Jonathan Turner Meades is an English writer and film-maker, primarily on the subjects of place, culture, architecture and food. His work spans journalism, fiction, essays, memoir and over fifty highly idiosyncratic television films, and has been described as "brainy, scabrous, mischievous", "iconoclastic" and possessed of "a polymathic breadth of knowledge and truly caustic wit".
Writer and broadcaster Jonathan Meades turns his gaze onto Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
Release Date: 2019-08-27
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character: Self
Jonathan Meades provides a tour of Essex, a county he sees as the home of picturesque villages, pre-war modernism and 19th-century social experiments.
Release Date: 2018-11-29
Department: Creator
Job: Creator
In this provocative television essay, writer and broadcaster Jonathan Meades turns his forensic gaze on that modern phenomenon that drives us all up the wall - jargon. In a wide-ranging programme he dissects politics, the law, football commentary, business, the arts, tabloid-speak and management consultancy to show how jargon is used to cover up, confuse and generally keep us in the dark. He contrasts this with the world of slang, which unlike jargon actually gets to the heart of whatever it's talking about even if it does offend along the way. With plenty of what is called 'strong language', Meades pulls no punches in slaying the dragon of jargon.
Release Date: 2018-05-27
Department: Creator
Job: Creator
Character:
Episode Count: [ 1 ]
Vote Count: 1
Having previously investigated the architecture of Hitler and Stalin's regimes, Jonathan Meades turns his attention to another notorious 20th-century European dictator, Mussolini. His travels take him to Rome, Milan, Genoa, the new town of Sabaudia and the vast military memorials of Redipuglia and Monte Grappa. When it comes to the buildings of the fascist era, Meades discovers a dictator who couldn't dictate, with Mussolini caught between the contending forces of modernism and a revivalism that harked back to ancient Rome. The result was a variety of styles that still influence architecture today. Along the way, Meades ponders on the nature of fascism, the influence of the Futurists, and Mussolini's love of a fancy uniform.
Release Date: 2016-06-01
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character: Himself
Vote Count: 2
Two-part documentary in which Jonathan Meades makes the case for 20th-century concrete Brutalist architecture in an homage to a style that he sees a brave, bold and bloodyminded. Tracing its precursors to the once-hated Victorian edifices described as Modern Gothic and before that to the unapologetic baroque visions created by John Vanbrugh, as well as the martial architecture of World War II, Meades celebrates the emergence of the Brutalist spirit in his usual provocative and incisive style. Never pulling his punches, Meades praises a moment in architecture he considers sublime and decries its detractors.
Release Date: 2014-02-16
Department: Crew
Job: Presenter
Character: Himself
Episode Count: 2
Jonathan Meades scrutinises the 95 per cent of France that Brits drive through and don't notice en route to the 5 per cent that conforms to their expectation
Release Date: 2012-01-18
Department: Creator
Job: Creator
Character:
Episode Count: [ 3 ]
Jonathan Meades takes a quixotic tour of Scotland, a country which has intrigued him since he first encountered lists of towns only known from football coupons
Release Date: 2009-11-09
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character: Self
Episode Count: 3
Jonathan Meades travels from the flatlands of Flanders to Germany's spectacular Baltic coast in an attempt to decipher exactly what northernness entails.
Release Date: 2008-02-21
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character: Self
Episode Count: 2
Vote Count: 2
Jonathan Meades Explores architecture and the British psyche once again in this series.
Release Date: 2007-05-09
Department: Creator
Job: Creator
Character: Himself
Episode Count: [ 5 ]
Jonathan Meades examines the cult of Stalinism through its buildings and monuments.
Release Date: 2006-04-29
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character: Himself - Presenter
Jonathan Meades gives a personal perspective of British history.
Release Date: 2005-08-02
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character: Self
Episode Count: 5
Vote Count: 1
A series in which arts presenter Mark Lawson has a 60-minute in-depth conversation with a notable figure.
Release Date: 2003-03-01
Character: Self
Episode Count: 1
Vote Count: 1
Meades asks if Britain really has suffered a "Gastronomic Revolution", and offers an A-Z of British food.
Release Date: 2003-02-24
Department: Creator
Job: Creator
A comic drama about the weird and wonderful world of Salvador Dali and the Surrealists. This film charts Dali's meteoric rise from obscurity to the world's most publicised artist.
Release Date: 2002-03-02
Character: The Nihilist
Vote Count: 4
A surreal film about surrealism.
Release Date: 2001-09-29
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character: Himself - Presenter / Various Characters
Surreal. Totally surreal. Well surreal. Double surreal. What does "surreal" mean? Does it mean anything? Documentary about Surrealism
Release Date: 2001-09-29
Episode Count: 1
Jonathan Meades's personal, entertaining and deliberately provocative journey through Victorian architecture. From fantasy castles to the House of Parliament, he explores the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of Victorian society, using a combination of comic sketches, dance routines and riotous bad taste. Meades concludes that the British obsession with escapism and the desire to live in the past means Queen Victoria is still very much alive today.
Release Date: 2001-01-07
Department: Crew
Job: Presenter
Character: Self
Episode Count: 1
Jonathan Meades offers an affectionate critique of Birmingham - home of Balti, ELO, heavy metal, conferences, 'Crossroads' and Cadbury's - from its architecture and canals to the Brummie accent and humour.
Release Date: 1998-05-31
Department: Creator
Job: Creator
Character: Self
Episode Count: [ 1 ]
Series in which presenters explore architecture in the footsteps of Nikolaus Pevsner.
Release Date: 1997-03-15
Department: Crew
Job: Presenter
Character:
Episode Count: 1
My name is Jonathan Meades and this Series is called 'Even Further Abroad'. It peels off the drab grey overcoat of preconception to reveal the lime green posing pouch of reality beneath.
Release Date: 1997-02-19
Department: Creator
Job: Creator
Character:
Episode Count: [ 5 ]
Set In a distant Present. In a land where there is no such word as 'ordinary' and where every.... AAhh.. AATCHOO!
Release Date: 1994-11-03
Department: Creator
Job: Creator
Character:
Episode Count: [ 5 ]
Jonathan Meades explores the architecture of Nazi Germany, from its holiday camps to its concentration camps.
Release Date: 1994-10-31
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character: Himself - Presenter
Vote Count: 1
A mythical land who must be discover. Or invented. In an impressive library, two old men. One is a great Polish archaeologist at the end of his work. The second- his best friend. They are masters of a substantial slice of human history: legendary Atlantis. It is refuge and masterpiece, propriety and treasure.
Release Date: 1992-11-05
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Vote Count: 2
Series in which Jonathan Meades considers unusual homes or architecture around Britain.
Release Date: 1990-10-29
Department: Writing
Job: Writer
Character: Himself
Episode Count: 5
Personal reflections on the best of 20th Century architecture.
Release Date: 1988-11-01
Character: Self - Presenter
Episode Count: 1