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Forgotten Dramas Bbc Series ‘Six’ Creator of the John Mcgrath, of Thepoemor Novel’ Attain Status the Artistic ‘We Want Thefilmto

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Forgotten Dramas Bbc Series ‘Six’ Creator of the John Mcgrath, of Thepoemor Novel’ Attain Status the Artistic ‘We Want Thefilmto FORGOTTEN DRAMAS REDISCOVERING BRITISH TELEVISION’S NEGLECTED PLAYS Rediscover a variety of classic plays that have rarely been seen since their original transmission, write curators Lez Cooke and Billy Smart British television has rightly been celebrated for producing some classic dramas, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954), Cathy Come Home (1966), Abigail’s Party (1977) and The Singing Detective (1986), to name just four. But for every TV ‘classic’ there are countless plays, series and serials that have been forgotten or archived. This season highlights a few of the many productions that have survived being junked or wiped but have mostly remained unseen. Written by a host of famous authors from JB Priestley and John Betjeman to Alan Bleasdale and Ian McEwan, these plays showcase great performances from Alison Steadman, Ralph Richardson and Peter Cushing, and amazing directing pedigree in the form of Philip Saville, Christopher Morahan, Les Blair and Tony Richardson. In bringing these sadly neglected dramas to a wider audience we hope it will be the catalyst for rediscovering more of British TV’s forgotten history. WANT MORE? IN ASSOCIATION WITH ‘WE WANT THE FILM TO See p44 for our (free) Mediatheque The History of Forgotten TV Drama project, ATTAIN THE ARTISTIC STATUS collection on Play for Today Royal Holloway, University of London TV’S FORGOTTEN DRAMAS OF THE POEM OR THE NOVEL’ JOHN MCGRATH, CREATOR OF THE BBC SERIES ‘SIX’ 38 Image: Six: The Logic Game TALK Early to Bed + Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration Second City Firsts. BBC 1975. Dir BBC 1975. Dir Mike Newell. With Leslie Blair. With David Warwick, Sara Kestelman, David Wilkinson, Alison Steadman, Patricia Leach. Eileen McCallum. 30min 30min David (Wilkinson) is a young man Alan Bleasdale’s first TV drama is living with Ruth (Kestelman), a INTRO about an 18-year-old man (Warwick) woman nearly twice his age. Like the who embarks on an affair with the majority of Second City Firsts, this Anastasia TV’S FORGOTTEN DRAMAS young, married woman (Steadman) drama – Ian McEwan’s first for TV Sunday Night Theatre. BBC 1953. Dirs John Counsell and Rosemary Hill. who lives next door in their small – was recorded in the studio at Pebble With Helen Haye, Mary Kerridge, Anthony Ireland, Peter Cushing. 100min. mining village in Lancashire. Filmed Mill, with the confined set greatly 35mm on location by Les Blair who, as enhancing the tension when David’s Anastasia, based on the play by Introduced by Dr Lez Cooke, Senior Bleasdale acknowledged, ‘made a parents visit on his birthday. Marcelle Maurette, is a prime Research Officer, Royal Holloway University of London script of some promise, but no Followed by a panel discussion example of the rediscovery of a TV great quality, into something with actor Alison Steadman, former play long after it was thought to have worth watching.’ Commissioning Editor of Drama at been destroyed. Cushing gives an Channel 4 Peter Ansorge, director Les outstanding performance as one of Blair and producer Tara Prem the Russian conspirators who come to realise that the woman they want to impersonate Anastasia, the rumoured surviving member of the Romanov royal family, may actually be authentic. TUE 3 FEB TUE 10 FEB 18:10 NFT3 18:20 NFT2 @BFI 39 INTRO INTRO Johnson Over Jordon + You Know What People Are The Logic Game + Shotgun Thursday Theatre. BBC 1965. BBC 1955. Dir Tony Richardson. Six. BBC 1965. Dir Philip Saville. Five More. BBC 1965. Dir John Dir Lionel Harris. With Ralph With Clive Morton, Natasha Parry, With David de Keyser, Jane Arden, McGrath. With Shirley Anne Field, Richardson, Frances Rowe, John Stratton. 30min Peter Henry. 62min. 35mm Nigel Davenport, Zena Walker, Petra Paul Eddington, Hannah Gordon. Unseen since its original Shown as one of a series of six films Markham. 50min 80min. 16mm transmission, this sole surviving on BBC2, Philip Saville’s The Logic Shotgun was one of two films directed Ralph Richardson reprises one of his edition of You Know What People Are is Game features two characters playing by producer John McGrath for the greatest stage successes in this a fascinating insight into JB out a complex guessing game. follow-up series to Six, this time on little-known TV revival. He plays the Priestley’s attempts to create an Co-written by Jane Arden (who also the theme of love and marriage. titular Johnson, who must relive and original drama that could only be stars), the film was informed by Moving between the Scottish reflect upon his existence as he told through the new medium of ideas of existential psychoanalysis Highlands and London, past and passes into the afterlife. JB Priestley’s television, using a fixed repertory – it includes an interview with present, it tells a story of infidelity drama presents a soulful, abstract, company of the same four actors for psychiatrist RD Laing – and aroused and deceit, with its experimental expressionist world that fully tested each play in the series. controversy when it was shown at structure complemented by strong the resources of the 1960s TV Introduced by Dr Billy Smart, the London Film Festival in 1964. performances (including Edward Fox studio to awe-inspiring and Television Studies Research Officer, in a minor role). emotional effect. Royal Holloway University of London Introduced by Dr Lez Cooke, Senior Research Officer, Royal Holloway University of London TV’S FORGOTTEN DRAMAS SUN 15 FEB WED 18 FEB 16:10 NFT2 18:20 NFT2 40 book online at bfi.org.uk INTRO Pity About the Abbey The Common Londoners. BBC 1965. Dir Ian Play of the Month. BBC 1973. Dir Curteis. With Henry McGee, John Christopher Morahan. With Peter Harvey, Suzanne Mockler, Jeffrey, Vivien Merchant, Dennis Derek Francis. 75min. 35mm Waterman. 100min Pity About the Abbey is the only While Peter Nichols’ Privates on Parade surviving play from a 1965 BBC2 and Passion Play have recently been series called Londoners. Co-written by revived in the West End, his TV’S FORGOTTEN DRAMAS John Betjeman, before he became contemporaneous TV dramas remain Poet Laureate, it adopts a deliciously unseen. The Common tells the story of comic tone (it was subtitled ‘A an affair across divisions of age and Comedy About the Future’), and class between true-blue Jane describes a plan to knock down INTRO ©Freemantle Media Image Library (Merchant) and socialist teacher Sean Westminster Abbey and replace it (Waterman). The result is an with a new government building. + The Golden Road features a beguiling performance effective, subtle and mature comedy Armchair Theatre. Thames 1973. from Manning, shaking off her Doctor about London society. Dir Douglas Camfield. With Katy Who assistant persona, as the Introduced by Dr Billy Smart, Manning, Olive McFarland, Joyce free-spirited lodger who profoundly Television Studies Research Officer, Heron. 50min. 35mm disrupts the lives of the suburban Royal Holloway University of London Unseen for over 40 years, Pat family she moves in with. Hooker’s The Golden Road is believed Introduced by Dr Billy Smart, to be the first lesbian drama written Television Studies Research Officer, by a woman made for British TV. It Royal Holloway University of London MON 23 FEB THU 26 FEB 17:50 NFT2 18:20 NFT2 @BFI 41.
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