Lord Emsworth
Director
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Oct 10, 2020 17:56:04 GMT
Essential viewing This is on Monday 12 October at 9 pm on BBC4 Drama out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for TodayPlay for Today was a series of single dramas broadcast by the BBC between 1970 and 1984. These were years of crisis, a time when the consensus politics of Britain’s postwar world had begun to unravel. Industrial relations, education and the health service faced fundamental challenges, the country was struggling with the end of empire, and the personal had become increasingly political.
Play for Today reflected and responded to all of this and more in 300 dramas, shown in primetime on BBC One to audiences numbered in millions. Many of the best actors, writers and directors of the time contributed to the series, with some of the best-remembered broadcasts being Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party, Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills and the strange fantasy, Penda’s Fen, written by Alan Rudkin and directed by Alan Clarke.
The series was contemporary, often controversial and occasionally censored. But it was also immensely varied, showcasing social realism with comedy, costume drama with fantasy, and personal visions with state-of-the-nation overviews. It was mischievous, critical and challenging, and unafraid to tackle taboos.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the first Play for Today in October 1970, this film is a celebration of the series, told by a number of its producers, directors and writers. It explores the origins of the series, its achievements and its controversies. Presenting a rich range of often surprising extracts from the archive, the film features interviews with, among others, producers Kenith Trodd, Margaret Matheson and Richard Eyre, film-makers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, and writer and director David Hare.www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ng9w
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Three Litre
Producer
Oscar 24
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Post by Three Litre on Oct 10, 2020 18:40:07 GMT
Yes indeed.
Just to prove we're not all about birds, booze and car chases.
Mostly we are but we like a bit of culture on the side.
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Lord Emsworth
Director
Drive safely, we're walking or cycling...
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Oct 10, 2020 19:53:14 GMT
Yes indeed. Just to prove we're not all about birds, booze and car chases. Mostly we are but we like a bit of culture on the side. Alison Steadman, frocked-up as the ghastly Beverley in Abigail’s Party?
Patricia Hayes in Edna The Inebriate Woman?
Billy Connolly in Elephant’s Graveyard?
Jonathan Pryce in Comedians?
So many great performances
Awaiting this tribute with great anticipation
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Three Litre
Producer
Oscar 24
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Post by Three Litre on Oct 10, 2020 19:57:25 GMT
Me too Em.
I hope they all exist in the BBC archive, as not everything does as we know.
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Post by Gene Hunt on Oct 10, 2020 19:57:37 GMT
Excellent! Thanks for the information LE Gene.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Oct 12, 2020 21:50:16 GMT
A good documentary, a little predictable that they chronicled the years through the political & social issues of the times, I would've prefered a more behind the scenes approach looking at the plays themselves, archive footage, etc. of which there was a little. The point is that the politics of the time we're either aware of or can read about if we're interested, whereas the ins & outs of the productions themselves we don't know much about. Most of these plays have only been shown once & are not available on dvd, so little is known about them.
Looks like they're only showing 2 PFT's, ironic that Mike Leigh didn't even want to do a tv version of 'Abigail's Party' & admits he's never even seen it considering it's the most shown & most remembered play.
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Bojan Scores
Cameraman
Terry you’re very devious when a bird’s involved...
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Post by Bojan Scores on Oct 12, 2020 22:48:36 GMT
A good documentary, a little predictable that they chronicled the years through the political & social issues of the times, I would've prefered a more behind the scenes approach looking at the plays themselves, archive footage, etc. of which there was a little. The point is that the politics of the time we're either aware of or can read about if we're interested, whereas the ins & outs of the productions themselves we don't know much about. Most of these plays have only been shown once & are not available on dvd, so little is known about them.
Looks like they're only showing 2 PFT's, ironic that Mike Leigh didn't even want to do a tv version of 'Abigail's Party' & admits he's never even seen it considering it's the most shown & most remembered play.
It’s interesting you mention ‘Abigails Party’. I was always struck how ‘Whatever happened to the Likely Lads’ satirised the nouveau well off working class in a similar way to Mike Leigh’s play, and probably a good 4-5 years before too.
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Post by Dirty Epic on Oct 13, 2020 9:45:15 GMT
A good documentary, a little predictable that they chronicled the years through the political & social issues of the times, I would've prefered a more behind the scenes approach looking at the plays themselves, archive footage, etc. of which there was a little. The point is that the politics of the time we're either aware of or can read about if we're interested, whereas the ins & outs of the productions themselves we don't know much about. Most of these plays have only been shown once & are not available on dvd, so little is known about them.
Looks like they're only showing 2 PFT's, ironic that Mike Leigh didn't even want to do a tv version of 'Abigail's Party' & admits he's never even seen it considering it's the most shown & most remembered play.
I kept an eye on what PFT BBC Four were showing but a bit predictable from them I'm afraid.
Would have been better for BBC Four to have given something less well known/shown from PFT a airing instead of the repeated to death 'Abigail's Party' etc.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Oct 13, 2020 16:54:41 GMT
A good documentary, a little predictable that they chronicled the years through the political & social issues of the times, I would've prefered a more behind the scenes approach looking at the plays themselves, archive footage, etc. of which there was a little. The point is that the politics of the time we're either aware of or can read about if we're interested, whereas the ins & outs of the productions themselves we don't know much about. Most of these plays have only been shown once & are not available on dvd, so little is known about them.
