0:00:02 > 0:00:08This programme contains some strong language and adult humour
0:00:08 > 0:00:10Only three more drama club performances to go now.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12I feel a mixture of feelings after ten days
0:00:12 > 0:00:15of speaking three lines a night and trying to look intelligent,
0:00:15 > 0:00:18but I shall be very, very sad when it's over.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24I've heard that Crouch, who plays Clarence in the show, is at RADA.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27I'm wondering if I saved at least five shilling a week,
0:00:27 > 0:00:29if I could go in the remote future.
0:00:29 > 0:00:30Of course, I have no idea how much the fees are,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34but if you want to make the stage your career, you must go to RADA.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36Oh!
0:00:54 > 0:00:55APPLAUSE
0:01:06 > 0:01:08APPLAUSE
0:01:24 > 0:01:25Oh!
0:01:51 > 0:01:53CELL DOOR SLAMS SHUT
0:02:00 > 0:02:03My father, who was a gardener,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06was reading the Daily Mirror
0:02:06 > 0:02:12and he came upon this headline that said, "Gorilla amongst the Roses".
0:02:12 > 0:02:17Of course, him being a gardener, automatically started to read it
0:02:17 > 0:02:22and released that his son, John Kingsley Orton,
0:02:22 > 0:02:27had been arrested for the defacement of library books.
0:02:27 > 0:02:331959, I started work in Essex Road Library in Islington.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38There were these two guys coming into the library all the time,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41and that was Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46Orton was friendly. Halliwell would just smile at you ironically.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50This is very much Britain in the early '60s.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54Not a lot of people were very pleasant to a young black boy.
0:02:54 > 0:03:00I enjoyed talking to him, partly for that reason,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03but there was actually nothing about him
0:03:03 > 0:03:07which would have made you think, "Ah-ha!
0:03:07 > 0:03:12"Here's someone who was going to deface library books."
0:03:12 > 0:03:14UPBEAT INSTRUMENTAL
0:03:16 > 0:03:21I realise it's unforgivable doing this. I'm just...unrepentant.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25The libraries have a tremendous amount of space for rubbish
0:03:25 > 0:03:28written by the likes of Lady Dartmouth and her ilk,
0:03:28 > 0:03:30but not for good books, apparently.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33It's not a matter of personal taste.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36You can say when something is rubbish and something isn't.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47Oh, John Betjeman, yes! This one, I remember.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49Ah, that's lovely!
0:03:49 > 0:03:51HE LAUGHS
0:03:51 > 0:03:57Then they watched while people browsed the books
0:03:57 > 0:04:03to see if their satire had the effect that they wanted,
0:04:03 > 0:04:10which was to shock and, in some way, create panic, almost.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14It came to a head for me one morning when a woman came in.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16She slammed a book down and she said,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21"How dare you allow my 13-year-old daughter to take this book?!"
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Collected Plays of Emlyn Williams.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27"Up the front, up the back!"
0:04:27 > 0:04:29HE LAUGHS
0:04:29 > 0:04:31"Fucked by Monty!"
0:04:31 > 0:04:33HE LAUGHS
0:04:35 > 0:04:37We're public benefactors, in a way.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39You wouldn't even begin to understand
0:04:39 > 0:04:41the real reason we do these things.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51It was like an early version of Banksy.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56I think, partly, it was the trickster in them.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01They were really not successful writing together.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05They had all their early books, they had sent them all to...
0:05:05 > 0:05:08to Faber and Faber, and they sent them all back,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10saying that, "They're too odd for us.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12"They're not what we would publish."
0:05:12 > 0:05:14I think that irked them.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17But sort of defacing the library book covers,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21you can imagine they were having a lot of fun doing that.
0:05:21 > 0:05:28People began to mention their names as suspects.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30The suggestion was made
0:05:30 > 0:05:36that they were two men living together in a room,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39so they must be homosexuals.
0:05:39 > 0:05:45Orton and Halliwell lived in a room that was probably 16x12.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47Very, very small.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50Two beds, a desk, these walls that were...
0:05:50 > 0:05:53That looked like they'd been tattooed, almost,
0:05:53 > 0:05:55with classical images.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59So it was a very, very claustrophobic, small space.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02When they went to court,
0:06:02 > 0:06:07OK, they deserved a fine or some kind of slap on the wrist,
0:06:07 > 0:06:14but...sending them to prison seemed well over the top.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17My mother was sort of saying,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20"I never liked that bloke he lived with. I never liked him.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23"What on earth do you want to live with a bald-headed man for?"
0:06:24 > 0:06:27He did send a letter home
0:06:27 > 0:06:32saying that he didn't want anyone to send him any letters.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35He didn't want any contact with the family at all.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37I just thought, "What will happen to him?"
0:06:37 > 0:06:42And it was the first time in their adult life
0:06:42 > 0:06:44that they'd been separated.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46I think prison may have been the making of him.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51That's to say that it was in prison that he started to write
0:06:51 > 0:06:55and sort of emancipated himself from the fact that he was writing...
0:06:55 > 0:06:57When he was living with Kenneth, he was writing stuff
0:06:57 > 0:07:02and Kenneth would then comment on it and, you know, correct it.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04And in the process of correcting it,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07would very likely rob it of its originality.
0:07:09 > 0:07:10I had a wonderful time in prison.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17I didn't suffer the way Oscar Wilde suffered in prison,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20but then Wilde was flabby and self-indulgent.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24There's this complete myth about writers being sensitive plants. They're not.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28There's absolutely no reason a writer shouldn't be as tough as a bricklayer.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33He found it an exhilarating experience!
0:07:33 > 0:07:38But, I mean, I think that's just a bit of bravado.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43It made him see society
0:07:43 > 0:07:46in a totally different way.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49The experience must have influenced my writing,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52though I couldn't say how very precisely.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56It gave me time to turn over in my mind everything I'd been doing.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58Time to think.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Before, I'd been vaguely aware of something rotten somewhere.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03Prison crystallised this.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06The old whore society really lifted up her skirt
0:08:06 > 0:08:09and the stench was pretty foul.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14Something had happened in there. He changed.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16I think that he could separate,
0:08:16 > 0:08:24detach himself from worrying about what people thought of him.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28It was like, "You've sent me to prison for being a homosexual,
0:08:28 > 0:08:29"although you never said that.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32"You said it was for defacing library-book covers,
0:08:32 > 0:08:34"but that was just a mask."
