A half hour profile of the celebrated British playwright, broadcast at a pivotal moment of his commercial and critical success.
Presenter Michael Dean talks to the playwright Alan Ayckbourn about his work and extraordinary theatrical success. The interview is framed by Ayckbourn’s unprecedented achievement of having four plays running simultaneously in London’s West End: Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves, Absurd Person Singular, and his celebrated trilogy, The Norman Conquests. The discussion examines the craft behind these hugely popular and intricate comedies.
This programme is a historical snapshot, capturing the precise moment Alan Ayckbourn became a theatrical phenomenon. By 1974, his name was a byword for a particular strain of English middle-class comedy, but the successful West End transfer of The Norman Conquests trilogy elevated him to a new level of dominance, making him the first playwright since Noël Coward to command such a presence in London theatre. The broadcast marks the point at which Ayckbourn’s reputation for structurally ingenious and painfully funny social observation was cemented in the public consciousness.
Broadcast: BBC Two, 1 Episode, 1 September 1974
Producer: Michael Hill
Director: Michael Hill
Main Cast: Michael Dean (Presenter), Alan Ayckbourn (Subject)
