Tim Miller obituary
My friend Tim Miller, who has died aged 87, was one of the behind-the-scenes architects of 20th-century London cultural life.In the 1960s he worked with Peter Cook at the start of Private Eye, the satirical magazine, and supported the foundation of Centrepoint, Britain’s largest homelessness charity.Film was his main calling, but he shied away from the red carpet.Instead he used his incisive intelligence and deep understanding of the world to guide other people – friends, students, artists, priests and ex-cons – towards their creative potential.Born into an aristocratic family near Woodbridge, Suffolk, Tim was the younger son of Maj William Pitt Miller and his wife, Juliet (nee St Aubyn).
Later he dropped the double-barrelled surname.After a stint in the Grenadier Guards, where he felt like a misfit, Tim settled in London.He was a founding shareholder of Private Eye Productions in 1963 and helped manage Cook’s rowdy Establishment Club, a magnet for the counterculture.In the early days of the swinging 60s, he forged a path in documentary film-making, working alongside John Irvin at Mithras Films.Their gritty style started a trend for socially conscious films with the camera at the centre of the action.
In the early 1970s, after working as location manager on films such as Hannibal Brooks, starring Oliver Reed, and The Lawman, with Burt Lancaster, Tim experienced a Damascene conversion that led him to leave the film industry and become a probation officer in Notting Hill.Over 15 years, he worked with prisoners and ex-cons, becoming a devoted mentor to many.His service extended beyond work.As warden at St Anne’s Church, in his beloved Soho, in 1969, he helped the Rev Ken Leech set up Centrepoint in the basement of St Anne’s House, and worked the night shift to provide beds and soup to homeless youths.Tim also helped restore the grave of the essayist William Hazlitt in St Anne’s graveyard.
He returned to cinema in 1989 to lead the postgraduate film programme at the Royal College of Art.His collaboration with the director Asif Kapadia, a former student, resulted in the screenplay for the double Bafta-winning The Warrior (2001).He delighted in introducing his students to friends such as the film-maker Derek Jarman.Tim maintained a deep connection to his Suffolk roots, especially to the Shingle Street cottage he loved.There, a shell line created by friends commemorated their cancer survival.
Tim would say that East Anglia’s gift to the world was its light,He erected two standing stones facing east towards the rising sun that are engraved with the words of William Blake, one of many poets whose works Tim liked to recite from memory with thundering intensity,They sum up his spiritual quest: “And we are put on earth a little space, That we may learn to bear the beams of love,”
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for flatbreads stuffed with spinach and cheese | A kitchen in Rome
This week’s recipe involves making a dough of flour (any flour), water, olive oil, thick plain yoghurt and salt, and it requires no rising agent and no resting. Thanks to the olive oil and yoghurt, it is a dough that comes together easily and behaves in a way that reminds me of warm putty, coming away from the sides of the bowl, hardly sticking to the hands and almost bringing itself into a neat ball. Unlike so many things at the moment, it is a helpful, thoughtful and stretchy dough that can be rolled or pulled into sort-of circles that can accommodate just about any filling, although mine is inspired by the cheese and greens mixture that filled the Azerbaijani qu’tab my colleagues Alice and Deruba made me a few weeks ago.The best way to eat these flatbreads is, I think, two minutes and 23 seconds after they come out of the hot pan, so they have cooled just enough to handle and so that the puff of hot air that accompanies the first bite is funny rather than scalding; but they need to be still warm enough that the pastry is fried and the filling tender with melted cheese. While they want for nothing, these friendly, crowdpleasing flatbreads are great with a spoonful of mango chutney, preserved lemon or green bean pickle, or with seasoned yoghurt and a salad (of grated carrot and shredded green cabbage, maybe)
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Our neighbourhood farmers’ market comes every Sunday, and brings with it a stunning range of seasonal fruit and veg, affordable fish, good-quality meat with cheap cuts galore, plus cheeses, breads and much more. For me, going there and chatting to and supporting the stallholders and farmers (many of whom I have now known for years) feels a bit like going to church; there’s something soulful about it, wrapped in community spirit. But it can mess with my Sunday lunch timings, so here is a rich, comforting braise that you can start before you go out to do your favourite Sunday ritual. I hope you love it as much as we did and which should supply some delicious ham leftovers for sandwiches.This delicious sugar- and mustard-crusted ham hock with braised lentils flecked with a touch of harissa is a total feast
How to turn leftovers into a savoury bread pudding – recipes | Waste not
Layers of savoury custard-soaked stale bread, topped with odds and ends of cheese, vegetables and meatStrata is a classic dish that is also a marvellous way to use up stale bread, odds and ends of cheese, and whatever vegetables or meat you have left over. It’s endlessly adaptable, and great for feeding a crowd or prepping ahead for a laid-back breakfast or brunch.Strata involves layering custard-soaked bread in a buttered dish, and covering it in more custard, plenty of cheese and just about whatever other flavoursome ingredients take your fancy. Cubed bread seems to be common in many recipes, but, as a big fan of the quintessential British bread-and-butter pudding, I’ve used sliced bread instead (I was surprised to learn that this American-style savoury bread pudding has been around since the early 1900s – one of the earliest recipes appears in Juniata L Shepperd’s book Handbook of Household Science, published in 1902).I flavoured my strata with chopped spinach, roast leeks and sun-dried tomato paste, a combination that I can very much vouch for, but I would recommend working with whatever you’ve got to hand
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