Jonathan Meades
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Jonathan Meades is a British writer on food, architecture, and culture, as well as a novelist.
Meades studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) c.1967. He has written reviews and articles for The Times for many years, and has been restaurant critic of The Times since 1986. He is well known to British television audiences for his series about architecture Abroad with Jonathan Meades and its sequels Further Abroad with Jonathan Meades and Even Further Abroad With Jonathan Meades, the last shown on BBC2 in 1997. Meades was voted Best Food Journalist in the 1999 Glenfiddich Awards.
Meades' work has also included an innovative and well regarded series about the architectural legacy of the Third Reich, Jerry Building.
Meades' television work is noted for his opinionated, elaborately stylised and frequently surreal presentation and linkages. Due to his frequent criticism of perceived misplaced good taste, timid design and nostalgia, he is perhaps better regarded as a columnist rather than a documentary maker.
His signature habit of introducing an opinion without providing justification as the last statement in a "documentary" shot can be annoying to many viewers. A prominent example occurred in Meades' programme "Abroad Again in Britain: Salisbury Cathedral" (BBC2, Saturday 10th January 2005).
After a discussion about the Cathedral Cloisters, Meades inserted the observation that "many a nun has been tupped in these cloisters" with no reference, citation or justification. Viewers were left guessing whether he regarded the statement as factual or simply made for amusement. In the context of a programme about a Cathedral, an explanation of the evidence for nuns subject to a Vow of Chastity being regularly "tupped" would have added to the completeness to the presentation and the authority of the presenter.
Bibliography
- Architectural Expressions ISBN 0471496677
- This is Their Life (1979; collection of biographies of TV stars)
- Peter Knows What Dick Likes (1989)
- Pompey (1993)
- Incest and Morris Dancing (2002; collection of Times restaurant columns)
- The Fowler Family Business (2002)
- "The Times" Restaurant Guide 2002
- Filthy English
- Abroad Again in Britain (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/abroad-again.shtml)2005