Simon Relph
He was not on the list.
At the beginning of the 1980s Simon Relph was having dinner at a friends’ house when the telephone rang. The voice on the end of the line was that of Warren Beatty. It is a testament to the reputation that Relph had built that one of the biggest stars in Hollywood tracked him down to ask him to work on his passion project, Reds.
Relph was as adept at fielding the demands of some of the most exacting directors in cinema — as well as Beatty, he worked with Roman Polanski and Laurence Olivier — as he was at nurturing new talents taking their tentative first steps in the film industry.
The British producer was known for his resonant voice and imposing height, as well as a generous, principled approach to each of the roles he took on within the British film industry.
Simon Relph was born in Chelsea in 1940. During his early childhood his parents, Michael Relph and Doris Gosden, both worked in theatre, as a set designer and a costume designer. Their work commitments meant that Simon was partly cared for by his grandparents, the stage actor George Relph and his wife, until he was sent to boarding school at the age of four.
When his parents separated, Relph boarded at Bembridge School in the Isle of Wight. His mother, who was a loving and highly supportive presence in his life, also moved there and got remarried, to one of the teachers at the school. His father remained in London, also remarried and embarked on a career in cinema as a producer, writer and director, largely based at Ealing studios. With credits including Kind Hearts And Coronets, numerous Basil Dearden pictures, and in later years Alan Clarke’s Scum, his belief that the film producer’s job was a creative role would be hugely influential on his son.
Relph started boarding at Bryanston School and it was there that he first encountered Amanda Grinling, a student at the neighbouring girls’ school who would go on to become his wife. They met when they appeared together in a school production of Tobias and the Angel. Relph, then 13, played the angel and Grinling, aged 14, was the princess.
The pair lost touch when Grinling went to Rada and Relph left school to attend King’s College, Cambridge, to study engineering. As a passionate young thespian, he acted in his university years alongside the likes of Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. However, on leaving Cambridge Relph decided not to pursue acting or engineering. Instead, he started out in the film industry as a runner and a third assistant director on Carry On Cruising (1962) and Doctor in Distress (1963).
Relph and Grinling reconnected after a chance meeting in a pub when Grinling, who was appearing in rep in Sheffield, was visiting London with her then boyfriend. Relph invited them back to his mother’s flat in Swiss Cottage, where Grinling was touched to discover that he had kept a picture of the pair of them together in Tobias and the Angel.
They were married in 1963, at St James’s Piccadilly, coincidentally next door to the headquarters of Bafta, where Relph would go on to serve as chairman and help to put the annual awards ceremony on the global stage. The couple had two children: Alex, born in 1967, is now a sculptor, while Bella, born in 1975, worked briefly in the film industry before becoming a youth worker at the charity Hackney Quest.
Relph’s work throughout the 1960s and 1970s was in the role of first assistant director. His calm and capable presence endeared him to directors such as John Schlesinger (Sunday Bloody Sunday; Yanks) and John Boorman (Zardoz). The toughest project was Macbeth in 1971, directed by the notorious perfectionist Roman Polanski, whose attention to detail covered everything from the meticulous design of each shot to the precise consistency of the fake blood.
For several years in the Seventies Relph worked as the stage manager at the National Theatre. He was brought in at the request of Peter Hall to organise the backstage staff in advance of the opening of the newly built theatre on the Southbank in 1976. He demonstrated there a willingness to roll up his sleeves and muck in, which would go on to be one of his defining traits as a producer. On the opening night Relph was deep underground, tinkering with the mechanism of the malfunctioning revolving stage.
Warren Beatty’s Reds — the story of an American journalist who documents the Russian Revolution — provided Relph with the opportunity to move into producing. His subsequent credits included Enchanted April, Damage, Land Girls and Hideous Kinky. He had a particular affection for Richard Eyre’s The Ploughman’s Lunch, an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel about the media in Thatcher’s Britain, which encapsulated his political convictions — a man of forthright leftist opinion, he was not one to dwell on both sides of an argument. His daughter Bella recalls: “A big motivation for him in films was to be making a political statement and to have an impact on people’s views.” She adds that, as a producer who followed the same creative path as his father’s generation at Ealing studios, he was troubled by the change in the relationship between money and art that occurred over the course of his career.
