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Dilys Powell
Elizabeth Dilys Powell CBE (20 July 1901 – 3 June 1995) was a British film critic and travel writer who contributed to The Sunday Times for more than 50 years. Powell was known for her receptiveness to cultural change in the cinema and coined many classic phrases about films and actors. She was a founding member of the Independent Television Authority (ITA), which launched commercial television in the UK. She was also the second female president of the Classical Association. Powell wrote several books on films and her travels in Greece.
Dilys Powell was born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, to Thomas Powell (a bank manager) and Mary Jane Lloyd. She attended Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth before winning an exhibition to read Modern Languages at Somerville College, Oxford.
Powell considered studying Classics (Literae Humaniores) – "Greats" – at Oxford University, but she was advised against it by her brother: '"Don't" he said; "the Classics are a terrible grind for a girl, and you will be prematurely wrinkled."' Powell took his advice, but later regretted it, feeling that she had been robbed of "deep and solid pleasures", having "small Latin...and, goodness knows, less Greek".
At Oxford, Powell met an archaeologist, Humfry Payne (19 February 1902 – 9 May 1936), whom she married in 1926. While studying at Oxford, she made news headlines in the Daily Mail after being "taken out for tea" and climbing over the wall to go out with Payne; she was rusticated for two terms and the principal accused her of "dragging the name of Somerville in the dust".[better source needed] She graduated with a first-class honours degree in Modern Languages in 1923.
After graduation, Powell spent a period as personal assistant to Lady Ottoline Morrell before joining the literary department of The Sunday Times in 1928.
In 1929, her husband Humfry Payne was appointed director of the British School at Athens. From 1931 to 1936, Powell spent part of each year in Greece, frequently attending excavations where her husband was working, including the excavation of the Heraion of Perachora, as well as attending an excavation at Abydos, Egypt. Payne died in Athens in 1936 from a staphylococcus infection. They had no children.
Powell continued her periodic visits to Greece after 1936, until the Second World War made travel difficult. In 1939 Powell was appointed film critic at The Sunday Times. In 1941, she found war work with a Greek connection in the Political Warfare Executive, which oversaw Britain's propaganda in occupied Europe; she remained there until 1945, where she was tasked with making sure that the BBC's broadcasts to Greece accurately represented British policies. In June 1943, she married Leonard Russell (1906–1974), the literary editor at The Sunday Times.
Powell was one of the founding members of the Independent Television Authority (ITA) from 1954, despite initial concerns about her possible conflicts of interest (she wrote for a newspaper that was backing one of the ITV network franchises, but its bid was eventually withdrawn). She resigned her post at the ITA in 1956, in protest at the government's refusal to come up with funding which it had promised to the authority in the Television Act 1954. She was a long-time regular panel member of the BBC radio word game, My Word!.
Dilys Powell
Elizabeth Dilys Powell CBE (20 July 1901 – 3 June 1995) was a British film critic and travel writer who contributed to The Sunday Times for more than 50 years. Powell was known for her receptiveness to cultural change in the cinema and coined many classic phrases about films and actors. She was a founding member of the Independent Television Authority (ITA), which launched commercial television in the UK. She was also the second female president of the Classical Association. Powell wrote several books on films and her travels in Greece.
Dilys Powell was born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, to Thomas Powell (a bank manager) and Mary Jane Lloyd. She attended Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth before winning an exhibition to read Modern Languages at Somerville College, Oxford.
Powell considered studying Classics (Literae Humaniores) – "Greats" – at Oxford University, but she was advised against it by her brother: '"Don't" he said; "the Classics are a terrible grind for a girl, and you will be prematurely wrinkled."' Powell took his advice, but later regretted it, feeling that she had been robbed of "deep and solid pleasures", having "small Latin...and, goodness knows, less Greek".
At Oxford, Powell met an archaeologist, Humfry Payne (19 February 1902 – 9 May 1936), whom she married in 1926. While studying at Oxford, she made news headlines in the Daily Mail after being "taken out for tea" and climbing over the wall to go out with Payne; she was rusticated for two terms and the principal accused her of "dragging the name of Somerville in the dust".[better source needed] She graduated with a first-class honours degree in Modern Languages in 1923.
After graduation, Powell spent a period as personal assistant to Lady Ottoline Morrell before joining the literary department of The Sunday Times in 1928.
In 1929, her husband Humfry Payne was appointed director of the British School at Athens. From 1931 to 1936, Powell spent part of each year in Greece, frequently attending excavations where her husband was working, including the excavation of the Heraion of Perachora, as well as attending an excavation at Abydos, Egypt. Payne died in Athens in 1936 from a staphylococcus infection. They had no children.
Powell continued her periodic visits to Greece after 1936, until the Second World War made travel difficult. In 1939 Powell was appointed film critic at The Sunday Times. In 1941, she found war work with a Greek connection in the Political Warfare Executive, which oversaw Britain's propaganda in occupied Europe; she remained there until 1945, where she was tasked with making sure that the BBC's broadcasts to Greece accurately represented British policies. In June 1943, she married Leonard Russell (1906–1974), the literary editor at The Sunday Times.
Powell was one of the founding members of the Independent Television Authority (ITA) from 1954, despite initial concerns about her possible conflicts of interest (she wrote for a newspaper that was backing one of the ITV network franchises, but its bid was eventually withdrawn). She resigned her post at the ITA in 1956, in protest at the government's refusal to come up with funding which it had promised to the authority in the Television Act 1954. She was a long-time regular panel member of the BBC radio word game, My Word!.