Looks like they're only showing 2 PFT's, ironic that Mike Leigh didn't even want to do a tv version of 'Abigail's Party' & admits he's never even seen it considering it's the most shown & most remembered play.
It’s interesting you mention ‘Abigails Party’. I was always struck how ‘Whatever happened to the Likely Lads’ satirised the nouveau well off working class in a similar way to Mike Leigh’s play, and probably a good 4-5 years before too. Yes they poked fun at Bob & his wife's aspirations in a gentle way. I like most of Mike Leigh's tv plays ( his films less so ) but there is a cruel streak running through them, Leigh denies this & I think he gets quite defensive about it. There was a quote from Dennis Potter who is quoted in the documentary about Abigail's Party- "This play was based on nothing more edifying than rancid disdain, for it was a prolonged jeer, twitching with genuine hatred, about the dreadful suburban tastes of the dreadful lower middle classes", though he also said it was "horribly funny at times, stunningly acted and perfectly designed".
Another person who disliked it, except it was the original stage play this time, was Kenneth Williams. According to his diaries he went to see it in May 1977- "I saw only one half. It was one of those pieces put together with impromptu dialogue & depicted the empty vacuous nature of suburban life. All very 'lifelike' but alas one goes to the theatre to see an artist's vision of life not the actual mess. The audience was frightful. Hampstead sophisticates knowingly laughing at all the bad taste lines, 'Oh a bottle of Beaujolais! How lovely! I'll just pop it in the fridge...' and they fell about, loving their superiority. The girl ( Alison Steadman ) was v. good".
I get the impression that Mike Leigh is a misanthrope. One of his PFT's 'Hard Labour', about a downtrodden wife & mother played by Liz Smith who works as a cleaner for a wealthy woman & has a bullying husband played by Clifford Kershaw, isn't his usual black comedy, apparently Leigh based the snobby & unpleasant woman who the Liz Smith character cleans for on his own mother.
There are very few likeable characters in Leigh's tv plays & films, when he does feature a positive & happy character, like the girl in 'Happy Go Lucky', they turn out to be shallow & irritating. Mike Leigh even looks like a misery. Has to be said though that he practically created an observational, semi improvised style of humour that has influenced so many British comedy writers, he'd be up there with Woody Allen if he was American, instead he gets pigeonholed with Ken Loach as a 'social realist'. I mean, what else does any writer write about if it isn't people & reality? That's one thing that irritates me about any play or film about the lives of working or lower middle class people, they get called 'kitchen sink', 'social realist', etc. It seems critics are only happy when the plebs are depicted in soap operas.
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Post by Steve Austin on Oct 13, 2020 19:18:34 GMT
It’s interesting you mention ‘Abigails Party’. I was always struck how ‘Whatever happened to the Likely Lads’ satirised the nouveau well off working class in a similar way to Mike Leigh’s play, and probably a good 4-5 years before too. Yes they poked fun at Bob & his wife's aspirations in a gentle way. I like most of Mike Leigh's tv plays ( his films less so ) but there is a cruel streak running through them, Leigh denies this & I think he gets quite defensive about it. There was a quote from Dennis Potter who is quoted in the documentary about Abigail's Party- "This play was based on nothing more edifying than rancid disdain, for it was a prolonged jeer, twitching with genuine hatred, about the dreadful suburban tastes of the dreadful lower middle classes", though he also said it was "horribly funny at times, stunningly acted and perfectly designed".
Another person who disliked it, except it was the original stage play this time, was Kenneth Williams. According to his diaries he went to see it in May 1977- "I saw only one half. It was one of those pieces put together with impromptu dialogue & depicted the empty vacuous nature of suburban life. All very 'lifelike' but alas one goes to the theatre to see an artist's vision of life not the actual mess. The audience was frightful. Hampstead sophisticates knowingly laughing at all the bad taste lines, 'Oh a bottle of Beaujolais! How lovely! I'll just pop it in the fridge...' and they fell about, loving their superiority. The girl ( Alison Steadman ) was v. good".
I get the impression that Mike Leigh is a misanthrope. One of his PFT's 'Hard Labour', about a downtrodden wife & mother played by Liz Smith who works as a cleaner for a wealthy woman & has a bullying husband played by Clifford Kershaw, isn't his usual black comedy, apparently Leigh based the snobby & unpleasant woman who the Liz Smith character cleans for on his own mother.
There are very few likeable characters in Leigh's tv plays & films, when he does feature a positive & happy character, like the girl in 'Happy Go Lucky', they turn out to be shallow & irritating. Mike Leigh even looks like a misery. Has to be said though that he practically created an observational, semi improvised style of humour that has influenced so many British comedy writers, he'd be up there with Woody Allen if he was American, instead he gets pigeonholed with Ken Loach as a 'social realist'. I mean, what else does any writer write about if it isn't people & reality? That's one thing that irritates me about any play or film about the lives of working or lower middle class people, they get called 'kitchen sink', 'social realist', etc. It seems critics are only happy when the plebs are depicted in soap operas.
Very well observed and written Arthur. I would recommend the Mike Leigh box set, it contains the above plus the very watchable "Home Sweet Home", "Nuts In May" and some 5 minute shorts.
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