This film diary spans a year in the life of the acclaimed British actor/director Sir lan McKellen and shows a formidable theatrical talent at work. He is seen preparing for major roles in Chekov’s Wild Honey and Shakespeare’s Corialanus, as well as setting up a company of his own at the Royal National Theatre and playing opposite Meryl Streep in the feature film Plenty.
The Theatre of Comedy
Farce has always been a vital ingredient of British theatre and one of the successes in the genre was Ray Cooney’s Theatre of Comedy Company. This programme looks at the chemistry of farce. It takes the form of a studio workshop, with Cooney and some of his leading actors performing and discussing extracts from his plays, including Run for Your Wife.
Stephen Spender
A prominent member of the generation of writers who emerged after the First World War, British poet Stephen Spender (1909-95) has often been described as the conscience of the thirties, the turbulent decade which saw the rise of Hitler, Franco and Fascism. Returning to the places which influenced his early life and work, he talks about his political and artistic concerns during that period and recollects his friendships with contemporaries, including W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood.
Hull Truck Theatre Company
Writer/director John Godber has built up an impressive reputation for the Hull Truck theatre company, with productions on topical subjects, such as rugby league and disco night life. This programme follows his play Blood, Sweat and Tears, about judo champion Karen Briggs, from his first meeting with Karen, through the cast’s instruction in judo, to final rehearsals.
Brookside
The British television series Brookside was the first of a breed of new-look soap operas to eschew purely domestic drama and tackle contemporary social problems in a realisitc way. Major figures in the television industry, members of the Brookside production team and Phil Redmond, who devised the series, discuss wether this popular form of entertainment can make a meaningful impact through its presentation of serious issues.
Dido and Aeneas
When asked to adapt Purcell’s melodious and moving work for this special studio presentation, composer Howard Goodall aimed to reach an audience normally resistant to opera. He chose Debby Bishop and Peter Straker – stars of musicals rather than opera – as the tragic lovers, used modern instruments, including saxophone, guitar and synthesiser, in his orchestration, and replaced recitative with spoken dialogue. A Dido as Purcell might have written it today? In a short introduction, Goodall and Purcell virtuoso Simon Preston discuss this question.
John Cleese
John Cleese’s success disproves his own Claim that he is “about as funny as the average bank manager”. Monty Python and Fawlty Towers made him Britain’s best-known comic writer and performer. In this programme, he talks about his boyhood, the creation and character of Basil Fawlty, the relative merits of comedy and accountancy, and activities into which he has diversified – politics, and writing books with his psychotherapist.
Hal Prince
Hal Prince has been intimately involved with the history of the American musical since the 1950s, responsible for producing the original stagings of hit shows such as West Side Story, and directing successes including Cabaret, Evita and Sweeney Todd. In this television lecture, he gives a fascinating insight into the past, present and future of this form of entertainment.
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Ashkenazy is one of the world’s most accomplished and charismatic musicians, renowned as both a pianist and a conductor. He left Russia in 1963 to escape the restrictions imposed on individual expression pre-perestroika, and, in this film he talks revealingly about his life, work and motivations. Specially-recorded musical illustrations include passages of Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Brahms.
Karl Amadeus Hartmann
This profile of the German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-63) combines documentary and Performance footage. It looks at his championship of new music with the Musica Viva concerts he organised in Munich after 1945, and includes extensive excerpts from his opera Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend, as well as his Symphonies No. 6 and No. 8.