Richard Eyre worked for ten years in regional theatre in Leicester, Edinburgh and Nottingham. He was producer of the BBC's Play for Today from 1978 to 1981, and was Artistic Director of the National Theatre from 1988 to 1997. He has since worked widely in theatre and opera - including in the West End, at the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House, on Broadway and in Aix-en-Provence. His film and television work includes The Ploughman's Lunch, Tumbledown, Iris, Notes on a Scandal, and Changing Stages, a six-part look at twentieth-century theatre. He has received many awards for theatre, TV and film, and was knighted in 1997.