Relph was made CEO of British Screen Finance in 1985. He was appointed CBE in 2004. He loved designing gardens and opened up his own annually to raise money for charity.
The producer Colin Vaines, who worked with Relph at both British Screen and later the Film Consortium, paid tribute to his kindness and passion for British independent cinema. “At British Screen we simply couldn’t support everyone, and it was torture to Simon to have to say no to a project . . . he really stood out as someone special, because he was a classic independent producer himself, and knew what the applicants for funds were going through.”
Simon Relph, CBE, film producer, was born on April 13, 1940. He died from pneumonia after a minor operation, on October 30, 2016, aged 76.
Director
How to Enjoy Wine (1984)
How to Enjoy Wine
Director
1984
Actor
Camilla (1994)
Camilla
6.0
Concert goer in formal wear (uncredited)
1994
Producer
Clémence Poésy and Eddie Redmayne in Birdsong (2012)
Birdsong
7.3
TV Mini Series
executive producer
2012
2 episodes
Get the Picture (2004)
Get the Picture
7.2
Short
executive producer
2004
Bugs! (2003)
Bugs!
6.9
Short
executive producer
2003
Hideous Kinky (1998)
Hideous Kinky
6.0
executive producer
1998
Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz, and Anna Friel in The
Land Girls (1998)
The Land Girls
6.2
producer
1998
The Slab Boys (1997)
The Slab Boys
5.9
producer
1997
Ewan McGregor and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Blue Juice (1995)
Blue Juice
5.1
producer
1995
Camilla (1994)
Camilla
6.0
producer
1994
Screen Two (1984)
Screen Two
6.3
TV Series
producer
1994
1 episode
The Secret Rapture (1993)
The Secret Rapture
5.8
producer
1993
Juliette Binoche and Jeremy Irons in Damage (1992)
Damage
6.7
co-producer
1992
Brian Cox and Paul Reynolds in The Cutter (1992)
The Cutter
7.7
Short
executive producer
1992
Polly Walker in Enchanted April (1991)
Enchanted April
7.3
executive producer
1991
Jeremy Irons, Robbie Coltrane, and Samuel Irons in Danny the
Champion of the World (1989)
Danny the Champion of the World
6.7
TV Movie
executive producer: British Screen
1989
Comrades (1986)
Comrades
7.3
producer
1986
Wetherby (1985)
Wetherby
6.5
producer
1985
Singleton's Pluck (1984)
Singleton's Pluck
6.0
executive producer
1984
Tara MacGowran and Marie Theres Relin in Secret Places
(1984)
Secret Places
6.9
producer
1984
The Ploughman's Lunch (1983)
The Ploughman's Lunch
6.2
producer
1983
John Cleese and Denis Quilley in Privates on Parade (1983)
Privates on Parade
4.8
producer
1983
Alan Bates, Julie Christie, and Glenda Jackson in The Return
of the Soldier (1982)
The Return of the Soldier
6.7
producer
1982
Diane Keaton and Warren Beatty in Reds (1981)
Reds
7.3
executive producer
1981
Production Manager
Yanks (1979)
Yanks
6.4
production supervisor
1979
Underworld Informers (1963)
Underworld Informers
6.9
assistant production manager (uncredited)
1963
Second Unit or Assistant Director
The Ploughman's Lunch (1983)
The Ploughman's Lunch
6.2
assistant director
1983
Diane Keaton and Warren Beatty in Reds (1981)
Reds
7.3
assistant director
1981
Yanks (1979)
Yanks
6.4
assistant director
1979
It's Not the Size That Counts (1974)
It's Not the Size That Counts
3.7
assistant director
1974
Sean Connery in Zardoz (1974)
Zardoz
5.8
assistant director
1974
The Hireling (1973)
The Hireling
6.6
assistant director
1973
George Segal and Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class (1973)
A Touch of Class
6.5
assistant director
1973
The Nelson Affair (1973)
The Nelson Affair
6.4
first assistant director
1973
Oliver Reed, Brian Deacon, and Glenda Jackson in The Triple
Echo (1972)
The Triple Echo
6.4
assistant director
1972
Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
Mary, Queen of Scots
7.1
assistant director
1971
Macbeth (1971)
Macbeth
7.4
first assistant director
1971
Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
7.0
assistant director
1971
Three Sisters (1970)
Three Sisters
6.2
assistant director
1970
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
Anne of the Thousand Days
7.4
assistant director
1969
Some Girls Do (1969)
Some Girls Do
5.5
assistant director
1969
The High Commissioner (1968)
The High Commissioner
6.1
assistant director
1968
Sylva Koscina and Elke Sommer in Deadlier Than the Male
(1967)
Deadlier Than the Male
6.3
assistant director
1967
Carnaby, M.D. (1966)
Carnaby, M.D.
