of Freedom *2013 - The Spoils of Conquest

References

External links

*
Official website
*
Paul Bryers in the Internet Movie Data Base
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryers, Paul British cinematographers English cinematographers English children's writers 1954 births Living people English male writers