0:08:34 > 0:08:37You know, so, "Up yours".
0:08:37 > 0:08:41As soon as he felt he had a voice,
0:08:41 > 0:08:43felt confident that he had a voice,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45I mean, it was like uncorking a geyser.
0:08:50 > 0:08:57In 1963, I was working in the BBC Radio drama department.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02We had about 10,000 scripts a year. It was a hell of a lot.
0:09:02 > 0:09:10And, er...this play came across the desk to be sent back.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13And it had been seen by a lot of, it seemed to me,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17rather elderly ladies, and they absolutely hated the play.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19And I looked at it and read the first page,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23and it was very unusual, and I thought,
0:09:23 > 0:09:24"This is absolutely brilliant".
0:09:24 > 0:09:27BUZZING
0:09:29 > 0:09:31Have you got an appointment today?
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Yes. I'm to be at King's Cross station at 11:00.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36I'm meeting a man in the toilet.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40You always go to such interesting places. Are you taking the van?
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Er...no, it's still under repair.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Where did you go yesterday?
0:09:44 > 0:09:48I went to Mikey Pierce's. I had a message to deliver.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50Had a chat with a man who travels
0:09:50 > 0:09:53in electrically-operated massage machines.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55Bought me a ham roll.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58Turns out he's on the run.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01He didn't say as much in so many words, but I gathered.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05The papers were on form this morning.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Are they? I'm glad people are still reading them.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11I seen that a man had appeared in court
0:10:11 > 0:10:13charged with locking his wife in a wardrobe.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15She tells of her night of terror.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19I mean, what a way to celebrate your wedding anniversary.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23I'd do the same. I'd lock you up if you gave me cause for displeasure.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25And in the local paper, I saw that there'd been an accident
0:10:25 > 0:10:27involving a tattooed man.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31He had a heart, a clenched fist and a rose, all on one arm,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35and the name Ronny on his body in two different places.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37Was that his name?
0:10:37 > 0:10:39No, his name was Frank.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41A van ran him down.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45He came to see me at Broadcasting House and I said to him,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47"Oh, what you have been doing the last few years?"
0:10:47 > 0:10:50And he said "Well, actually, I've been in prison".
0:10:50 > 0:10:54"Ooh", I said, sort of withdrawing a little bit.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57So anyhow, we then discussed the play and I said,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59"Well, I think we'll take it. We'll buy it".
0:10:59 > 0:11:03And in the play, I'd cast Kenneth Cranham,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06who was absolutely unknown. He was a schoolboy.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12I think it's a rather poetic play and funny occasionally.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15I was very impressed by it.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19In fact, in some ways, it's still my favourite play of his -
0:11:19 > 0:11:23about a mysterious outsider
0:11:23 > 0:11:25bringing things to this house
0:11:25 > 0:11:29and it turns out that there's all sorts of connections.
0:11:29 > 0:11:30I've come about the room.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34You must've come to the wrong door. Sorry if you've been troubled.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36Can I come in? I've walked all the way here.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38Just for a minute. I'm so busy. I'm run off my feet today.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40How about a cup of tea?
0:11:40 > 0:11:42You usually make one about now.
0:11:44 > 0:11:45How do you know?
0:11:45 > 0:11:48Oh, I pick up all sorts of useful information in my job.
0:11:48 > 0:11:49And what's that?
0:11:49 > 0:11:52I'm a gent's hairdresser - qualified.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55I've clipped some notable heads in my time.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57My brother was in the business, too,
0:11:57 > 0:11:58until he was involved in an accident.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02- What happened? - A van knocked him down.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04His funeral was attended by some interesting people.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06He was a sportsman before his decease.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10He wore white shorts better than any man I've ever come in contact with.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13As a matter of fact, strictly off the record,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16I'm wearing a pair of his white shorts at this moment.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19- Oh.- I wasn't mentioned in the press.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23They didn't realise the important part I'd played in Frank's life.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26My brother's fiancee had her photo taken - balling her head off.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Perhaps the accident unhinged her mind.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32It wasn't an accident. He was murdered.
0:12:34 > 0:12:35You don't know that.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Don't contradict me!
0:12:37 > 0:12:40This is a private house, I'm not having perfect strangers talk to me like that!
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Clear off! My husband will be back soon!
0:12:42 > 0:12:45- He's not your husband! - How dare you!
0:12:45 > 0:12:47You're not married! You want to watch yourself.
0:12:47 > 0:12:48I have a good mind to call a policeman!
0:12:48 > 0:12:51- You don't have a telephone. - I can knock on the floor!
0:12:51 > 0:12:53- THUD! - There's nobody downstairs!
0:12:53 > 0:12:54I'll report you! You keep away!
0:12:56 > 0:12:58If I were to assault you...
0:12:59 > 0:13:01..would he avenge you?
0:13:04 > 0:13:06I mean, I used to listen to the afternoon story
0:13:06 > 0:13:08and I'd never heard anything like it.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10They were terrific lines
0:13:10 > 0:13:13and within a sort of a context of an underworld
0:13:13 > 0:13:17that British drama at that time
0:13:17 > 0:13:20had only just begun to explore with Pinter.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25It's about the tension of an intruder and...
0:13:27 > 0:13:29..becomes increasingly menacing.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31You don't know why he's there, really,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34and he provokes this couple.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38If you're desperate for a room, I could put you up on the bed-settee.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40It's quite comfortable.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42- Is it new? - I bought it a long time ago.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46Couldn't afford such luxury today. Financially, I'm in a bad way.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48Well, my money will help you out.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52It's the Assistance Board. I don't believe in charity unless I need it.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54My brother and me had the same trouble.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58We lived in Shepherd's Bush. We had a little room
0:13:58 > 0:14:02and our life was made quite comfortable by the Assistance Board for almost a year.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04We had a lot of friends,
0:14:04 > 0:14:06all creeds and colours,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09but no circumstances at all. We were happy, though.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12We were young. I was 17, he was 23.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15You can't do better for yourself than that, can you?
0:14:15 > 0:14:17We were bosom friends.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21I've never told anybody that before.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23I hope I haven't shocked you.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26As close as that?
