The Weekly Play

A weekly classic TV play. Used to be every Wednesdays, but now could be any time, any place and anywhere

The Weekly Play

The Wednesday Play: In Camera (1964)

26 September 2012 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

In Camera

Time for a little bit of culture. Hell, it has been remarked, is other people. In fact, it was Jean-Paul Sartre who remarked that – kind of – in his 1944 existentialist play Huis Clos. ‘L’enfer, c’est les autres’ as is actually remarked is a bit more involved than the literal idea of the nasty afterlife being spending eternity with others, but that is exactly what happens in Huis Clos, in which three damned souls, Garcin, Inès and Estelle, are brought to the same room in Hell by a mysterious valet. There they discuss the crimes that resulted in their damnation, and things escalate before their final realisation of the nature of their torment.

In 1964, director Philip Saville, who went on to win a BAFTA for Boys from the Blackstuff, adapted and directed Stuart Gilbert’s English-language version of Huis Clos for The Wednesday Play as In Camera – ironically, the closest ‘English’ translation you’re going to get of Huis Clos. And you want to know who starred in it?

Only Harold bloody Pinter, that’s who.

Enjoy!

The Wednesday Plays: Oedipus the King/Oedipus at Colonus/Antigone (1986)

19 September 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

As you might expect, the US isn’t the only country to adapt classic plays for television. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have obviously been putting on adaptions of classic plays almost for as long as they’ve been in existence.

However, unlike Shakespeare, for example, Greek tragedy is one genre that hasn’t seen many adaptations for British television. In June, the BFI gave a good sample of some of those adaptations, including one stage production of Electra for ITV that was broadcast entirely in Greek without subtitles.

However, one of the main catalysts for getting Greek tragedy onto the small screen and also radio was the writer/director Don Taylor. Taylor, whose career in theatre and television spanned decades, was responsible for numerous adaptations, sometimes of his own translations, including Euripides’ Helen for radio and Iphigenia at Aulis for the BBC. However, in 1986, he managed to adapt all three of Sophocles’ Theban plays – Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone – for the small screen as (surprisingly enough) The Theban Plays by Sophocles.

Starring the likes of Michael Pennington, Juliet Stevenson, John Gielgud, Anthony Quayle, John Shrapnel and Claire Bloom, all three productions are very theatrical and the translations are somewhat loose, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any better productions on TV anywhere.

Enjoy!

Continue reading “The Wednesday Plays: Oedipus the King/Oedipus at Colonus/Antigone (1986)”

The Wednesday Play: The Nativity (1952)

12 September 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

As I remarked last week, it would be a mistake to think the UK was the only country that used to broadcast powerful, high-quality plays. The Westinghouse Studio One plays, broadcast in the US on CBS between 1948 and 1958, are rightly regarded by the likes of Dick Fiddy, the BFI’s TV programming chief, as the ‘first golden age of American television’.

All the same, it would also be tempting to think that US TV might only show original, modern plays set in the US or plays that might be regarded purely as little films. Wrong.

Notably, during the Christmas season of 1952, Westinghouse Studio One showed The Nativity, a play based on the 14th and 15th century Chester and York mystery plays. Adapted by Andrew Allen, directed by Franklin Schaffner, and with a choral accompaniment by the Robert Shaw Chorale, the play was even performed in Middle English.

And it’s today’s The Wednesday Play. Enjoy!

The Wednesday Play: Twelve Angry Men (1954)

5 September 2012 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

It would, of course, be a mistake to think that only UK TV channels were regularly airing high-quality plays back in the golden age of TV. No, no, no. In fact, the US airwaves were brimming with ‘anthology’ shows – the most obvious were, of course, the likes of genre shows such as The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits but possibly the most famous and influential source of straight dramatic anthology shows was Studio One, which started on radio in 1947 before transitioning to TV in 1948. Going through a number of titles between 1948 and its eventual cancellation in 1958, including Summer Theatre and Westinghouse Studio One, the series racked up 466 individual plays, many of which are famous to this day.

Probably the most famous since it was adapted in 1957 as a film starring Henry Fonda that went on win three Oscars was Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men. Staged as a live drama on 20 September 1954, the original Studio One in Hollywood episode itself won three Emmys. It relates how a jury deliberates on an apparent open-and-shut case. Except one of the jurors isn’t convinced and he tries to persuade the others of the accused’s innocence. It’s a rivetting, one-room character piece and now’s your chance to watch the original. Enjoy!

The Wednesday Play: The Long Distance Piano Player (1970)

29 August 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Ironically, given the title of this strand, today’s play, The Long Distance Piano Player, was actually the first Play for Today, the strand that replaced the BBC’s The Wednesday Play. Starring Ray Davies of The Kinks as well as Norman Rossington and James Hazeldine, the play is the story of a piano player’s obsession to win the world long-distance piano-playing record, whilst his wife and agent argue around him. Written by future Hollywood scriptwriter Alan Sharp (Rob Roy, The Osterman Weekend), it’s a little inexplicable and Davies’ performance is variable, but it’s well worth a watch.