Every generation is inclined to moan that they don’t make them like they used to. It’s a favourite refrain of television dramatists. It scarcely seems credible now that a theatre animal like Simon Gray could regularly write single plays for television and attract audiences of millions.
In recent weeks there has been the opportunity to see some of his many scripts for the screen exhumed thanks to Cine Anglais, a collaboration between the Whiteleys cinema in Bayswater and the restaurant Cafe Anglais. The screenings are bracketed by canapes and dinner. The works shown thus far have been A Month in the Country, Running Late and After Pilkington, which I saw last week. It came up as fresh as when I caught it on BBC2 in 1987. Afterwards, director Christopher Morahan and producer Kenith Trodd reminisced about the good old days when the BBC drama department just let them get on with it.
They will be answering questions again when Old Flames (pictured right) is shown on 20 April. Simon Callow and Clive Francis will join them. There was some hope that Stephen Fry might also put in an appearance. Although he starred in several of Gray’s television plays, their working relationship came to an abrupt terminus after Fry’s infamous flit from Gray’s West End play, Cell Mates. Fat Chance was Gray’s characteristically gripping account of the saga.
They will be answering questions again when Old Flames (pictured right) is shown on 20 April. Simon Callow and Clive Francis will join them. There was some hope that Stephen Fry might also put in an appearance. Although he starred in several of Gray’s television plays, their working relationship came to an abrupt terminus after Fry’s infamous flit from Gray’s West End play, Cell Mates. Fat Chance was Gray’s characteristically gripping account of the saga.- Booking information on the screening of Old Flames is on the excellent Simon Gray website.
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