Table Top Productions, the film and television production company, was founded in 1989. It was so named by producer/director/writer Alvin Rakoff and his late wife, the actress Jacqueline Hill, because of the number of successful productions they initiated whilst sitting around the kitchen table ...

Film and television director, screen writer and novelist, Alvin Rakoff, was born and raised in Canada and is a graduate of the University of Toronto. He has subsequently worked in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and even more extensively in Canada and the USA. But the bulk of his career has been in Britain.

A journalist during and immediately following University, he began by adapting novels for film and television, this inevitably evolved into writing original screenplays. He was then invited to train at BBC TV as a director. A period of four years under contract to the BBC followed before branching out to direct FEATURE FILMS and THEATRE.

The auspicious nature of Alvin Rakoff's work is probably best exemplified by listing some of the actors with whom he has worked ... Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Ralph Richardson, Michael Crawford, Jeremy Irons, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Henry Fonda, Ava Gardner, Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, Laurence Olivier, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Celia Johnson, Dame Edith Evans, Dame Wendy Hiller, Angela Lansbury, Donald Wolfit, Fiona Shaw, Alan Rickman, Jackie Gleason, Peter Sellers, David Caruso, John Gielgud, Michael Gambon, Rex Harrison. And many more.

FEATURE FILMS credits include: Peter Sellers in HOFFMAN Elliott Gould in DIRTY TRICKS Kenneth More in THE COMEDY MAN Rod Steiger in THE WORLD IN MY POCKET - to name but a few.

The Los Angeles Times, reviewing SAY HELLO TO YESTERDAY (Jean Simmons, Leonard Whiting), wrote: "This stunningly photographed British picture apparently marks the debut - and it could hardly be more auspicious - of writer-director Alvin Rakoff, still another talented Canadian".

Alvin is, however,best known for his work in TELEVISION. He was one of the first television directors to freelance. He paved the way for directors to move freely and frequently from one broadcaster to another; indeed, from one country to another.

When he started at BBC TV transmissions were of course 'live'. One of his earliest productions, WAITING FOR GILLIAN, won the National TV Award. He was subsequently asked to restage this production in Paris in French for the national networks of France. He introduced the use of lengthy filmed exterior scenes into studio dramas (The Condemned, Caine Mutiny Court Martial, Requiem For A Heavyweight etc).Rapid cutting or ever-changing developing shots were dictated he has said, "by the script". His television work has always been innovative, daring, courageous, as colleagues and newspapers critics cited below confirm; failing rarely, succeeding often. He has been labelled "A master of the medium" (Mercury) and the adjective "brilliant" is the word found most frequently applied to him.

Of his direction of Thornton Wilder's 'OUR TOWN' it was written "When 'Our Town' ended last Sunday night it did not seem extravagant to think that on Monday morning in the bus queue it would be possible to tell who had seen the play" (Glasgow Herald). Other notices said "so brilliantly did Mr Alvin Rakoff handle this production" (Sunday Times). "Medal For Mr Rakoff" (headline, Bradford Despatch), "the studied nonchalance that deepened suddenly and quietly to an elegiac mood" (The Listener)

"Mr Rakoff Knocks Out ITV" stated a headline in the Evening Standard after REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (Sean Connery, Warren Mitchell). "Given a producer of the quality of Alvin Rakoff who is as sure footed as a cat.." (Daily Mail). "But the biggest hit of the show was Alvin Rakoff¹s production. He opened with a fight sequence that made my 17 inch screen look yards wide" ( Daily Mirror). The same could be said of his more recent works, such as BEST OF FRIENDS (John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Patrick McGoohan) and of course the Emmy and Banff award-winning A VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER (Laurence Olivier, Jane Asher, etc). Indeed, his direction is still as touching, invigorating and fresh as that of the young man at the beginning of an exciting and talented career.

Twice winner of the coveted International Emmy Award - for CALL ME DADDY starring Donald Pleasance, and A VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER as well as other awards, he has directed many of the most prestigious productions seen on British television. These include: Sean Connery in REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT Lee Remick in SUMMER & SMOKE Rex Harrison in THE ADVENTURES OF DON QUIXOTE Jeremy Irons in THE LIBERTY BELL Louis Jourdan, Angela Lansbury in THE FIRST OLYMPICS (with David Caruso) Alan Rickman in ROMEO & JULIET John Gielgud and Patrick McGoohan in THE BEST OF FRIENDS, PARADISE POSTPONED, a 12 hour series by John Mortimer with an outstanding cast (Sir Michael Hordern, Paul Shelley, Peter Egan, etc) followed and, more recently, the Channel 4 A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (Miranda Richardson, John Gielgud, Simon Russel Beale, etc). He also devised, produced and directed the detective series SAM SATURDAY.

Throughout his career he has been a prolific WRITER of original screenplays and adaptations. He is now also a published novelist. His first novel '& GILLIAN' published by Little Brown has already been translated into 10 different languages.

for further information please contact

Ben Berry
Production Manager
Table Top Productions
1 The Orchard, Chiswick
London W1 1JZ, England

Tel 020 8994 1269
Fax 020 8742 0507

Robin Lowe
Hurley Lowe Management
3A Imperial Studios
Imperial Road
London SW6 2AG, England

Tel 020 7384 3322
fax 020 7384 3344