British New Wave

As part of Radio 4's celebration of British New Wave film and cinema, Johnny Vegas directs a feature-length radio reversioning of This Sporting Life - marking the 50th anniversary of the classic Lindsay Anderson film which starred the young Richard Harris.

This new version is adapted by Andrew Lynch, directly from David Storey's novel. A surprisingly beautiful, yet repressed, northern drama, it contrasts the deep wants and needs of protagonist Arthur Machin with the stark aggression of the rugby pitch.

The sounds are rich - the rugby scrum, the atmosphere of the match, the changing rooms, the dancehall, struggles in the bedroom, arguments by the kitchen hearth.

James Purefoy plays Arthur Machin and Emily Watson is Mrs Hammond, accompanied on the touchline by an ensemble cast including John Thomson, Julia Davis, Sheridan Smith and Philip Jackson.

Commentary for the Rugby League game-play is provided by commentator Ray French, who witnessed some of the filming of the 1963 film with Richard Harris.

Dramatised from David Storey's original novel by Andrew Lynch

Producer: Sally Harrison
Director: Johnny Vegas

A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4.

Johnny Vegas directs a feature-length version of David Storey's 1960s northern drama.

Celebrating the fiction that became iconic films of the Sixties

As part of Radio 4's celebration of British New Wave film and cinema, Johnny Vegas directs a feature-length radio reversioning of This Sporting Life - marking the 50th anniversary of the classic Lindsay Anderson film which starred the young Richard Harris.

This new version is adapted by Andrew Lynch, directly from David Storey's novel. A surprisingly beautiful, yet repressed, northern drama, it contrasts the deep wants and needs of protagonist Arthur Machin with the stark aggression of the rugby pitch.

The sounds are rich - the rugby scrum, the atmosphere of the match, the changing rooms, the dancehall, struggles in the bedroom, arguments by the kitchen hearth.

James Purefoy plays Arthur Machin and Emily Watson is Mrs Hammond, accompanied on the touchline by an ensemble cast including John Thomson, Julia Davis, Sheridan Smith and Philip Jackson.

Commentary for the Rugby League game-play is provided by commentator Ray French, who witnessed some of the filming of the 1963 film with Richard Harris.

Dramatised from David Storey's original novel by Andrew Lynch

Producer: Sally Harrison
Director: Johnny Vegas

A Woolyback production for BBC Radio 4.

Johnny Vegas directs a feature-length version of David Storey's 1960s northern drama.

Celebrating the fiction that became iconic films of the Sixties

To complement Radio 4's British New Wave drama season Paul Allen, presents a first-hand account of it, using the archive to illuminate the social changes which allowed it to flourish.

For ten years after the Second World War the battered British public had been soothed, culturally, by urbanity and charm. In the mid-fifties it was as if a huge wave - the New Wave - had crashed over a quiet beach; frightening and exhilarating.

Paul Allen witnessed this. He was a theatre-struck schoolboy when he read Kenneth Tynan's remark that he "couldn't love anyone who didn't want to see 'Look Back in Anger'". He relished the language and northern working class voices in the novels of Alan Sillitoe such as 'Saturday Night' and 'Sunday Morning' and felt the rage of David Storey's play 'This Sporting Life'. Then came the challenging sexuality of Nell Dunn's 'Up the Junction'.

Paul Allen, was a young reporter in the North of England, then a regional critic and a national broadcaster, presenting 'Kaleidoscope', Radio 4's daily arts show, for 20 years. He interviewed and got to know the leading figures of the New Wave - John Osborne ('Look Back in Anger'), Stan Barstow ('A Kind of Loving'), Barry Hines ('Kes'), Margaret Forster ('Georgy Girl') and Alan Sillitoe.

Using the BBC's and his own archives Paul explores the artistic and social upheavals of the British New Wave. He reveals how it was not a single movement, but a series of progressions in literature and theatre, and in popular forms beyond these, and went way beyond 'kitchen sink' dramas.

Producer: Julian May.

Paul Allen uses the archive to explore the social changes that led to the British New Wave

Celebrating the fiction that became iconic films of the Sixties

By Stephen Wakelam. One afternoon in 1955 Theatre Manager George Devine sets out in a rickety rowing boat to inspect an actor, John Osborne, living on a Thames barge who has written a play. Look Back in Anger has been returned by many theatres but Devine has seen something in it. The meeting is a pivotal moment in the course of theatrical history.

Director: David Hunter

Look Back in Anger was premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre on 8th May 1956 by the English Stage Company directed by Tony Richardson with the following cast - Kenneth Haigh, Alan Bates, Mary Ure, Helena Hughes and John Welsh. The press release referred to John Osborne as "an angry young man" - a phrase that came to represent a new movement in British Theatre.

Stephen Wakelam's drama charts the first meeting between John Osborne and George Devine.

Celebrating the fiction that became iconic films of the Sixties

By Stephen Wakelam. One afternoon in 1955 Theatre Manager George Devine sets out in a rickety rowing boat to inspect an actor, John Osborne, living on a Thames barge who has written a play. Look Back in Anger has been returned by many theatres but Devine has seen something in it. The meeting is a pivotal moment in the course of theatrical history.

Director: David Hunter

Look Back in Anger was premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre on 8th May 1956 by the English Stage Company directed by Tony Richardson with the following cast - Kenneth Haigh, Alan Bates, Mary Ure, Helena Hughes and John Welsh. The press release referred to John Osborne as "an angry young man" - a phrase that came to represent a new movement in British Theatre.

Stephen Wakelam's drama charts the first meeting between John Osborne and George Devine.

Celebrating the fiction that became iconic films of the Sixties

By Nell Dunn. Dramatised by Georgia Fitch.

In Nell Dunn's Sixties classic, a young writer from Chelsea decides to swap her privileged life for a grittier experience in industrial Battersea. We join Lily as she embarks on life in the working class community, forming strong friendships with sisters Sylvie and Rube and working in the local sweet factory. The girls scrape together enough to get by on, live in each other's pockets and shake off whatever drama life throws at them.

The bold energy of Nell Dunn's writing and characters is still like a breath of fresh air - fifty years on from the book's original publication.

Director/Producer ..... Lucy Collingwood

Up the Junction was Eastenders' star Lacey Turner's first radio drama.

Zoe Tapper and Lacey Turner star in Nell Dunn's Sixties classic set in Battersea.

Celebrating the fiction that became iconic films of the Sixties

By Nell Dunn. Dramatised by Georgia Fitch.

In Nell Dunn's Sixties classic, a young writer from Chelsea decides to swap her privileged life for a grittier experience in industrial Battersea. We join Lily as she embarks on life in the working class community, forming strong friendships with sisters Sylvie and Rube and working in the local sweet factory. The girls scrape together enough to get by on, live in each other's pockets and shake off whatever drama life throws at them.

The bold energy of Nell Dunn's writing and characters is still like a breath of fresh air - fifty years on from the book's original publication.

Director/Producer ..... Lucy Collingwood

Up the Junction was Eastenders' star Lacey Turner's first radio drama.

Zoe Tapper and Lacey Turner star in Nell Dunn's Sixties classic set in Battersea.

Celebrating the fiction that became iconic films of the Sixties