To say that movie producer Jeremy Thomas was British cinema royalty did not quite do justice to his meritocratic, democratic instincts. A brilliant and inexhaustibly creative man, self-effacingly charming and quietly spoken in a world of loudmouths and show-offs, and hypervigilant for new talent, was more like a cross between an entrepreneur, an enigmatically clever and kindly Cambridge don and the movie world’s favourite cool uncle, or maybe cool great-uncle.
Respectively son and nephew of directors Ralph Thomas and Gerald Thomas (of Doctor in the House and Carry On fame), he was born into the industry and as an independent producer combined the confidence of an old-fashioned studio boss with the soul of a cineaste, backing his own instincts and passions, befriending film-makers and doggedly pursuing projects over years.