0:14:26 > 0:14:27We had separate beds.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29He was a stickler for convention.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32But that's as far as it went.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34We spent every night in each other's company.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38It was the reason we never got any work done.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44There's no word in the Irish language for what you were doing.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46In Lapland, they have no word for snow.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50I'd rather not hear. I'm not a priest, you know.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52I wasn't with him when he died.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57I'm going around the twist with heartbreak.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01I thought of topping myself as a gesture,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03but suicide is difficult when you've got a pious mum.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05Kill yourself?
0:15:05 > 0:15:06I don't want to live, see.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10That's a crude way of putting it.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12- You won't do it, though?- Nah.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14I've made a will, of course,
0:15:14 > 0:15:16in case anything should happen in the future.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18- What might happen? - I might get killed.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20- How?- I don't know.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26And what the young man arranges
0:15:26 > 0:15:33is for the Irishman, the elderly Irishman, to shoot him.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Well, there was a longing to, I think,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40cross over and be in the next life with this...
0:15:42 > 0:15:44..brother who'd been so important to him,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47and so he contrives his own death.
0:15:47 > 0:15:54The BBC, they didn't want it to be clear that they were homosexuals,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58so Joe made them brothers,
0:15:58 > 0:16:03which made it even worse because it made it incest, as well,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07so he got sort of a double-barrel shot at it.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11I see the plot of a play as a piece of meat
0:16:11 > 0:16:14that buries the hook of what the author has to say.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17If I just offered the bare hook of what I want to say,
0:16:17 > 0:16:19well, who'd put that in their mouths?
0:16:19 > 0:16:22The recording was a very happy event
0:16:22 > 0:16:24and Joe was there all the time.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27He said, "Look, whilst I'm here,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30"I've got another play I've written",
0:16:30 > 0:16:33which was called Entertaining Mr Sloane.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35And I laughed a lot and he said, "Do you like it?"
0:16:35 > 0:16:40And I said, "Like it?" I said, "I think you need an agent."
0:16:40 > 0:16:45I said, "I suggest you get in touch with a lady called Margaret Ramsey.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47"Peggy Ramsey, we call her."
0:16:47 > 0:16:50And I said to him, "She can be a bit of a cow".
0:16:50 > 0:16:53Getting a call from Peggy was like someone saying,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56"The police, for you".
0:16:56 > 0:17:01About three days later, I would say, Peggy Ramsey phoned me
0:17:01 > 0:17:04and she had this piercing voice, very theatrical!
0:17:04 > 0:17:10She said, "John, darling, what's all this you've been calling me a cow all over London?"
0:17:10 > 0:17:13I said, "I haven't, Peggy. No! No, I haven't. I promise, I haven't."
0:17:13 > 0:17:16She said, "Yes, you have. This young man came in my office
0:17:16 > 0:17:19"and you said to him that I was a cow.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21"My darling, who IS this young man?"
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Orton was seductive, he was charming, he was very funny.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28I mean, she really was taken with him.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30She didn't hang about, if she liked your stuff.
0:17:30 > 0:17:36She would be ear-bashing some poor artistic director until he said yes.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39She sent it to me and said, "Would you like this play?"
0:17:39 > 0:17:44And I said, "I'll do it and get it on within six weeks", which we did.
0:17:44 > 0:17:45I fell in love with it immediately.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50Well, the script, to me, was almost as elegant as Jane Austen,
0:17:50 > 0:17:54but saying the most, for then, rather horrifying things.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57I hadn't been told much about Joe before I met him.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00I found him a very quiet presence at first
0:18:00 > 0:18:03and I realised after a while that he was like that
0:18:03 > 0:18:04with everyone when he first met them.
0:18:04 > 0:18:12That he had 438 brilliant feelers, out measuring, tasting
0:18:12 > 0:18:16and getting a complete understanding of the person he was speaking to.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19When Joe turned up, Halliwell would come with him
0:18:19 > 0:18:24and seemed to regard that as a natural position.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27He was rather like the elephant in the room.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28I mean, it's easy with hindsight,
0:18:28 > 0:18:33but he did look like Himmler or something. He looked...
0:18:33 > 0:18:36When Ken was around, people became quite jumpy.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39There was sort of jealously and anger
0:18:39 > 0:18:43and suspicion emanating from him.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48He was, to put it mildly...loathsome.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51He was the opposite of Joe.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54Halliwell was difficult because he would make claims
0:18:54 > 0:19:00about co-authorship of Sloane, which was clearly not true.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03He felt very possessive
0:19:03 > 0:19:08and, eventually, he had this kind of attitude and this bad feeling
0:19:08 > 0:19:13that was influencing the company. He was asked to leave rehearsals.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16I mean, how Joe dealt with that when he got home of an evening, I don't know.
0:19:16 > 0:19:22Joe's play is all that mattered to everybody who was there.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27A rather dreadful lady of a certain age
0:19:27 > 0:19:31leads into the drawing room of her home
0:19:31 > 0:19:35a very young boy, whom she clearly fancies enormously,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39introduces him to her father, who lives with her, she calls him Dada,
0:19:39 > 0:19:45who is practically blind, and a peculiar dislike is expressed.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48The old man stabs him with a toasting fork.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50Argh! Ah!
0:19:53 > 0:19:54Did Dada attack you?
0:19:54 > 0:19:58He's got an artery. I must be losing pints! Oh, Christ!
0:19:58 > 0:20:00Oh, is it hurting you?
0:20:00 > 0:20:03What a lovely pair of shoes you've got!
0:20:03 > 0:20:05- I think I'm going to spew.- Oh!
0:20:08 > 0:20:10Oh!
0:20:13 > 0:20:16- Nah, I'll be all right.- Oh.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21I wonder, Mr Sloane, if you'd take your trousers off?
0:20:21 > 0:20:22SHE GIGGLES
0:20:22 > 0:20:25I hope you don't think there's anything behind the request.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29I expect you guessed as much before I asked.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33If you lift up, I'll pull them off.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38SHE BREATHES HARD
0:20:38 > 0:20:40Where is it, then?
0:20:43 > 0:20:46- Here.- He attacked you from behind?!
0:20:47 > 0:20:52Oh, well, if you ask me, it's only a deep scratch.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57I don't think we'll require outside assistance.
0:20:59 > 0:21:00Oh, don't be embarrassed, Mr Sloane.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04I had the upbringing a nun would envy and that's the truth.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08Until I was 15, I was more familiar with Africa than my own body.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10That's why I'm so pliable.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Oh! You've the skin on you like a princess!
