Michael Bogdanov

He was a producer and director at Irish broadcaster RTÉ from 1966 to 1969, and later worked extensively for BBC Wales, making documentaries and feature films, winning several awards.

These included, in 1980, Howard Brenton's The Romans in Britain, which resulted in a private prosecution in which Bogdanov was accused by counsel for Christian morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse of "procuring an act of gross indecency" in one scene where two male actors simulated anal rape.

As joint artistic director, he directed the company's inaugural productions of The Henrys and, in 1987, the seven-play history cycle of The Wars of the Roses, which toured worldwide.

He continued to direct productions around the world in the 1990s, including a revival of the musical Hair at the Old Vic in London in 1993, his own version of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf for both the Royal National Theatre of Denmark in 1994 and the English Shakespeare Company in London in 1997, Peer Gynt for the Residenz Theatre in Munich in 1995, Goethe's Faust Parts 1 and 2] for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Antony and Cleopatra and As You Like It for the English Theatre Company in 1998, Timon of Athens for the Shakespeare Repertory Theater in Chicago in 1999, and Macbeth for the Residenz Theater in Munich, again in 1999.

With an ensemble of mainly Welsh players, he produced The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Winter's Tale, The Merchant of Venice, Cymbeline and Twelfth Night.

He directed productions of both Shakespeare and new works, including Twelfth Night, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice and Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood.

In 2006, Bogdanov brought his production of Mal Pope's musical Amazing Grace in Cardiff to sell-out performances at the Wales Millennium Centre, with every show ending in a standing ovation.

[5] In 2011 he directed A Midsummer Night's Dream in Platt as the opening production of the new Ohnsorg-Theater in Hamburg, which had moved from its old location into a newly built theatre.