Dirk Maggs

David George Dirk Maggs (born February 1955) is a British freelance writer and director. During his career as a Senior Producer in BBC Radio he made radio drama in the form of "Audio Movies," using a cinematic-sounding approach combining filmic story construction, layered sound effects, cinematic music and digital technology. Maggs pioneered the use of Dolby Surround in BBC Radio and was among the first nominees for the Directors Guild of Great Britain Outstanding Achievement in Radio Award.

Dirk Maggs
Born
David George Dirk Maggs

February 1955 (age 66)
St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, U.K.
NationalityBritish
Occupation
Known forRadio Comedy, Radio Plays, Podcasts, Streamed Audio Productions
Notable work
Batman Knightfall (BBC Radio 1), Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Series 3-6 with Douglas Adams (BBC Radio 4), The Sandman for Audible / DC Comics with Neil Gaiman, Acts I, II and III
Websitewww.dirkmaggs.com

Maggs studied Drama for a BEd degree from 1974-78 at King Alfred's College, Winchester, which gained university status in 2005, when he was invited to become one of the first Honorary Fellows of the University of Winchester for his work in the Dramatic Arts. In 2019 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for his work in the Arts by Bournemouth University. In December 2021 Maggs was on a team representing the University of Winchester in BBC TV's Christmas University Challenge.

In 1992 Douglas Adams approached BBC Radio Light Entertainment to ask if Maggs would collaborate on bringing Adams's science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"back home to BBC Radio", as Adams put it. Contractual issues delayed the production and was not until 2003 to 2005 that Maggs adapted, produced and directed new episodes from Adams's last three novels which were based on the premise of the original radio series that Adams wrote.

In the early 90s Maggs was introduced to Neil Gaiman by a mutual friend, Phyllis Hume, of DC Comics International Business Affairs. For nearly three decades Maggs and Gaiman looked for a way to turn Gaiman's The Sandman (comic book) series into audio drama. With combined support from Audible (service) and DC Comics the project finally got under way in 2019 and "The Sandman Act I" was released in July 2020, spending two months at #1 in The New York Times Best Seller list.

Maggs has directed many well-known actors in productions, including James McAvoy, Bill Nighy, Kat Dennings, Miriam Margolyes, Michael Sheen Tom Hollander, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rowan Atkinson, Leslie Nielsen, Christian Slater, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Pryce, Hugh Laurie, Juliet Stevenson, Jim Broadbent, Patricia Hodge, Alison Steadman, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan.

Maggs is married to Lesley Maggs, née Snow, whom he met in 1978 when they were Studio Managers in BBC World Service. They have three adult sons.

Comedy productions

As well as producing episodes of standard radio comedy series such as The News Huddlines, It's Been a Bad Week and The Russ Abbot Show, Maggs was involved in some more unusual comedy projects.

Between 1990 and 1992 he produced three series of Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, an updated version of a 1932 Marx Brothers radio show of the same name. The actors were specifically chosen for their ability to impersonate the Marx Brothers, so that an accurate recreation could be achieved. One of the episodes won the Gold Medal at the New York International Festival.

A similar effort needed to be undertaken for Goon Again in 2001. Produced for the 50th anniversary of The Goon Show, and with the blessing of Spike Milligan, it was a project Maggs had been planning since he recorded At Last The Go On Show, a documentary for the 40th anniversary of the Goons. Early on, Maggs realised that Goon Again would not work without Sir Harry Secombe's very distinctive voice. But Sir Harry declined to take part due to his failing health. Fortunately, his son Andrew Secombe was willing give it a go, and so the cast was arranged around him, with the sons of several other cast members getting involved too, creating, in the words of Maggs, "a genetically-engineered tribute band" to the Goons. The show won the 2002 Best Comedy Award from the Spoken Word Producers Association (now the Audio Publishers Association).

Maggs directed the Johnny Vegas radio series Night Class in 2002. It was a somewhat darker comedy than Maggs's usual output. This show won the Bronze award in the Comedy category of the 2003 Sony Radio Academy Awards.

