Stephen Poliakoff

Stephen Poliakoff (born 1 December 1952) is a British playwright, director and screenwriter. In 2006 Gerard Gilbert of The Independent described him as the UK's "pre-eminent TV dramatist" who had "inherited Dennis Potter's crown". Early life Poliakoff was born in Holland Park, West London, to Ina (née Montagu) and Alexander Poliakoff. His father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant and his mother was a British Jew. His maternal grandfather had bought 16th-century mansion Great Fosters, and his maternal great-grandfather was Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling. The second of four children, he was sent at a young age to Marlborough House School, which he hated. He then attended Westminster School, where he attracted sufficient attention for Granny, a play he wrote and directed, to be reviewed in The Times newspaper. After Westminster, he went to King's College, Cambridge to read history but left after two years, later recalling Cambridge as "a stuffy place" and the history course as "shockingly bad". Professional life