ROBIN AND MARIAN, THE THREE MUSKETEERS Director, Richard Lester, Receives BFI Fellowship

Director Richard Lester (SUPERMAN II, A HARD DAY’S NIGHT) has been presented with the BFI’s highest accolade, the BFI Fellowship, following a screening of one of his best-loved films, Robin and Marian at BFI Southbank. The award was presented by BFI Chair, Greg Dyke.

Richard Lester said ‘When my career was just beginning, the elegant TV critic Bernard Levin came to see me in rehearsal with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. He wrote: ‘he seems an amiable young man who climbed into a lion’s cage and realised he’s forgotten his chair and his whip.’

Some 50 years later, I still haven’t found a whip, but with this extraordinary honour, the BFI has kindly given me a chair.’

Greg Dyke said, ‘Richard Lester has created a unique body of work which has enriched the lives of millions with his brilliantly surreal humour and innovative style. Although born in America he has lived in Britain for 60 years and created some of the most enduring and influential creations of British cinema.’

The BFI Fellowship is awarded by the BFI Board of Governors and it is presented for outstanding achievement in film and television. Previous recipients include Ralph Fiennes, David Cronenberg, Dame Judi Dench, Isabelle Huppert and Martin Scorsese. The full list is a roll call of the leading lights of the world of film and television.

Richard Lester is perhaps best known for his ground-breaking films with the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help! (1965), which retain a vividly authentic flavour of the 60s zeitgeist. His quirky, surrealist humour is considered a key influence on the Monty Pythons. He is a boldly original filmmaker whose originality and creativity have inspired several generations of filmmakers and actors.

Although born in the USA in 1932, Lester came to England in 1956, having become a television director at the age of 20. He has remained resident in the UK ever since. Key to Lester’s creative output was his working relationship with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, seen in the television series A Show Called Fred (ITV, 1956), the eleven-minute short The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film (1959) and the savagely absurdist The Bed-Sitting Room (1969), adapted from the play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus.

Richard Lester’s work with Milligan and Sellers brought him to the attention of the Beatles and the films they made together A Hard Day’s Night(1964) and Help! (1965) were both huge international critical and commercial successes and they remain hugely influential. Lester won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 1965 for The Knack…and How to Get It, which starred Rita Tushingham and Michael Crawford.

Lester’s adaptation of the Sondheim stage musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) boasts Phil Silvers and Buster Keaton in its cast. He worked with many big budget Hollywood productions in the 1970s and 80s including a highly successful series of films based on The Three Musketeers starring Oliver Reed and Richard Chamberlain. Robin and Marian (1976) starring Audrey Hepburn and Sean Connery is a highly rated late work.

Richard Lester has a long association with the BFI. He presented the first John Player lecture in 1968, stepping in when Jean-Luc Godard refused to appear.