Zdeněk Svěrák to be awarded honourary doctorate

Czech actor and screenwriter Zdeněk Svěrák will be given an honourary doctorate and gold medal by Hradec Králové university on Wednesday for his lifetime contribution to the Czech language. The award ceremony is the culmination of the university’s education week. Svěrák, who wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film Kolja, originally trained to be a teacher but quit the profession to work at the then Czechoslovak radio at the start of the 1960s. He then went on to launch his acting and writing career.