Sebastian Graham-Jones

Sebastian Graham-Jones (1 August 1947 – 18 July 2004), was a British director and actor born in Brockhampton, Dorset.

Best known as assistant to Bill Bryden at the National Theatre. Sebastian Graham-Jones, who has died of cancer aged 56, was an unusual actor and director who shunned the limelight to such an extent that he was best known as an assistant to the National Theatre director Bill Bryden during the years when Sir Peter Hall was in charge.

His talents, though, were considerable. His major contribution may have been to such outstanding late 1970s Bryden productions as a programme of early Eugene O'Neill seagoing plays; Tony Harrison's revelatory, Yorkshire-accented The Mysteries; and two plays, Larkrise and Candleford, adapted by Keith Dewhurst from Flora Thompson's accounts of rural life .

Article continuesBut he was also a gifted musician, teacher, radio producer and, latterly, a director in his own right. In television, he took charge of Coronation Street for a few months and was closely involved with the making of Laurence Olivier's King Lear (1984).

He had recently been working in Cape Cod, directing Harold Pinter's No Man's Land (he had been an assistant to Peter Hall on the original National production starring John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson) and, this year, Alan Ayckbourn's A Chorus of Disapproval. He was taken ill suddenly and advised to return to London, where he died in hospital surrounded by family and friends.

Graham-Jones's father worked for the British Council, so, though Sebastian was born in Bockhampton, Dorset, he spent some of his early years in Iran and India. He went to Harrow School, and then read English and American literature at the then new Kent University. Having caught the drama bug at Harrow, where his teacher Ronnie Watkins was an inspirational Shakespearean, he formed a drama society whose activities led, almost certainly, to the university instigating a drama degree.

Graham-Jones was a genial man with a mop of hair and a ready smile who met his first wife, Victoria Farbrother, when they both appeared in Kenneth Tynan's Oh, Calcutta! in 1970. He soon moved into the West End in Alan Bennett's Getting On, where he played in a cast including Kenneth More and Gemma Jones. He thereafter lived for many years with Gemma Jones, and they had a son, Luke, who now works with financiers and producers in the film industry.

Sebastian's golden promise may not have been fulfilled as cheerleader for other people's productions, but Bill Bryden valued his support. However, some colleagues regretted his involvement in the famed drinking school of Bryden's company.

One National Theatre associate recalls a performance of The Mysteries which descended into farce when the soldiers trying to nail Jesus (the late Mark McManus) to the cross were drunker even than their saviour and almost perpetrated a calamity on Calvary that would have had no precedent in the Bible. The sponges were soaked in other than vinegar.

Graham-Jones was universally popular. He radiated charm and was good-humoured even when pressed into service to impart some critical comment to the actors, or convey the details of some directorial vision that he did not agree with. He played a big part in an important era at the National, and moved on with Bryden to produce, in 1994, an amazing, poetic account of trench warfare and the appearance of the Angel of Mons in The Big Picnic in a Glasgow shipyard, an event you felt was almost willed into happening by Bryden and Graham-Jones egging the actors ever on in challenging physical circumstances.

His work at the National brought him into contact with the actress Susan Fleetwood, with whom he had an important relationship until her death in 1995. He spent the last eight years of his life with the television drama producer Alison Gee.

· Sebastian Graham-Jones, actor and director, born August 1 1947; died July 18 2004

Director of TV Programmes

*2004 "In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner" in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
*1994 Cadfael series
*1989 Shadow of the Noose
*1987 Floodtide
*1984 Travelling Manand was for a short while director of Coronation Street.

External links

* [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/obituary/0,,1288883,00.html Obituary in The Guardian]
* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.thorp/people.htm John Tams on his long friendship with Graham-Jones]