The Wednesday Play: The Naked Civil Servant (1975)

A look at the ground-breaking ITV play

17 July 2013 Rob Buckley The Weekly Play, TV reviews, UK TV Post a comment

Given that the Queen has just today signed an act of parliament making gay marriages legal in England and Wales, it seems appropriate to make today’s Wednesday Play The Naked Civil Servant, a boundary-breaking ITV play based on the autobiography of openly gay man Quentin Crisp. Directed by Jack Gold, written by Philip Mackie and produced by Blog Goddess Verity Lambert, the play starred John Hurt as the flamboyant Crisp, covering his life from youth to middle age as he comes to terms with his homosexuality during the 1930s and 1940s, a time when homosexuality was illegal and even women were looked down upon for dyeing their hair.

Spawning a recent sequel (An Englishman in New York) and regarded by industry professionals as one of the most important British TV plays ever made, it’s a must watch. If you like it, buy it on DVD!

Author

  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

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