About the artist:

John Michael Stringer was a film production designer, art director, painter, and illustrator. Stringer's work as art director on Fiddler on the Roof, involving much shooting in Yugoslavia, earned him an Academy Award nomination shared with the Hollywood production designer Robert Boyle and set decorator Peter Lamont, but they lost to Nicholas and Alexandra. His later assignments included The Greek Tycoon, The Awakening, The Mirror Crack'd, and The Jigsaw Man before he moved into television with excellent sets for the Ian Richardson version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. He designed the TV series Paradise Postponed and, as in the earlier Inspector Clouseau, his resemblance to Harold Wilson led to his making a cameo appearance as the former prime minister.

Stringer explained much about art direction generally and his own approach, in contributing to a textbook, Film Design, when he was President of the Guild of Film Art Directors (Now known as the British Film Designers Guild).