Category Archives: Television

Harold Pinter at ITV

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Although primarily remembered as a theatrical writer, Harold Pinter’s early dramas reached a greater audience through Britain’s recently launched commercial television network, ITV. Between 1960 and 1966, ITV viewers enjoyed eight plays by Pinter, all broadcast in evening prime time, a full-length production of The Birthday Party (1960) followed by versions of The Dumb Waiter, The Room (both 1961) and The Caretaker (1966). In addition, ITV premiered four original Pinter … Continue reading →

Pinter at the BBC: What the Censor Sees.

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The long-awaited BFI DVD collection, Pinter at the BBC, is released today. Over five discs, the anthology includes 10 versions of Pinter plays made by the BBC between 1965-88. As all ten are new to any home video format, the release increases the amount of Pinter UK television material publicly available by 500%. In addition to the plays, the collection also includes a wealth of supplementary material – four of … Continue reading →

Reflections on the ‘Pinter on Film, Television and Radio’ conference, 19-20 September 2018

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The University of Reading arm of the Pinter Histories and Legacies project—peopled by Professor Jonathan Bignell, Dr Billy Smart and Dr Amanda Wrigley—were thrilled to welcome project colleagues and an international group of academic friends old and new from an exciting range of disciplines to the University of Reading’s Minghella Studies, the home of the Film, Theatre and Television Department, on 19 September 2018 for the first day of the … Continue reading →

Booking open for ‘Pinter on Film, Television and Radio’ conferences at University of Reading and British Library (19-20 September)

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Booking is now open for our two day ‘Pinter on Film, Television and Radio’ conference, held at the University of Reading on Wednesday September 19 and the British Library on Thursday September 20. Each day has a particular focus. ‘Pinter on Screen’ at Reading deals with Pinter’s work on film and television, while ‘Pinter on Air’ at the British Library concentrates on Pinter’s radio drama. One-day attendence for either conference … Continue reading →

The Lover (Associated-Rediffusion for ITV, 1963): ‘tough stuff, well acted and cleverly directed’

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By the time The Lover was broadcast by ITV on 28 March 1963, Pinter was, as his biographer Michael Billington puts it, ‘in contemporary jargon, “hot” ’ (The Life and Work of Harold Pinter, Faber, 2007, p. 142). So, too, was its producer Joan Kemp-Welch (1906-1999), at least within the television industry. The dramatic narrative itself, based on the erotic role-play of a suburban middle-class married couple (played by Vivien … Continue reading →

Pinter’s History, Pinter’s Legacies

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The first order of business for the Harold Pinter: Histories and Legacies project is to develop a database for registering every major production in the United Kingdom, from 1957 to 2017, of Harold Pinter’s plays, screenplays, television and radio dramas. As our team beavers away, reviewing and tweaking the conceptual design of the database and anticipating its completion, we’re all engaged in various projects and tasks relevant to both the … Continue reading →

Harold Pinter on DVD and Blu-ray: A Guide

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When looking for DVD or Blu-ray copies of Harold Pinter’s work on screen, a simple rule generally applies – if it was made for television it is unlikely to have been commercially released, whereas if it was a film it almost certainly has (but it might well now be deleted). This article is intended to serve as a simple guide to what has been made available and (where it applies) … Continue reading →