5.7
assistant director
1966
Susan Strasberg, Dirk Bogarde, and George Chakiris in
McGuire, Go Home! (1965)
McGuire, Go Home!
5.9
first assistant director
1965
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
Seance on a Wet Afternoon
7.6
second assistant director (uncredited)
1964
Woman of Straw (1964)
Woman of Straw
6.8
second assistant director (uncredited)
1964
Dirk Bogarde and Sylva Koscina in Agent 8 3/4 (1964)
Agent 8 3/4
6.1
assistant director
1964
A Place to Go (1963)
A Place to Go
6.5
second assistant director (uncredited)
1963
Doctor in Distress (1963)
Doctor in Distress
5.6
second assistant director (uncredited)
1963
Dirk Bogarde in The Mind Benders (1963)
The Mind Benders
6.4
second assistant director (uncredited)
1963
Two Guys Abroad (1962)
Two Guys Abroad
second assistant director (uncredited)
1962
Carry on Cruising (1962)
Carry on Cruising
6.1
third assistant director (uncredited)
1962
Twice Round the Daffodils (1962)
Twice Round the Daffodils
6.3
third assistant director (uncredited)
1962
Thanks
Hooded (2007)
Hooded
6.8
Short
special thanks
2007
Witness to 'Reds' (2006)
Witness to 'Reds'
6.3
Video
thanks
2006
Dead Man's Cards (2006)
Dead Man's Cards
5.4
special thanks
2006
The Van (1996)
The Van
6.7
special thanks
1996
Blue Black Permanent (1992)
Blue Black Permanent
6.4
thanks
1992
Trini Alvarado, Michael Palin, and Connie Booth in American
Friends (1991)
American Friends
6.4
special thanks
1991
Perfectly Normal (1990)
Perfectly Normal
6.1
acknowledgement: the Producer is indebted to
1990
The Garden (1990)
The Garden
6.4
special thanks
1990
Crossing the Line (1990)
Crossing the Line
5.7
special thanks: British Screen
1990
Dykket (1989)
Dykket
6.4
special thanks
1989
High Hopes (1988)
High Hopes
7.4
special thanks
1988
Peggy Ashcroft and John Mills in When the Wind Blows (1986)
When the Wind Blows
7.7
special thanks
1986
Dark Enemy (1984)
Dark Enemy
5.7
with the kind assistance of
1984
Self
Lanterna Magicka: Bill Douglas and the Secret History of
Cinema (2009)
Lanterna Magicka: Bill Douglas and the Secret History of
Cinema
7.7
Self
2009
Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image (2006)
Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image
6.9
Self
2006
This Week (1956)
This Week
6.9
TV Series
Self
1990
1 episode
The Media Show (1987)
The Media Show
4.8
TV Series
Self
1988
1 episode
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