After a writing several successful plays for the stage he got his first break into television in 1977 when he wrote a BBC Play for Today called Stronger Than the Sun. More TV plays were to follow with Bloody Kids and Caught on a Train, which starred Peggy Ashcroft and won Poliakoff his first BAFTA. This part is catnip to her ... Nicole Kidman as Masha in Nine Perfect Strangers. Photograph: Vince Valitutti/AP And, in Perfect Strangers, it's again photos which cause the plot to develop. The Gambon character is astonished by a picture of his stern father dancing ecstatically in a garden. His son is troubled by another snap, which shows him in fancy dress in a house he has no memory of ever visiting. Through encounters within the tense and fractured family, the meaning of these scenes is finally revealed.

Hitting Town (1976) (ITV play, on Plays for Britain DVD, adapted from the stage play of the same name) [57] Stream It Or Skip It: 'Christmas at the Chalet' on Lifetime, Where Divorcée Teri Hatcher Explores Love, Purpose, and Skiing in Aspen Perfect Strangers is a sublime drama, one which evokes much of the above and so much more. The central performances are touching and evocative. Matthew Mcfadyen is totally convincing as Daniel, and he is well supported by Michael Gambon, Lindsay Duncan, Claire Skinner and Toby Stephens. Jenna Bush Hager Reveals To Hoda Kotb That Her Daughter Asked Her Husband Why He Was "Lying" When He Said She "Never Looked Better"

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The performances are spellbinding, they went all out in assembling a true wealth of talent, Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Gambon, Anton Lesser to name but a few are simply brilliant, but it's Lindsay Duncan's mysterious character Alice that intrigues the most. BBC – Press Office – Stephen Poliakoff dramas for 2007". Archived from the original on 11 July 2007.

Anything by Stephen Poliakoff, the playwright who gave us modern television milestones such as Caught on a Train and Shooting the Past, is keenly anticipated by anyone who likes to immerse themselves in dramas of sinuous beauty. So rub your hands with glee at the arrival of this elegant three-part story centred on the peculiar and mysterious Symon family, who gather at a London hotel for a huge and startlingly well organised reunion.Though everyone is part of the same family, most are indeed "perfect strangers" to one another, linked by blood but in many cases very little else. If you take any family and get them together, and get them to stay up long enough, the stories will come tumbling out,there are at least three great stories in any family..." Astonish Me – WWF-UK's 50th Anniversary Film". www.stephenpoliakoff.com. 30 November 2016 . Retrieved 7 April 2019.Poliakoff continued directing his own work when he worked with Charles Dance and Clive Owen again in Century, and then he followed it up with Food of Love in which Richard E Grant took the lead. Around this time he also had a huge hit with the play Blinded by the Sun which was produced at the National Theatre, it won several awards including an Olivier for the Best New Play. Over a decade on, and Perfect Strangers remains one of the best pieces of drama I have ever seen. The story of the family karaoke begins in quite light fashion, almost light-heartedly, but as it develops it turns into something incredibly moving, delving into relationships, love, the human spirit, and so much more. The mini stories throughout are diverse and incredibly engaging, the one involving the three sisters had me close to tears, it's one of the most moving, emotional things I've ever seen.