Robert Knights (born in 1941, London, England) is a British film and television director, perhaps best known for his film The Dawning, about the Irish War of Independence, and his work with the British television series The Bill, and the miniseries The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, based on the hit Jilly Cooper novel.
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He has been nominated for three BAFTA TV Awards and he won the Montréal World Film Festival Jury Prize for The Dawning.
(Howard had made an earlier IRA film in 1946, the classic I See a Dark Stranger.)
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Incidentally, it was Rebecca Pidgeon's first feature film, and Trevor Howard's final film; he died shortly after production ended, and the film was dedicated to him.
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Meanwhile, Nancy Gulliver (Rebecca Pidgeon) having just left school, burns all her books in happiness.
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The Dawning was received largely positively by the critics, will a five star review from Time Out, describing the film as "solidly crafted ... its main strength lies in the performances" and mentioning that Rebecca Pidgeon had given a "remarkable debut".
This slow dramatic piano ballad was described by Robin in the liner notes of Tales from the Brothers Gibb box set as "...the dawning, or the closing, of the 'gotta find out who I really am' era."
It is dedicated specifically to the Egyptian goddess Isis because the FOI co-founders believed Isis best represented the energies of the dawning Aquarian Age.
An alternative take was advocated at the dawning of the revolution by Dennis Robertson, who Fletcher has described as the most intellectually formidable of Keynes's contemporary critics.