0:21:15 > 0:21:19Better than one of those tarts you see dancing about on the telly.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23I like a lad with a smooth body.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37I've been doing my washing today.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41I haven't a stitch on, except for my shoes.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43I'm in the rude under this dress.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49I tell you because you're bound to have noticed.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51I've been worried for fear of embarrassing you.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55Mr Sloane!
0:21:55 > 0:21:57Don't betray your trust!
0:21:57 > 0:21:59- I just thought... - I know what you thought!
0:21:59 > 0:22:02You wanted to see if my titties were all my own! You're all the same!
0:22:02 > 0:22:04Oh! I must be careful of you.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08Have me naked on the floor, given half a chance.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11Oh, if my brother were to know! He's such a possessive man!
0:22:11 > 0:22:13Would you like to go to bed?
0:22:15 > 0:22:17SHE BREATHES HARD
0:22:17 > 0:22:22The resemblance between Kath and my mother
0:22:22 > 0:22:27is startlingly obvious to members of the family.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32Joe came home and brought a tape-recorder with him,
0:22:32 > 0:22:37and put the microphone behind a loaf of bread
0:22:37 > 0:22:40and he would record my mother.
0:22:40 > 0:22:46And Joe was having to shove a handkerchief into his mouth
0:22:46 > 0:22:48to make himself stop laughing.
0:22:48 > 0:22:53All Joe's female characters, there's a love/hate relationship going on.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55He loves to hate them.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Her brother then turns up, who seems to run a business
0:23:03 > 0:23:06of very doubtful legality.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10In fact, he seems to be a bit of a gangster, if anything.
0:23:10 > 0:23:11But is powerful and...
0:23:11 > 0:23:15disapproves entirely of what his sister is doing.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19And it doesn't take you long to realise,
0:23:19 > 0:23:20from his reactions to the boy,
0:23:20 > 0:23:22that he also fancies the young boy.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24Yeah, we had a nice little gym at the orphanage.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Put me in all the teams, they did.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29Relays, soccer,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32pole-vault, long distance.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Yeah, yes, yes, yes,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36I'm an all-rounder...
0:23:36 > 0:23:38in anything you care to mention...
0:23:39 > 0:23:41..even in life.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50Little body-builder, are you? I bet you are.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55Do you...do you exercise regular?
0:23:55 > 0:23:56As clockwork.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58Good, good. Stripped?
0:23:58 > 0:23:59Fully.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01How invigorating.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04And I box. I'm a bit of a boxer.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06- You ever done any wrestling? - On occasions.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09- So-so.- I've got a full chest.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12- Narrow hips, my biceps are... - Do you wear leather?
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Next to your skin?
0:24:18 > 0:24:22Leather jeans, say, without...?
0:24:22 > 0:24:23Pants?
0:24:25 > 0:24:28HE CHUCKLES Get away!
0:24:29 > 0:24:31Question is, are you clean living?
0:24:34 > 0:24:36You might as well know, I set a great store by morals.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39There's too much of this casual bunking up nowadays.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41There's too many lads getting ruined by birds.
0:24:41 > 0:24:42I don't want you messing about with my sister.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45- I wouldn't. - Have you made overtures to her?- No!
0:24:46 > 0:24:47Does she disgust you?
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Should she?
0:24:50 > 0:24:52It's better if she did.
0:24:52 > 0:24:53I've no interest in her.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59I've a certain amount of influence, friends with money.
0:25:01 > 0:25:02I own two cars.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06You judge for yourself.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10I generally spend my holidays in places where the bints have got rings through their noses.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Women are like banks, boy. Breaking and entering is a serious business.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22You give me your word you're not...vaginalatrous?
0:25:24 > 0:25:25I'm not.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31I believe you.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37When the script arrived for Entertaining Mr Sloane,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41I took one look at it, I saw the subject and I just chucked it across the room
0:25:41 > 0:25:44and I said, "I really don't want to do it."
0:25:44 > 0:25:48And then my vanity crept in.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Ha-ha! Always a strong force.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Um...so I looked at it again and I thought,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58"This is actually a very prominent part in a play in London."
0:25:58 > 0:26:02And I realised that Sloane was not actually queer.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06Sloane was... Sloane had a salami in his trousers,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09with which he negotiated his life.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12I'd seen quite a lot of that in the RAF.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Sloane makes a pragmatic decision
0:26:15 > 0:26:18to come into the house,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21sleep with the sister
0:26:21 > 0:26:26and then also comes to an arrangement with the brother.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30Now, it's my view that that is, in a sense,
0:26:30 > 0:26:35psychologically, exactly what Orton was about.
0:26:35 > 0:26:41Orton, we know, did have some heterosexual relations
0:26:41 > 0:26:44prior to meeting Halliwell at RADA.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48And I think underneath the comedy of this,
0:26:48 > 0:26:55there is some admission of Orton's life in the drama.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57You can't pin the tail on the donkey,
0:26:57 > 0:27:01but I think that that reflects some aspect
0:27:01 > 0:27:04of his own very ruthless pragmatism.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10Let him choose. Let's have it in black and white, boy.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15- I'm going with Ed.- Is it the colour of the curtains in your room?!
0:27:15 > 0:27:17- No.- Is it because I'm pregnant?
0:27:17 > 0:27:20No. Better opportunities. A new life.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22You vowed you loved me!
0:27:22 > 0:27:23- Never for a second. - I was kind to you!
0:27:23 > 0:27:26- Yeah.- And you're grateful?
0:27:26 > 0:27:30- I paid.- I paid, too.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32Reputation ruined. Baby on the way!
0:27:32 > 0:27:34- CHUCKLES:- You had no reputation!
0:27:34 > 0:27:35Is that what he's taught you?
0:27:35 > 0:27:39I taught him nothing. He was innocent until you got your maulers onto him.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41He'd packed the experience of a lifetime into a few short years.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Pure in heart, he was. He wouldn't know where to put it.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47- I attracted him instantly. - You couldn't attract a blind man.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50Look in the glass, lady, let's all enjoy a laugh. What do you see?
0:27:51 > 0:27:53- Me!- You've nothing to lure any man!
0:27:56 > 0:27:58- Is that the truth, Mr Sloane? - More or less.
