Jonathan Douglas (broadcaster)
Jonathan "Jo" Douglas (April 11, 1957 – August 26, 2022) was a Hong Kong broadcaster, actor, musician, theatre producer, and director.[1][2]
Biography[edit]
Born in London, Douglas was educated at Bishop's Stortford College and Queen Mary College,[3] where he studied English literature. He began his career with RTHK Radio 4 in 1986, where he presented classical music for three decades.[4] His show, Artbeat, was among the station's regular programming during his tenure.[4]
Douglas's broadcasting career with RTHK Radio 4 also encompassed Morning Call, a program combining classical music, interviews, and arts reviews.[4] Throughout his broadcasting career, he interviewed various personalities in the classical music domain, including Isaac Stern, Joshua Bell, and Tan Dun.[4][5] Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) published a selection of thirty of these interviews in 2005.[4]
Douglas was also involved in the 2016 production Crystal at the University of Hong Kong's Black Box Theatre, where he contributed original songs.[4] He also co-founded Worldplay, an English-language radio drama festival, partnering with international broadcasters such as the BBC World Service, CBC, and ABC.[4] Among the plays he directed for the festival was a 2002 adaptation of Weekend Quartet, originally penned by Nobel Prize laureate Gao Xingjian.[4]
Douglas's acting credits included roles in plays such as Shakespeare's Hamlet and Samuel Beckett's Endgame.[4] In 1995, he undertook the role of World War I poet Ivor Gurney in The Ivor Gurney Show: The Silent One and revisited the role in 2015.[4] In 2011, in collaboration with his two sons, he participated in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with The Douglas Trio.[4]
In 2008, Douglas received an Member of the British Empire (MBE) for his contributions to the arts in Hong Kong.[4] Following a mandatory retirement from RTHK in 2017,[5] Douglas performed in Elstob at the Camden Fringe Festival in 2018, focusing on the last day in the life of a World War I soldier.[4] Douglas died in 2022.[4] After his death, his family released his last album, Time and Again, on Spotify, which he had been working on.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "RTHK classical music DJ Jonathan Douglas' album released on Spotify". South China Morning Post. February 1, 2023.
- ^ "Music host issues classical challenge to chief executive contenders". South China Morning Post. March 13, 2017.
- ^ Law, Jennifer (September 22, 2022). "Obituary: Jonathan Douglas (SHb, 70-75)". The Stortfordian Foundation. Bishop's Stortford College. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Jonathan Douglas, RTHK classical music presenter, loses cancer fight". South China Morning Post. September 4, 2022.
- ^ a b "RTHK host Jonathan Douglas considers life after the airwaves". South China Morning Post. April 8, 2017.