| ............ | PAUL KRIWACZEK was
born in Vienna in 1937 and narrowly escaped from Austria’s Nazis to
England with his parents in 1939. He attended grammar school in London
and studied at the London Hospital Medical School. While at school and university, he made a number of acting appearances, both on radio and in feature films, including ‘The Battle of the River Plate’, with Peter Finch. He also began writing for the stage and had his first success with a translation and adaptation of Bertold Brecht’s ‘Herr Puntila and his Manservant Matti’ for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company. After qualifying as a dental surgeon in 1962, he travelled extensively in Asia and Africa, taking up residence first in Afghanistan, as dental surgeon to the Afghan royal family, and then in Zambia. In the course of these travels he wrote about his experiences, made a film from under Lake Geneva on board the Cousteau passenger-carrying submarine, and the first ever television film of Bouzkashi—Afghanistan’s national game. In 1968 he joined the BBC External Services as a specialist in Central and South Asian affairs, wrote and produced radio programmes in English, Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Burmese, Farsi and Pashto, and was for a time Persian Language Supervisor. In 1970, he transferred to BBC Television, where he wrote, produced and directed science, drama, music and documentary programmes, initially in the Science & Features, and later in the Education Department. In 1988 he was appointed Executive Producer. He left the BBC in 1993 with a range of independent projects but particularly to pursue his interest in writing. His book Documentary for the Small Screen, was published by Focal Press in Autumn 1997. His book In Search of Zarathustra was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in Spring 2002. His book Yiddish Civilisation was published in Summer 2005. Paul Kriwaczek is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is married and has three grown-up children. |