Stuart Urban (born 1958) is a British film and television director.
Early life and education
Urban was educated at
Rokeby Preparatory School
Rokeby School is an independent all-boys preparatory day school in Kingston upon Thames, London. Its headmaster is Jason Peck. The school offers an education from 4 to 13 years through the integration of a pre-Preparatory school (United Kingdom ...
,
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...
and
King's College School
King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The s ...
, Wimbledon. At the age of 13, he became the youngest director to have a film shown at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
. The 30-minute film, a short feature called ''The Virus of War'', was later shown on television in various countries.
Urban later attended
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world.
With a governing body of a master and aro ...
, graduating with a first class degree in Modern History.
His younger brother is the journalist
Mark Urban
Mark Lee Urban (born 26 January 1961) is a British journalist, historian, and broadcaster. He is a writer and commentator for The Sunday Times, specialising in defence and foreign affairs. Until May 2024 he was Diplomatic Editor and occasional ...
.
Career
Urban began writing and directing full-time in the early 1980s, working on television drama series including ''
Bergerac'' for the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
. In 1992, his one-off television film ''
An Ungentlemanly Act'', a dramatisation of the first 36 hours of the
Falklands War
The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
featured
Ian Richardson
Ian William Richardson (7 April 19349 February 2007) was a Scottish actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Conservative politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's '' House of Cards'' (1990–1995) television trilogy, as well as the pivot ...
and
Bob Peck
Robert Peck (23 August 1945 – 4 April 1999) was an English actor who played Ronald Craven in the television serial ''Edge of Darkness'', for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor, BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor. He ...
. The production won the
British Academy Television Award
The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards, are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. They have been awarded annually since 1955.
Background
The first-ever Awards, given in 1 ...
for Best Single Drama in 1993.
In 1993, Urban set up his own independent production company, Cyclops Vision, which has produced the majority of his work ever since. He was also one of the directors of the acclaimed and award-winning 1996 BBC drama serial ''
Our Friends in the North
''Our Friends in the North'' is a British television drama Serial (radio and television), serial produced by the BBC. It was originally broadcast in nine episodes on BBC2 in early 1996. Written by Peter Flannery, it tells the story of four frie ...
'', although he left the production early after disagreements with writer
Peter Flannery
Peter Flannery (born 12 October 1951) is an English playwright and screenwriter. He was born in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear and educated at the University of Manchester. He is best known for his work while a resident playwright at the Royal Shakespear ...
, and one of his episodes was entirely re-shot by another director, though not before being entirely re-written by Peter Flannery – a fact generally withheld from public knowledge at the time.
Urban went on to write, produce and direct the feature films ''
Preaching to the Perverted'' (1997) and ''
Revelation
Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...
'' (2001), both produced by Cyclops Vision and released around the world. In 2015, it was listed by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' as one of the top 10 films about
BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often Eroticism, erotic practices or Sexual roleplay, roleplaying involving Bondage (BDSM), bondage, Discipline (BDSM), discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given ...
and fetish subject matter. His documentary film work includes the first polemical film against Western interventions, ''Against the War'' (BBC, Cyclops Vision; 1999) co-written with
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...
, who also presented.
In 2006, Urban completed ''
Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead'', his full-length documentary film about his father Garri, a Jewish physician
from Ukraine
who escaped from both the
Gulag
The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
and
the Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. It was released to UK cinemas in 2008,
earning a number of nominations and awards, including a nomination at the British Independent Film Awards and Grierson Awards. In 2011 Urban wrote, produced and directed ''
May I Kill U?'', a
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...
feature film starring
Kevin Bishop
Kevin Brian Bishop (born 1980) is a British actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his roles as Jim Hawkins (character), Jim Hawkins in ''Muppet Treasure Island'', Stupid Brian in ''My Family'', and Nigel Norman Fletcher in the 2016 rev ...
,
Frances Barber
Frances Barber (née Brookes, born 13 May 1958) is an English actress. She received Olivier Award nominations for her work in the plays '' Camille'' (1985), and '' Uncle Vanya'' (1997). Her film appearances include three collaborations with ...
and
Rosemary Leach
Rosemary Anne Leach (18 December 1935 – 21 October 2017) was a British stage, television and film actress. She won the 1982 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a New Play for '' 84, Charing Cross Road'' and was nominated for the BAFTA Award f ...
. The plot follows a
cycling
Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...
vigilante
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority.
A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...
who starts a lethal campaign in the
2011 England riots
A series of riots took place between 6 and 11 August 2011 in cities and towns across England, which saw looting and arson, as well as mass deployment of police and the deaths of five people.
The protests started in Tottenham Hale, London, follo ...
: "a psychopath on the cycle path". The film was released in 2013 after premiering at
FrightFest in 2012.
In 2014, Urban optioned Deric Henderson's non-fiction book, ''
Let This Be Our Secret'', which he adapted as screenwriter and executive produced for
Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions Limited is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London. The company's logo is depicted as a rabbit pulling a man out of a hat inste ...
and
ITV. A four-hour drama, starring
James Nesbitt
William James Nesbitt (born 15 January 1965) is an actor from Northern Ireland. From 1987, Nesbitt spent seven years performing in plays that varied from the musical '' Up on the Roof'' (1987, 1989) to the political drama ''Paddywack'' (1994). ...
as double murderer
Colin Howell, it was filmed in Northern Ireland in late 2015 under the title ''
The Secret'' and began transmission on 29 April 2016. Urban was nominated for a
BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
for ''The Secret'' in the category of Best Miniseries, for the Broadcast Awards (Best Drama); it also won the
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
Northern Ireland Awards as Best Drama.
Personal life
Urban is a member of
Wimbledon Synagogue. He and his wife Dana live in south-west London and have two children.
References
Sources
''The Secret'' nominated at Broadcast Awards 2017''The Secret'' Wins Best Drama N Ireland, Royal Television Society Awards
External links
Official websiteOfficial site for ''Tovarisch I Am Not Dead''Official site for ''May I Kill U?''*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urban, Stuart
1958 births
Living people
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
British Reform Jews
English film directors
English male screenwriters
English television directors
People educated at King's College School, London
People from Newport, Isle of Wight