John Kenway BSC is a British cinematographer whose career spans documentary, television drama and feature films. Born in Bristol in 1946, his interest in filmmaking began at school, where he joined a film club and progressed from shooting 8mm films to operating a 16mm Bolex.
In 1964, after studying Art, Engineering Drawing and Mathematics at A level, Kenway joined the film department of Bristol Siddeley Engines. A year later, aged 19, he joined the newly formed Gazelle Films, beginning a long career in television and documentary production.
Kenway worked extensively as a film cameraman and Director of Photography, contributing to factual programmes and major television dramas. His credits included Play for Today, Juliet Bravo, All Creatures Great and Small, Howards' Way, The Rainbow, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
He photographed a number of major television productions during the 1980s and 1990s, including The Maharajahs, a CBS documentary, and Reaching for the Skies: The History of Aviation. His drama work included Martin Chuzzlewit, Our Friends in the North, The Scold's Bridle, Dalziel and Pascoe, Dangerfield and Trial and Retribution.
Kenway photographed Gurinder Chadha's feature Bhaji on the Beach (1993), an important British film that marked Chadha's feature directorial debut. He also worked on the BBC/HBO/BFI production Fellow Traveller (1989), directed by Philip Saville.
His later television credits included Love on a Branch Line, Pride and Prejudice, Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, My Uncle Silas, Fortysomething, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, The Booze Cruise, Ready When You Are, Mr McGill, Murder in Suburbia, Christmas Lights and Clash of the Santas.