BBC By Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter was born in London in 1930. His writing career spanned over 50 years and produced 29 original stage plays, 27 screenplays, many dramatic sketches, radio and TV plays, poetry, one novel, short fiction, essays, speeches, and letters. In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and, in the same year, the Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry and the Franz Kafka Award (Prague). In 2006 he was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize and, in 2007, the highest French honor, the L?gion d'honneur. He died in December 2008. Here's a collection of some of Pinter's best work presented over BBC Radio. 1960-03-24 A Night Out: A New Play for Radio Production by Donald McWhinnie. Why should Albert think of going out when his mother looks after him so well and has such a nice supper for him? It's something his mother will never understand to her dying day. "A Night Out" is something of a study on the apron-string. The play shows what curious results attend a young insurance clerk's attempt to escape from a benign bondage and assert his individuality. The author, whose works for the theatre have aroused considerable controversy, says of his radio writing: 'I am no more consciously setting out to do ultra-special things on radio than I am on the stage. I write instinctively for whatever medium I am working in, and much of what I am apparently trying to convey I only learn about afterwards from the critics. I have found no limitations in writing for radio.' 1969-09-29 The Caretaker Ten years ago Harold Pinter wrote the play which was to disturb the approach of nearly all contemporary dramatic writers in their attitude towards the characters they were to 'create. Conventional plots, characters and their stagey dialogue which had been accepted as ' modern theatre ' were jettisoned for a more truthful understanding of people and depth of perception which were revolutionary "The Caretaker" ran at the Duchess Theatre. London, for over a year and ensuing productions brought acclaim and awards from nearly every country in the world. Frequently hilarious, suddenly moving, insidiously menacing, this great play is now given a new production to herald this festival of Pinter's works with Produced by Guy Vaesen. (Bill Fraser is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Co) 1970-02-02 The Birthday Party One of Pinter's best known plays. Stanley Webber, an erstwhile piano player, lives in a rundown boarding house, run by Meg and Petey Boles, in an English seaside town, "probably on the south coast, not too far from London". Two sinister strangers, Goldberg and McCann, who arrive supposedly on his birthday and who appear to have come looking for him, turn Stanley's apparently innocuous birthday party organized by Meg into a nightmare. Pinter is of course distinctly "Marmite" as a writer; you either love him or hate him. 2000-10-13 PINTER DOUBLE BILL: A Slight Ache (starring Pinter) | Last to Go (1964) "A Slight Ache" In the week celebrating Harold Pinter 's 70th birthday, Pinter stars in a new production of his classic radio play of 1959. During a single day, the safety of the study, scullery and garden is endangered by the appearance of a match seller at the garden gate in this comedy of menace. Director Ned Chaillet "Last to Go" This 1964 production of Pinter's revue sketch features Geoffrey Bayldon and Harold Pinter in a dramatic postcript from the BBC archives. Director Michael Bakewell BBC Radio 4 FM,The Friday Play 13 October 2000 2005-06-19 PINTER DOUBLE BILL: Landscape (1968) | Family Voices (1981) "Landscape" A middle aged couple, housekeeper and chauffeur sit in the huge bare kitchen of a country house pursuing their own thoughts aloud in a ghastly semblance of conversation. First Produced 1969 Aldwych Theatre, London First Published 1968 Pendragon Press "Family Voices" A series of parallel monologues between a mother and son in the form of letters probably written but never mailed, in which the facade of a happy family gradually disintegrates into a cauldron of recrimination. First Produced 1981 Lytlelton Theatre, National Theatre, London >>> First Published 1981 Next Editions 2010-11-27 The Caretaker (David Warner) David Warner and Daniel Mays star in Harold Pinter's dark comedy. Two brothers shelter an elderly, homeless man after a fight in a caf?. But his problems are far from over. Davies... David Warner Aston... Tony Bell Mick... Daniel Mays Directed by Peter Kavanagh 2012-07-14 Betrayal (Olivia Colman, Andrew Scott) Harold Pinter's acclaimed drama about a love affair and the intricate nature of deceit which is told in reverse time from its poignant ending to its thrilling first kiss. Emma ..... Olivia Colman Jerry ..... Andrew Scott Robert ..... Charles Edwards Waiter ..... Gerard McDermott Produced/directed by Gaynor Macfarlane 2014-xx-xx Old Times (Olivia Williams) In a remote farmhouse, Deeley and Kate await a visitor. Anna is Kate's best friend, though Deeley has never met her. Is the past really as they remember it? Old Times is a play about memory and desire. Tantalizingly enigmatic, it is a play about people in their forties looking back on old times, about reconciling the young person and the adult, about how you imagined things were going to be and how they turned out. Kate - Ruth Gemmell Deeley - Justin Salinger Anna - Olivia Williams Vocal coach, Aim?e Leonard. Director - Gaynor Macfarlane 2015-05-07 The Dreaming Child (BBC Unmade Movies) The world premiere of Harold Pinter's unproduced film screenplay "The Dreaming Child," based on Karen Blixen's elusive and mysterious short story of love and loss. Adapted by Joanna Hogg and Laurence Bowen. It's Bristol in 1868 and Emily, married to wealthy Tom Carter, is haunted by her passionate first love affair with a young soldier who subsequently died at sea. Seven years later, and unable to have children, the couple decide to adopt a boy from the slum. Jack, however, is not an ordinary child and seems to know everything about his new home and family. With Anne Reid as Narrator; Lydia Leonard as Emily; Bertie Carvel as Tom; Joshua Silver as Charlie; Joanna Scanlan as Mrs Jones; Susan Wooldridge as Miss Scott; Jack Hollington as Jack; Rose Leslie as Peggy; Bryony Hannah as Bess; Karl Johnson as Mr Rudd; Malcolm Sinclair as Mr Carter; and Flynn Allen, Esme Allen-Quarmby, Isabella Blake-Thomas and Joey Price as Children. Directed by Joanna Hogg. Producer/Laurence Bowen for Feelgood Fiction 2015-xx-xx A Kind of Alaska | Ashes to Ashes (Harriet Walter) Harriet Walter stars in two of Harold Pinter's later plays, each providing her with a challenging role she has never taken on before. In "A Kind of Alaska", she is Deborah, who has lost the last 29 years to sleep; and in "Ashes to Ashes", Rebecca is haunted by an altogether different kind of loss. A Kind of Alaska: Deborah ..... Harriet Walter Hornby ..... Guy Paul Pauline ..... Indira Varma Directed by Toby Swift Ashes to Ashes: Rebecca ..... Harriet Walter Devlin ..... Nicholas Woodeson Directed by Harry Burton Produced by Toby Swift