0:27:58 > 0:27:59Well, why didn't you tell me?
0:27:59 > 0:28:02How could he tell you?! You showed him the gate of hell every night!
0:28:02 > 0:28:04He abandoned hope when he entered there!
0:28:04 > 0:28:08Mr Sloane...I believed you were a good boy.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12I find you have deceived me.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14You deceived yourself.
0:28:14 > 0:28:15Perhaps.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17I was never subtle, Mr Sloane.
0:28:19 > 0:28:20If you go with Eddie, I'll tell the police.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25If I stay here, he'll do the same.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29It's what is called a dilemma, boy. You're on the horns of it.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33You see how things are, Mr Sloane?
0:28:33 > 0:28:35We'll discuss the matter.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38We need action, not discussion. Persuade her! Persuade her!
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Don't use that tone of voice to me, boy. I'll not be dictated to.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48An arrangement to suit all tastes,
0:28:48 > 0:28:49that's what's needed.
0:28:52 > 0:28:53Don't saddle her with me for life!
0:28:53 > 0:28:56As long as you're prepared to accept the idea of a partnership.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59Eddie, I think it's very clever of you to think of such a lovely idea.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Oh, he's close to tears! Isn't he sweet?
0:29:05 > 0:29:07Yeah.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12He's definitely attractive in adversity.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19And I hadn't...was not much of a theatre-goer.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21This sounded very, very intriguing, this play.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23I think it was at Wyndham's.
0:29:23 > 0:29:25I think I saved up and went and saw it.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29The absolute sort of lack of moral judgment,
0:29:29 > 0:29:31I found very attractive.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36My impression was that the audience of Entertaining Mr Sloane
0:29:36 > 0:29:38was a little bit baffled.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41I mean, it still was the age of...
0:29:41 > 0:29:42you know, cups of tea in the interval
0:29:42 > 0:29:44and people standing up for the national anthem,
0:29:44 > 0:29:48so some old man being beaten to death by a rent boy
0:29:48 > 0:29:50behind a sofa was not what they were used to.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00Joe kept a scrapbook on Sloane
0:30:00 > 0:30:04and he filled it with all sorts of cut-outs
0:30:04 > 0:30:07from different newspapers.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10He was really proud of his success
0:30:10 > 0:30:14and he wanted to record as much of it as he could.
0:30:17 > 0:30:21You probably know about the notice we got in The Telegraph.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25Well, the critic was a man called WA Darlington, who was of a great age,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28and he ended his review by saying,
0:30:28 > 0:30:32"I felt snakes were writhing at my feet".
0:30:34 > 0:30:37And, of course, Edna Welthorpe writes back and said,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41"I, too, felt that snakes were writhing around my feet.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45"Well, let's hope that the general public will soon strike back."
0:30:45 > 0:30:50Edna Welthorpe was a Mary Whitehouse figure...
0:30:52 > 0:30:55..who wrote to the newspapers,
0:30:55 > 0:30:59condemned and slammed Entertaining Mr Sloane.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06Edna Welthorpe was the pseudonym of Joe Orton.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10What was splendid about the play was that it was produced
0:31:10 > 0:31:16in an atmosphere of the News of the World of salacious gossip, filth.
0:31:16 > 0:31:17They loved filth!
0:31:17 > 0:31:20People would come to the show looking for filth!
0:31:20 > 0:31:23And, um...it was the time of Profumo.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27Do you remember the scandal with...Christine Keeler?
0:31:28 > 0:31:34The joy of Orton was his love of hypocrisy.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38It then became extremely fashionable.
0:31:38 > 0:31:39This was the thing that surprised us,
0:31:39 > 0:31:41that we had the likes of Rattigan,
0:31:41 > 0:31:45Vivian Lee and Peter Willes,
0:31:45 > 0:31:48the head of TV drama, all taking Joe up.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52It's hard to imagine having been in jail
0:31:52 > 0:31:57and suddenly, within a year, going from that
0:31:57 > 0:32:02to being celebrated as this new, promising author
0:32:02 > 0:32:04of a hit West End play.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06He's suddenly broken through.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10It's jail that's helped me get this far.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13It's no good saying it was hard work.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15Now I've written two plays that have been produced.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18It hasn't changed me, though, a bit of success.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20I still like the same things,
0:32:20 > 0:32:22only now I can have more of them.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29I was walking one day along the King's Road
0:32:29 > 0:32:32and Joe was walking towards me.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36As we sort of passed each other, our eyes met...
0:32:37 > 0:32:41..and I think there was a definite sort of attraction between us.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44And we walked past each other
0:32:44 > 0:32:46and then both stopped and looked back.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49I was just feeling excited,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52but I was slightly worried.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54I wasn't really sure what was going to happen.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59He then took me into a department store - Peter Jones.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02We went down to the toilets,
0:33:02 > 0:33:06then we became more intimately acquainted.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08While we were in the toilet,
0:33:08 > 0:33:12I was certainly concerned that somebody may come in.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16I think that probably added to the frisson of excitement.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20At the time, it was a bit like being a spy or something.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24He had told me that he lived with Kenneth Halliwell.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27We went back into the flat.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29We weren't there all that long
0:33:29 > 0:33:34and, um...suddenly Kenneth appeared, he came in.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38And when we saw me, he was extremely annoyed
0:33:38 > 0:33:41and asked who the hell I was.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44But Joe was probably just sort of dangling this
0:33:44 > 0:33:46in front of Kenneth a bit
0:33:46 > 0:33:50and I got the feeling he did that a bit, sort of...
0:33:50 > 0:33:52BELL TOLLS
0:33:53 > 0:33:58If you look at the structure of Entertaining Mr Sloane,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01it's farcical in places.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03He knew he wanted to write a farce.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05He's looking for a form
0:34:05 > 0:34:09in which he can essentially comment
0:34:09 > 0:34:12both visually and verbally
0:34:12 > 0:34:15more powerfully about society.
0:34:15 > 0:34:22You're introduced to a typical family at a moment of bereavement
0:34:22 > 0:34:27and you think, "Oh, my goodness, this is going to be a play
0:34:27 > 0:34:29"about rather dull people".
0:34:29 > 0:34:33And then extraordinary things start to come out.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36The nurse is actually a murderess,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39who's murdered several husbands before.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Your wife changed her will right before she died.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44She left all her money to me.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46- What? Is it legal?- Perfectly.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50She must have been drunk. What about me and the boy?
