Director who faced prison dies
MICHAEL BOGDANOV, the acclaimed theatre and film director, has died after suffering a heart attack while on holiday in Greece. He was 78.
Mr Bogdanov, born in Wales, to a Jewish father and a Welsh mother in 1938, was known for his modern reinterpretations of Shakespeare.
In 1982, he was tried at the Old Bailey after staging an act of simulated male sex in the play The Romans in Britain, accused of procuring an act of “gross indecency”. Facing two years in prison, he said he was “enormously relieved” when the case collapsed.
In 1986, he co-founded the English Shakespeare Company, directing The Wars of the Roses seven-play cycle, for which he won a Laurence Olivier Award.
In his 30-year career, he also directed the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Royal Opera House.
He is survived by his second wife, Ulrike Engelbrecht, and five children.