Philip Jenkinson
| Philip Jenkinson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
17 August 1935 Sale, Cheshire, England |
| Died | 11 March 2012 (aged 76) |
| Occupation | Journalist, television presenter, film collector |
| Spouse(s) | Sally Jay |
Philip Jenkinson (17 August 1935 – 11 March 2012) was an English cinema specialist, journalist, BBC television presenter and film collector. His collection was known as Filmfinders.
Jenkinson was born in Sale. When he was a child he won a holiday talent contest by performing George Formby imitations at a Butlins holiday camp. A talent scout noticed him and arranged an audition with BBC Children's Hour. That incident led to much radio work from Leeds. His parents were not interested at all. The money he earned he spent on elocution lessons to get rid of his Manchester accent. In those days no successful actor would have a regional accent.
He was a very asthmatic child and consequently missed a lot of school, so the milkman gave his mother a 9.5mm projector to keep him amused, and by that means he started watching films. His mother used to give him money to go swimming to build up his strength, but he used to spend it on going to the cinema instead. His mother disapproved because she thought this was a means of picking up germs, but he would put his swimming trunks under the tap before returning home so that she would not discover what he had been doing.
When he left school he started work as a projectionist, then worked in the theatre, in stage management mainly and acting. At one theatre he met the set designer Sally Jay, later his wife. The couple decided to move to London where gained work with the distributors Contemporary Films.
Philip Jenkinson said in an interview in 2003: "One day when I was giving a lecture at St Martin’s School of Art, a BBC producer, Mike Appleton, was waiting at the back to pick up his girlfriend and he caught the last 10 minutes. He came over and said it was very interesting. ‘I am a producer of a programme called Late Night Line-Up. Would you like to come along and do something similar on the programme?’ They liked it and asked me to come back next week and do another one. I initially signed a contract for six months, which grew and grew. I ended up staying with Late Night Line Up for five years. The talk and emphasis was always about old movies. Film Night came out of Late Night Line Up. It started with me and Tony Bilbow. Tony reviewed the new films whilst I related the new films to ones that were made earlier, linking them with either a director or a star or the style; something they had in common." He was later asked by Late Night Live producer Rowan Ayers to help him launch The Beatles Abbey Road album.
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