Science fiction productions

Early in his career Maggs became known for directing adaptations of comic book storylines. He started in 1988 with the 50th Anniversary Man Of Steel docudrama Superman on Trial, carried on with a 50th birthday tribute to the Dark Knight: Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome. This was followed by The Adventures Of Superman, Batman: Knightfall, The Amazing Spider-Man and his final BBC Radio superhero series, Judge Dredd in 1995. Along the way his production of Superman: Doomsday and Beyond ("Superman Lives" in the US) won the 1994 Audie Award for Best Dramatisation from the American Booksellers Association and Spoken Word Audio of The Year from Publishers Weekly.

In 2005 Time Warner audiobooks re-released Maggs's Batman: Knightfall and Superman Lives in the US, prompting a UK re-release by BBC Audiobooks.

In 1996, Maggs was contacted by 20th Century Fox and asked to create a British-based "parallel-quel" to their summer science fiction blockbuster Independence Day. The resulting programme, Independence Day UK, took place in the same world, and at the same time as the film, but showed a British perspective on the alien invasion. This also won the 1996 Talkie Award for Best Production. The next year, with the blessing of director John Landis, Maggs produced and directed his own adaptation of An American Werewolf in London for BBC Radio One. For this he won the 1997 Talkie Award for Best TV/Film Adaptation.

In 1999 he produced a five-part adaptation of Stephen Baxter's alternative history novel Voyage. The premise is simple. When Apollo 11 reached the moon, JFK (having survived that day in Dallas) set a new target for the space programme: Mars. Voyage is the story of a space-race that never was but so easily might have been. Maggs's adaptation was presented on BBC Radio 4, and received 1999 Talkie Award for Best Use of Music as well as the 2000 Sony Radio Academy Bronze Award for Best Drama.

Other productions

Maggs directed adaptations of several Agatha Christie short stories for Radio Four, and a production of Bill Naughton's Alfie for the BBC World Service.

He has directed the sound mix on three short 3D films that are played in motion simulator capsules. Maggs has also worked on audiotape adaptations of Terry Deary's Horrible Histories books and is audio director for the Animated Mr Bean television series, which means that everything heard in the show has gone through Maggs's hands at some point.

For the feature-length computer animated version of The Magic Roundabout, Maggs voice-directed principal character sessions with actors including Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone and Joanna Lumley.

Maggs's influence has spread to computer games. He is credited as Voice Director on the highly acclaimed adventure game, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon featuring Rolf Saxon and Sarah Crook.

In 2013 Maggs wrote, directed and dramatised the radio play Neverwhere, based on the television series Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

Alphabetical list of Dirk Maggs radio productions to 2019

Detailed list of Radio Plays
Radio Plays Directed or Produced by Dirk Maggs
Date first broadcast Play Author Cast Synopsis
Awards		 Station
Series
29 December 2004
{Recorded on 22 October 2004)		 All Fingers and Thumbs[1] Alan Stafford Bill Nighy, Susannah Doyle, Jenny Eclair, Felicity Montagu, Steve Day, Fifi Garfield and Brian Bowles Sign language interpreter Marie wants more deaf people to enjoy the theatre. So does director Tom – but not if it involves a bothersome spot-lit woman waving her arms about on his stage. BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
15 May 2007 Henry's Girls[2] Alan Stafford Robert Glenister, Chloë Annett, Robert Duncan, Nichola McAuliffe, Naoko Mori, Catherine Shepherd, Saskia Butler and Brian Bowles Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas received its premiere at a girls' boarding school in Chelsea in 1689. So why did one of England's most popular composers choose to write his greatest masterpiece for a gaggle of unruly schoolgirls rather than the professional theatre? BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play
16 December 2011 Beyond Borders[3][Note 1] Mike Walker Timothy West, Lesley Manville, Daniel Weyman, Philip Jackson, Simon Jones and William Hope 1950, Jean Monnet is charged with planning the reconstruction of France after the Second World War. Monnet's vision is for a radical realignment of Europe, not by one nation asserting itself over another, but by negotiation, integration and ultimately, through political and economic unification. BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play

Notes:

  1. Director: Dirk Maggs; Producer: Richard Clemmow


References
  1. "All Fingers and Thumbs". Afternoon Play. BBC Radio 4. BBC. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  2. "Henry's Girls". Afternoon Play. BBC Radio 4. BBC. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  3. "Beyond Borders". Afternoon Play. BBC Radio 4. BBC. Retrieved 14 February 2020.


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