On a cold but bright and dry November day Michael made us delicious tomato ginger and orange soup to warm us up before we retreated to the warm static van to hear his story.
First his question – What book would you take to a desert island?
- A useful book of agriculture to grow my own food
- Francis Fukuyama
- The Oddessy, as eventually Odysseus finds his way home
- The Five Invitations :Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank Ostaseski
- How to make a little house
- Seven Years in Tibet
- The famous five
- Three years before the maste
- Ring of Saturn by W G Seabold
- Candide by Voltaire
- Swiss Family Robinson
- The Lorax by Dr Seuss
- The Third Policeman
- Ray Mears survival
- Culpepper
Michael’s Story
Michael’s geography story began in Birkenhead where he was born in 1935. His first memory is aged 3, moving house, holding an adults hand and seeing movers struggling with getting a piece of furniture up some stairs. He had the good fortune of being at a school with an ambitious headmaster, whose objective was to get as many as possible to Oxford and Cambridge – Michael was listed as secretary of the athletics club which the head knew would influence the decision.
At Oxford two momentous events: he met Tamsyn his future wife, though their mutual skepticism of Christianity and embracing of humanism. With his love of theatre, he naturally joined the Oxford Play house: with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller, …. He went with the group to the Edinburgh fringe. At that time the festival fringe was just a word and unorganised. Michael drew up the constitution and formalised its structure. nd led the organisation of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
Michael joined the BBC as a trainee administrator. He moved to the Script Department in 1961, working on programmes like Storyboard. He served as the story editor of the soap opera Compact in 1963, but then decided to switch gears again by completing the BBC’s directors’ training course. He returned to Compact in this new capacity, and subsequently worked on shows like Swizzlewick, Mary Barton and The Flying Swan.
Imison’s preference was to direct adaptations of classics serials A highlight for him was adapting Thomas Mann’s 1901 debut novel Buddenbrooks. In 1966, Imison found himself assigned to the Doctor Who serial The Ark with the first Dr Who, William Hartnall. He considered this to be a punishment imposed by Head of Serials Gerald Savory whose wife, actress Annette Carell, had come into conflict with Imison while they worked together on Buddenbrooks in 1965. After making Doctor Who, Imison’s contract with the BBC was not renewed, although he did briefly serve as the story editor for Out Of The Unknown.
Michael left television, becoming a successful literary agent with a focus on playwrights.
He started by CBS – an American agency. Through the employee caught steeling the petty cash, he landed a job at the best Theatre agency in London, Van Leuvan.
His first client, Michael Weller, is still a good friend, and took him to New York, where he established English Agents as part of the theatre system, rather than going through American agents.
Jean Anoille, took him to Paris, where he refused to speak English
Dario Fo took him to Turin
Searching for Russian writers in English took him to Moscow where he obtained rights to Sarcophagus (about Chennoble)
He opened up an office in New York.
He opened up an office in Sydney, Australia
Perhaps his most successful play was the Elephant man, which after the success in London, transferred to New York, first a small theatre in Hampstead, then Broadway where it ran for 2 years.
Michael retired in 2000 when he and Tamsyn moved up to Suffolk, They had a holiday home in Raydon for 20 plus years, and decided to settle in Halesworth, buying Magnolia House.
In 1999, he helped found the Noël Coward Society.
What we remembered: his talent for negotiating, like the burton Taylor story; a wonderful life; so many famous people; thank you for taking on the Fringe; never knew another name for cancer was moon children; I’ve never seen a play and you inspire me to; your story has interacted with all our lives