0:34:50 > 0:34:53I'm surprised that you've taken this attitude. Have you no sense of decency?
0:34:53 > 0:34:58Oh, it's God's judgment on me for marrying a Protestant!
0:34:58 > 0:35:00How much has she left you?
0:35:00 > 0:35:03£19,000, including her bonds and her jewels.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06Employing you has cost me a fortune!
0:35:06 > 0:35:09You must be the most expensive nurse in history!
0:35:09 > 0:35:11You don't imagine I want the money for myself, do you?
0:35:11 > 0:35:13- Yes.- Well, that's unworthy of you!
0:35:13 > 0:35:16I'm most embarrassed by Mrs McLeavy's generosity.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18- You'll destroy the will? - I wish I could.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21- Why can't you?- It's a legal document. I could be sued.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23- By whom?- The beneficiary.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26That's you. You'd never sue yourself!
0:35:26 > 0:35:29I might...if I was pushed too far.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32We must find a way of conveying the money into your bank account.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34Couldn't you just give it to me?
0:35:34 > 0:35:35Think of the scandal!
0:35:35 > 0:35:37What do you suggest, then?
0:35:37 > 0:35:39We must have a joint bank account.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42Wouldn't that cause an even bigger scandal?
0:35:42 > 0:35:44Not if we were married.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48Married?! But then you'd have my money, as well as Mrs McLeavy's!
0:35:48 > 0:35:50That's one way of looking at it.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Go ahead, ask me to marry you. I have no intentions of refusing.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58Use any form of proposal you like. Try to avoid abstract nouns.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01Well, everybody in the profession knew about it
0:36:01 > 0:36:04because Kenneth Williams was playing the lead
0:36:04 > 0:36:06and Kenneth Williams was a brilliant comic actor.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09It was obviously an event that we were all waiting for.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13We heard that, on tour, people had walked out and were furious
0:36:13 > 0:36:16and disgusted by it,
0:36:16 > 0:36:21but we also heard that it had been missproduced.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24It had been given a heavily-stylised production.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29And also, Kenneth Williams couldn't do anything else but the gags,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31couldn't do the serious side of everything,
0:36:31 > 0:36:33so the whole thing had been a disaster.
0:36:33 > 0:36:34It was an all-star cast,
0:36:34 > 0:36:39but they couldn't get to the...
0:36:39 > 0:36:40The play wasn't working.
0:36:40 > 0:36:46Orton wrote 100...nearly 150 pages of new material.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49He was continually doing rewrites.
0:36:49 > 0:36:50It was a nightmare.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54We played Bournemouth with it,
0:36:54 > 0:36:59which Kenneth Williams described as "the graveyard of our hopes".
0:36:59 > 0:37:02A woman came up to me and shook her fist and said,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04"It was Felicity's 21st,"
0:37:04 > 0:37:08as if we'd ruined this poor girl's entry into womanhood.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12Everyone is now on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14Kenneth Williams is disastrous!
0:37:14 > 0:37:17IMITATES KENNETH: "How many husbands have you had?"
0:37:17 > 0:37:20And he wonders why he's not getting any laughs!
0:37:20 > 0:37:23I wouldn't have believed when I wrote the play it could be this difficult!
0:37:23 > 0:37:26I'll get back as soon as humanly possible, Ken.
0:37:26 > 0:37:27I'm not gallivanting around down here.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30It's the most depressing few weeks I've ever lived through!
0:37:31 > 0:37:34The show closed miserably out of town
0:37:34 > 0:37:38and, as far as Orton was concerned,
0:37:38 > 0:37:41it was over and he was a failure.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45And it was at that point I said, "You should meet Braham Murray".
0:37:45 > 0:37:48Michael Codron phoned me and said,
0:37:48 > 0:37:51"I have just done this production of Loot by Joe Orton,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54"which I think is a brilliant play, and it failed,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56"but I still believe in the play. Could you do it?"
0:37:56 > 0:37:59Well, I read it, I loved it.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01I worked with Joe
0:38:01 > 0:38:05and I found him very much wanting to make things work,
0:38:05 > 0:38:07wanting to make things happen.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09He was an artist. Yes, he knew.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11He believed he was writing something special
0:38:11 > 0:38:13and he was right that he was.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16And any great artist will go on doing it,
0:38:16 > 0:38:18no matter what they're told.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22Braham Murray got Orton to cut and shape the play,
0:38:22 > 0:38:26and that production was considerably better,
0:38:26 > 0:38:34and it was then brought into town by Charles Marowitz.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36I got the part of Hal
0:38:36 > 0:38:39and my companion was Simon Ward,
0:38:39 > 0:38:41so we were quite...
0:38:41 > 0:38:44sort of the blonde and the brunette, in a way.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47And looking back, we were the ingenues.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51You can see what Orton's doing.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53Now the fun machine was starting to move.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57People were in and out of doors, things were tipped over,
0:38:57 > 0:39:00and you can see that he's teasing every piety
0:39:00 > 0:39:04and turning it upside down and testing it.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09The two boys are actually, apart from being lovers,
0:39:09 > 0:39:13are robbers who have robbed a bank, which is next door.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15Try to control yourself.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18If I come back and find you've been telling the truth all afternoon, we're through.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27It's a farce about a corpse
0:39:27 > 0:39:34and how much reverence, if you like, is paid to a dead body.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37Come here. Open the cupboard.
0:39:37 > 0:39:38Why are you so interested?
0:39:38 > 0:39:41Don't hesitate to obey me. Open the cupboard!
0:39:41 > 0:39:42I...I've got something in there!
0:39:42 > 0:39:45- What?- A corpse.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48Where are you concealing the money?
0:39:50 > 0:39:52In my mother's coffin.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54Argh!
0:39:54 > 0:39:56This is unforgiveable!
0:39:56 > 0:39:58I shall speak to your father!
0:39:58 > 0:40:00She's standing on her head!
0:40:00 > 0:40:03I want her buried. Are you prepared to help me?
0:40:05 > 0:40:07I want the body stripped.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10It isn't a thing someone of the opposite sex can do to a woman.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13I'm her relative, which complicates the issue.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15Put her in there.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21Well, I need help getting her out of the cupboard!
