the media lunch club was established in 1994, by producer Martin Cahill, as a non-profit making, and politically neutral, networking society and has grown to become the film, tv and media industry's premiere café du commerce.
Monthly lunches are held in London's West End (and a Brighton away-day lunch during the summer), with an invited guest speaker. Some of our previous speakers include:
Producers: Tim Bevan, Stephen Evans, Rebecca O'Brien, Nick Manzi, Richard Holmes, Jeremy Thomas, Duncan Kenworthy, Michael Kuhn, Nik Powell, Marc Samuelson, Richard Holmes, Michael Deeley, Simon Channing-Williams, Simon Oakes (Hammer films), Paul Brett, Anne Beresford and Jeremy Bolt.
Directors: Sir Alan Parker, Dame Beeban Kidron, Stuart Baird, Waris Hussein, Roy Ward Baker, Vic Armstrong, Robert Young, Jack Cardiff, Ronnie Neame, Lewis Gilbert, John Glen, Guy Hamilton and Ray Harryhausen and John Irvin.
Executives: Daniel Battsek (former Film4 and Miramax), Duncan Reid (Ingenious), Greg Dyke (TV), Ian Hutchinson (Silver Reel), Lord Michael Grade, Amanda Nevill (BFI), Stewart Till (former UK Film Council Chairman), Lenny Crooks (formerly of New Cinema Fund, UK Film Council), David Thompson (formerly BBC Films), Steve Christian (Pinewood Films), Peter Bennett-Jones (Tiger Aspect), Dave Bishop (Protagonist), John Woodward (former CEO, UK Film Council), Jane Lighting (former CEO Channel 5), Simon George (Ealing Studios Productions), Lorraine Heggesey (ITV/BBC), Dr Kim Howells MP & Shaun Woodward MP (former Film Ministers), Sara Geater (all 3 media) and Robert Duval, David Cooke & David Austin (directors of BBFC), Mia Bays (BFI), Anna Higgs (Facebook) and Elliot Grove (Raindance).
Sales agents: Hilary Davis (Bankside), Mike Goodridge (Protagonist), Martin Myers (Miracle Communications), Andrew Loveday (Carnaby), Maura Ford (7 & 7), Alex Hamilton (former E One, now Pathe), David Grumbach (Juliette Films, Luxembourg), Michael Ryan (formerly J&M, now independent).
Actors: Sir Roger Moore, Britt Ekland, Honor Blackman, Judy Cornwell, Jenny Hanley, Sally Geeson, Virginia McKenna, Ray Brooks, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Bruce Montagu, Brian Capron, Victor Spinetti, Richard Kiel, Madeline Smith and Dame Virginia McKenna.
Writers: Dick Clement, Sir Ronald Harwood, Rob Sprackling, Jimmy Perry, Brian Clemens, Raymond Allen, Jimmy Sangster, Allan Scott, Laurence Marks & Maurice Gran and Dominic Minghella.
And others including: lyricist Don Black CBE, broadcasters Tony Blackburn OBE and Dame Joan Bakewell, director of photography Phil Méheux BSC, Ossie Morris OBE and composer David Arnold. …. to name but a few!
The media lunch club also hosts occasional evening networking events, from 2009 additional and occasional 'Briefing Lunches', (to focus on a more specialised subject in an intimate board-room setting) and during the Coronavirus pandemic switched to online podcasts, with guests in discussion with committee member and broadcaster Olly Smith.
Membership is inexpensive and open to all in the media business.
On April 19th 2013 Sir Alan Parker joined us for our 200th lunch, and cut the special birthday cake!
In 2006 Gerard Gilbert of The Independent described Stephen Poliakoff as the UK's "pre-eminent TV dramatist" and that he had "inherited Dennis Potter's crown".
Stephen was still at school when Michael Rudman commissioned his play, "A Day With my Sister," which premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 1971. He continued to write stage plays and became writer-in-residence for the National Theatre at the age of 24.
He turned to television, writing Stronger Than the Sun (1977 – BBC1), Bloody Kids (1980 – ATV), Caught on a Train (1980 – BBC2) and Soft Targets (1982 – BBC). Plus TV adaptations of his plays Hitting Town (1976 - ITV) and City Sugar (1978 –ITV).
His first feature film was Runners (1983), directed by Charles Sturridge, and is directorial debut came the lauded and Hidden City (1988), whilst his television career continued with She's Been Away (1989) starring Peggy Ashcroft and Close My Eyes (1991), starring Clive Owen, Saskia Reeves and Alan Rickman. They were followed by Century (1994), Food of Love (1997) and The Tribe (1998).
Shooting the Past (1999), Perfect Strangers (2001) starring Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Gambon and Lindsay Duncan and Emmy award-winning The Lost Prince (2003) came next, before the one-off drama Friends and Crocodiles (2006) starring Damian Lewis and Jodhi May, with its overlapping companion piece, Gideon's Daughter (2006), starring Bill Nighy, Miranda Richardson and Emily Blunt, appeared. The latter won Golden Globes for Nighy and Blunt.
He wrote and directed feature film Glorious 39, starring Romola Garai, Bill Nighy and Julie Christie, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2009 and two years later wrote a seven-minute short film, Astonish Me, to celebrate WWF's 50th anniversary. Starring Bill Nighy and Gemma Arterton, the film was shown in Odeon Cinemas in August 2011 and made available on the WWF website and YouTube.
In February and March 2013, Dancing on the Edge, a five-part series following the fortunes of a black jazz band in 1930s London, was broadcast by the BBC, and also later won a Golden Globe.
In November/December 2016, his seven-part “bombed-out London in the aftermath of the Second World War” series Close to the Enemy was transmitted on BBC Two. In 2019 he wrote and directed Summer of Rockets, a semi--autobiographical six-part series for the BBC starring Toby Stephens, Keeley Hawes, Linus Roache, and Timothy Spall.
Stage plays aside, Stephen has directed 19 films and TV dramas; written 29 and produced 6. He is one of the UK’s preeminent and most successful creative talents and awards include Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright (1976), BAFTA (Best Single Television Drama) (1980), Critics' Circle Award for Best New Stage Play (1996), Royal Television Society Award (1999), BAFTA (Dennis Potter Writer's Award) (2001), Peabody Award (2002), South Bank Show Award (2004), EMMY Award (2005) and Peabody Award (2006).
