Jonathan Miller

On the same day that fellow Oxbridge smart-arse Clive James checked out, we waved goodbye to Jonathan Miller. Born into an agnostic Jewish family of writers, Miller went to Cambridge to study natural sciences. While there he got involved in the Footlights, the university’s amateur theatrical club, and went on to direct their landmark musical revue Beyond the Fringe, which also launched the careers of Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett. Miller had a hugely varied career, directing theatre, TV and opera, as well as hosting the first cadaver dissection on British TV and being one of the country’s most prominent atheist voices, leading the opposition to Pope Benedict XVI’s state visit in 2010. 

Jonathan Miller
21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019
Died aged 85 (unique hit)