0:40:26 > 0:40:29- I'm not taking the head end. - She won't bite! You have gloves on!
0:40:29 > 0:40:31SHE SIGHS
0:40:35 > 0:40:37Oh, what was that?!
0:40:37 > 0:40:40Nothing. It's nothing.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45Lovely shaped feet your mother had, I mean, for a woman of her age.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49What will you do with the money?
0:40:49 > 0:40:51I might just run a brothel.
0:40:51 > 0:40:52I'd run a two-star brothel
0:40:52 > 0:40:55and, if I prospered, I'd graduate to a three-star brothel.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58I'd advertise by appointment...
0:40:59 > 0:41:02..like Jam.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04I'd have a spade bird, I don't agree with the colour bar,
0:41:04 > 0:41:06and a Finnish bird.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09- I'd make them kip together, bring out the contrast.- Oh!
0:41:11 > 0:41:13I'd have two Irish birds,
0:41:13 > 0:41:16a decent Catholic and a Protestant.
0:41:16 > 0:41:17I'd make the Protestant take the Catholics
0:41:17 > 0:41:21and the Catholic take the Protestants. Teach them how the other half live.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23Have you committed to removing the teeth?
0:41:23 > 0:41:27I'd have a French bird and a bird who spoke fluent Spanish
0:41:27 > 0:41:30and performed the dances of her native country to perfection!
0:41:39 > 0:41:41I began writing at 11.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43At 20 past, the telephone rang.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49"I've rung to tell you your mum died this morning," the caller said.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53Leonie rang at about six.
0:41:53 > 0:41:54I promised to go home tomorrow.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58As the corpse is downstairs in the living room, it means going out
0:41:58 > 0:42:00or watching television with death at one's elbow.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03My father, fumbling out of bed in the middle of the night,
0:42:03 > 0:42:07bumped into the coffin and nearly had the corpse on the floor.
0:42:11 > 0:42:12Leonie and I spent the afternoon
0:42:12 > 0:42:15throwing out junk collected over the years.
0:42:15 > 0:42:17I found a cup containing a pair of false teeth
0:42:17 > 0:42:19and threw it in the dustbin,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22then I discovered they belonged to my father and I had to rescue them.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26I found my mother's teeth in a drawer, I kept them...
0:42:26 > 0:42:29To amaze the cast of Loot.
0:42:29 > 0:42:34And in the corridor, the long corridor underneath the Criterion,
0:42:34 > 0:42:36he threw them through the air
0:42:36 > 0:42:39and I cupped my hands to catch them and I saw what they were.
0:42:39 > 0:42:44The ones I had in the show were pink and white, straight out of a shop.
0:42:44 > 0:42:49These ones were all sort of green and mildewed
0:42:49 > 0:42:52and chalky and horrible-looking. Eurgh!
0:42:52 > 0:42:55And I behaved like a woman with a mouse.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57KNOCK AT DOOR
0:43:14 > 0:43:17- What's going on in this house? - Nothing.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24We sat together in the stalls
0:43:24 > 0:43:28and we were... I was laughing so much.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30And I said to him, "I don't know how you get away with it".
0:43:30 > 0:43:32I said, "Oh, Joe, I love it".
0:43:32 > 0:43:36I mean, Loot was the play that broke Orton out, right?
0:43:36 > 0:43:39It was a hit. It was a West End hit.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42The balance was correctly found
0:43:42 > 0:43:47between the farcical elements and the macabre tone.
0:43:47 > 0:43:53The teasing of received opinion about the police.
0:43:53 > 0:43:58I'm sure that his experience with the law and prison
0:43:58 > 0:44:00were part of the creation of Loot,
0:44:00 > 0:44:04that was really the main, the centre, of the comedy.
0:44:04 > 0:44:09Orton used that idea of getting arrested for Truscott of the yard.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16Now, then, I'm going to ask a few questions. You ever been in prison?
0:44:16 > 0:44:18- Yes.- What for?
0:44:18 > 0:44:20Stealing overcoats and biting a policeman.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22The theft of an article of clothing is excusable,
0:44:22 > 0:44:25but policemen, like red squirrels, must be protected.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28You were rightly convicted. What you doing with this dummy?
0:44:28 > 0:44:30- You taken up sewing? - I was putting it in the cupboard.
0:44:30 > 0:44:32- Why?- To keep it hidden.
0:44:36 > 0:44:37Don't try to pull the wool over my eyes.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40- Where's the money from the bank job? - What bank job?
0:44:40 > 0:44:41- Your mate says it's been buried. - He's a liar!
0:44:41 > 0:44:43It's a very sensible reply.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46You're an honest lad, are you prepared to cooperate? I'll put a good word in for you.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49- I don't want anybody seeing me talking to a policeman. - I'm not a policeman.- Aren't you?
0:44:49 > 0:44:52No, I'm from the Metropolitan Water Board.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55You're the law! You gave me a kicking down the station!
0:44:55 > 0:44:58- I don't remember doing so.- It's all in a day's work to you, isn't it?
0:44:58 > 0:45:00- What were you doing down the station?- I was on SUS.
0:45:00 > 0:45:01- What were you suspected of? - The bank job.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04- You complain you were beaten? - Yes.- Did you tell anyone?- Yes.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06- Who?- The officer in charge. - What did he say?- Nothing.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08- Why not?- He was out of breath with kicking.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11I hope you're prepared to substantiate these accusations, lad.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14- What evidence have you?- My bruises.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16- What's the official version of those?- Resisting arrest.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21I can see nothing unreasonable in that.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26If I ever hear you
0:45:26 > 0:45:29accuse the police of using violence against a prisoner in custody again,
0:45:29 > 0:45:33I'll take you down the station and I'll beat the eyes out of your head!
0:45:34 > 0:45:36Now, get out!
0:45:38 > 0:45:42And take that thing with you. I don't want to see it in here again.
0:45:48 > 0:45:50SQUELCH!
0:45:58 > 0:46:02Loot was a success and he was chic.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05I mean, he was mordent, he was ironic,
0:46:05 > 0:46:09he was absolutely quintessentially of the moment.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13Ken was very much a part of that success.
0:46:13 > 0:46:18The new production of Loot had brought them fresh hope
0:46:18 > 0:46:21and he started appearing with Kenneth.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23They would actually turn up at things together.
0:46:23 > 0:46:31Joe's success in the theatre led him towards television plays.
