Timothy John Byford (Serbian Cyrillic: Тимоти Џон Бајфорд) (born 25 July 1941) is an author, actor, TV film-director, translator, and educator in Serbia.
Born in Salisbury, England, Timothy John Byford started his TV career directing films for the BBCTV Blue Peter programme. His first TV documentary I Want to Be a Showjumper won a BAFTA Harlequin Award (for Children's Programmes) - Rediffusion Star Awards award in 1969.
In 1971 he moved to Yugoslavia, where he continued to write and direct children's television programmes during the 1970s and 1980s. He is best known for his children's TV series: Neven ('Marigold'), Babino unuče ('Granny's Boy') and Poletarac ('Fledgling') (all for TV Belgrade) as well as Nedeljni zabavnik ('Sunday Magazine'), 'Musical Notebook' and Tragom ptice Dodo ('On the Trail of the Dodo') (all for TV Sarajevo). 'Fledgling' won a Grand Prix at the Prix Jeunesse International Festival in Munich in 1980. For the past fifteen years he has taught English, writing and translating. In 2006, after 40 years of working with children, he joined the Children's Cultural Centre Belgrade, where he writes and directs programmes, teaches English and translates. He has written and published a self-portrait trilogy, "Pigs Do Not Eat Banana Skins," completed a collection of seven short stories under the title, "The Golden Candlestick," and is currently completing his official autobiography, "Warts and All." In 2005 he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a type of cancer formed by malignant plasma cells, but under the care of doctors and his wife Zorica, continues to live a relatively normal life.. One who speaks Serbian with a strong English accent is said to have a bajfordovski (sic) or Byfordian accent. His name is also associated with a park in the northern suburbs of Belgrade, Banjica Forest, as during the late 1980s he campaigned for it to have special protection because of the large number of nightingales and other species of birds that nest in it. The wood is now an officially protected natural habitat and has been dubbed by some (unofficially) as Byford's Forest.
In April 01, 2010, Timothy Byford celebrated the 50th year of his artistic career with the opening of his photograph exhibition, Joy in 100 Pictures, consisting of photographs he took at the 'Joy of Europe' festivals in 2008 and 2009.
Also in 2010, Byford appeared on screen as a cricket umpire in a television advert for Mivela water during the FIFA World Cup. The ad also featured players from the Serbia national cricket team and Serbian footballer Radosav Petrović.
During the 70's and 80's, Mr Byford developed the educational service of Radio Television Belgrade (RTS today), which serves an audience of children and teenagers.
Mr. Byford moved to Belgrade, Serbia, former Yugoslavia in 1971. and as a foreigner he was not allowed to be a participant in a pension fund system. Since his wife was from former Yugoslavia (now Serbia), he should inherit the citizenship right after certain amount of years spent in marriage. He received Serbian citizenship only at the age of 65 after intervention of Serbia's president Boris Tadic. It was too late to become a pension fund participant, since he would be at the age of 80 before he gains the right for a minimal pension.
On January 01. 2011, serbian newspaper agency Blic wrote an article about Mr. Byford's rejection for a national recognition award for his contribution and previous work (which effectively enables the right for a national pension), despite several years nominations from his fellow colleagues as described in an interview. Rejecting Mr. Byford's requests for the pension caused significant discontent among people who remember his work from their childhood. Two weeks later after the original article was published, Mr. Byford received aknowledgment for pension. In the later article Byford thanked many supporters who offered their help and started petition on Facebook social network. As a result, Mr. Byford received several job offers, but many of them he had to turn down due his specific health issues. Mr. Byford eventually returned to RTS.