The case of the Cambridge spies has long captured the public’s attention, but perhaps never more so than in the wake of Anthony Blunt’s exposure as the fourth man in November 1979. With the Cold War intensifying, patriotism running high during the Falklands War and the AIDS crisis leading to widespread homophobia, these notorious traitors were more relevant than ever. This book explores how they were depicted in literature, television and film throughout the 1980s. Examining works by an array of distinguished writers, including Dennis Potter, Alan Bennett, Tom Stoppard and John le Carré, it sheds new light on the affair, asking why such privileged young men chose to betray their country, whether loyalty to one’s friends is more important than patriotism and whether we can really trust the intelligence services.

A study of the actor, director, playwright and lyricist, Alan Bennett. Peter Wolfe demonstrates that Alan Bennett's success in many spheres was no fluke, and his theatrical eminence has always been accompanied by awards and professional recognition. His play Single Spies won the Oliver Award as England's Best Comedy in 1989. The casts of his plays, starting with Forty Years On in 1968, have included such luminaries as Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Alan Bates and Daniel Day Lewis. His screenwriting earned The Madness of King George a nomination for an Academy Award. This book seeks to illuminate the writer whose instinct for artistic choices has helped him to succeed on his own terms.

Live theatre was once the main entertainment medium in the United States and the United Kingdom. The preeminent dramatists and actors of the day wrote and performed in numerous plays in which crime was a major plot element. This remains true today, especially with the longest-running shows such as The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Sweeney Todd. While hundreds of books have been published about crime fiction in film and on television, the topic of stage mysteries has been largely unexplored. Covering productions from the 18th century to the 2013-2014 theatre season, this is the first history of crime plays according to subject matter. More than 20 categories are identified, including whodunits, comic mysteries, courtroom dramas, musicals, crook plays, social issues, Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie. Nearly 900 plays are described, including the reactions of critics and audiences.

The Encyclopedia of Television, second edtion is the first major reference work to provide description, history, analysis, and information on more than 1100 subjects related to television in its international context. For a full list of entries, contributors, and more, visit the Encyclo pedia of Television, 2nd edition website.

Stage Right is a refreshingly abrasive account of the state of British theatre since 1979, offering an account of the development of a new mainstream formed in conscious opposition to the work of the politically committed dramatists of the 70s and an analysis of the plays of the most successful playwrights of the new mainstream: Nichols, Gray, Frayn, Bennett, Ayckbourn and Stoppard.

`A most illuminating study.' - John Bayley Six Contemporary Dramatists explores, in a straightforward manner, the central concerns of six of the most important contemporary dramatists. It demonstrates how the work of Alan Bennett, Dennis Potter, Simon Gray, Howard Brenton, David Hare and Alan Ayckbourn is essentially moral, and relates their aspirations to the British romantic tradition of the last century. At the same time, Duncan Wu explores how each writer has responded to the changes that took place in personal and public ethics during the 1980s as a result of Thatcherism. He also includes an interview with Alan Ayckbourn, published here for the first time, in which the volume's themes are focused and summarised. For the paperback edition, a substantial preface discussing Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, David Hare's Skylight and David Edgar's Pentecost has been added. This is an essential and readable guide to televised and theatrical drama for students and theatregoers alike.

Alan Bennett is perhaps best known in the UK for the BBC production of his Talking Heads TV plays, while the rest of the world may recognize him for the film adaptation of his play, The Madness of King George. O'Mealy points out that Bennett is a social critic strongly influenced by Beckett and Swift, interested in depicting and analyzing the role playing of everyday life, a'la sociologist Ervin Goffman.

This book is an anthology of critical essays written about English literature during the Renaissance (or the 'early-modern' period). It focuses on Shakespeare's poetry and plays, including the 'Sonnets', 'The Phoenix and the Turtle', 'The Rape of Lucrece', 'King Lear', 'Othello', 'Measure for Measure', and 'Timon of Athens'. Also examined are the publication of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, William Cartwright's play 'The Royal Slave', and James Halliwell-Phillips, one of the central figures in the Shakespearean textual tradition.

Clum (English and theater, Duke U.) examines 20th-century American and British plays that revolve around gay men, including those by Noel Coward, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Harold Pinter, and Peter Shaffer. He considers the representation of bodies and acts, the closet dramas between 1930 and 1968, and recent works portraying a culture that has to do with more than sex.--Annotation © Book News, Inc., Portland, Ore.