Jonathan Turner Meades born 21 January [ 1 ] is an English writer and film-maker. He discovered a fascination for place and the built environment whilst accompanying his father on sales trips during school holidays; he would be left unattended and free to explore while the elder Meades conducted his business with the grocer. This later developed into a full-blown passion for architecture following a visit to Edwin Lutyens ' Marsh Court on a school cricket trip at the age of In he was sent as a boarder to King's College, Taunton , which he has described as "a dim, backward, muscular Christian boot camp".
He later "walked out" of the school and was sent instead to a crammer in London, where he lodged with the painter Vivien White, daughter of Augustus John. After a year at the University of Bordeaux [ 18 ] and unsure of what to do next, he decided to become an actor after a chance meeting with Charles Collingwood [ 19 ] and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art RADA from to Although he ultimately decided against joining the acting profession, [ 19 ] the training which he received would prove essential in his later television career, [ 23 ] as would his extra-curricular interest in French New Wave cinema, in particular the work of Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Robbe-Grillet.
When the two met again decades later, after Meades had established himself on television, Cruttwell joked that he had not realised that the character would be called "Jonathan Meades".
Using the unlimited travel afforded by Red Rover bus passes, he rode on random buses for exactly 20 minutes and then got off, no matter where he was. After leaving Books and Bookmen in he wrote for the sex education magazine Curious and joined the staff of Time Out , then became The Observer 's TV critic in In he became the editor of Richard Branson 's short-lived listings magazine Event , then from was the features editor of Tatler.
Meades was a great success in this position, taking the job more seriously than his predecessor. Despite his success, he often tired of the repetitive nature of the job and threatened to leave several times.