0:46:31 > 0:46:37Peter Willes was the head of Rediffusion Drama.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43Peter Willes had this brilliant idea
0:46:43 > 0:46:47of inviting established playwrights
0:46:47 > 0:46:50to write for the medium of television.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54Very fastidious gentleman.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58He would come to the final run-through
0:46:58 > 0:47:01and sit on a shooting stick
0:47:01 > 0:47:05about a yard and a half away from you.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09A lot of people were quite frightened of him,
0:47:09 > 0:47:11which he rather enjoyed, I think.
0:47:11 > 0:47:15Peter Willes became important to Joe
0:47:15 > 0:47:20because, obviously, it helped his career
0:47:20 > 0:47:24and Willes commissioned The Good and Faithful Servant.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26Do come in!
0:47:26 > 0:47:32The play is about the retirement of an old gentleman
0:47:32 > 0:47:36and the way he's dealt with.
0:47:36 > 0:47:41Um...which is horrifyingly
0:47:41 > 0:47:46impersonal and insensitive.
0:47:46 > 0:47:52And my character, Mrs Vealfoy, was head of personnel.
0:47:52 > 0:47:54Your wife is dead.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57Have you been feeding false information into our computers?
0:47:57 > 0:48:01This woman is not my wife. I...I was young and foolish.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03It all happened a long time ago.
0:48:03 > 0:48:04I shall inform your section manager.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07He must straighten this out with records.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10It is a personal matter. My private life is involved.
0:48:10 > 0:48:12Should your private life be involved,
0:48:12 > 0:48:15we shall be the first to inform you of the fact.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19And when you see Buchanan, it's got to be his father.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24You had to know our father to see what a pathetic soul he was.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28# Happy days are here again
0:48:28 > 0:48:32# The skies above are clear again
0:48:32 > 0:48:37# So let us sing a song of cheer again... #
0:48:37 > 0:48:41He has this weak character and he keeps...
0:48:43 > 0:48:46You know, that seems to be indelibly imprinted
0:48:46 > 0:48:49in Joe's subconscious somewhere.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52I think that Kenneth was becoming like that
0:48:52 > 0:48:57and he was this sort of complaining, winging figure.
0:48:57 > 0:48:58Kenneth was always there,
0:48:58 > 0:49:01like a big, bloated spider sitting in the corner,
0:49:01 > 0:49:03and he wanted to give the impression
0:49:03 > 0:49:06that he was the one that was really behind the works.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09And you could see that there was a tension between them.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13Halliwell was envious.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20He wanted to spoil Orton's parade.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26Orton had to get out of there.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28Life was drawing him out of there.
0:49:28 > 0:49:29People wanted to know him.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32Tonight, from London...
0:49:32 > 0:49:35ORCHESTRA STRIKES UP
0:49:35 > 0:49:37..The Eamonn Andrews Show!
0:49:39 > 0:49:41A woman rang from the Eamonn Andrews Show,
0:49:41 > 0:49:43asking me to be on it this Sunday.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45They offered me £100.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48I accepted.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51- Joe Orton! - APPLAUSE
0:49:58 > 0:49:59Welcome, Joe.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02Well, as I was saying, you're a very successful writer.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04What about this business of spending six months in jail?
0:50:04 > 0:50:06It had something to do with library books, hadn't it?
0:50:06 > 0:50:11Um...well, yes, I used to do very strange things on library books.
0:50:11 > 0:50:12It was really a joke.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15He had acquired a name.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17He was somebody.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20He was suddenly meeting people and having an interesting life,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22and going out of his room,
0:50:22 > 0:50:27and that is what the diaries dramatise.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30Brian Epstein's advisor rang while I was eating a meal
0:50:30 > 0:50:33of mashed potatoes, tinned salmon and beetroot.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37He asked me if I would like to meet the boys on Wednesday.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39I was very impressed with this,
0:50:39 > 0:50:41but I tried to put on a nonchalant manner.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47Paul McCartney was just as the photographs,
0:50:47 > 0:50:50only he'd grown a moustache.
0:50:51 > 0:50:53He was playing the latest Beatles recording - Penny Lane.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55I liked it very much.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59Then he played the other side, Strawberry something.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02I didn't like that one as much.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Joe really clicked in with the counter culture,
0:51:06 > 0:51:11but in that period it was as if
0:51:11 > 0:51:15everybody was riding a surfboard together.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20"The only thing I get from theatre," Paul M said, "is a sore arse".
0:51:20 > 0:51:23He said that Loot was the only play he hadn't wanted to leave before the end.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26"I'd have liked a bit more," he said.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28We talked of drugs.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32I said I'd smoked hash in Morocco and the atmosphere relaxed a little.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35I had a final word with Paul M.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37"I'd like to do the movie," I said,
0:51:37 > 0:51:40"there's just one thing we have to fix up".
0:51:40 > 0:51:43"You mean the bread?" "Yes."
0:51:43 > 0:51:45We smiled and parted.
0:51:46 > 0:51:47I got a cab home.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51He sent me a letter telling me
0:51:51 > 0:51:56that his agent had secured a £10,000 fee.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59The letter fell from my hands, I think,
0:51:59 > 0:52:01because I was so astonished.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04And I thought, "Wow!
0:52:04 > 0:52:09"My brother is really rich!
0:52:09 > 0:52:11"He's really made the grade!"
0:52:15 > 0:52:18I spent the morning reading what I'd written of The Beatles script,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20then I went to see the producer, Walter Shenson.
0:52:20 > 0:52:21American.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24He was most concerned to impress upon me the boys shouldn't be made
0:52:24 > 0:52:27to do anything in the film that might reflect badly upon them.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30"The kids will imitate whatever the boys do," he said.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34I hadn't the heart to tell him the boys in my script
0:52:34 > 0:52:37have already committed adultery, been caught in flagrante,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40become involved in dubious political activity,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43dressed as women, committed murder and been put in prison.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45And the script isn't finished yet.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57The townsfolk won't tolerate your indiscretions any longer.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00They have recently, with the destruction of the memorial
0:53:00 > 0:53:03to the fallen of two world wars,
0:53:03 > 0:53:05reached monumental proportions.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08I met a man who said he was a World War II veteran.
0:53:08 > 0:53:09He pressed the wreath into my hands,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12begging me to place it under the plaque to his fallen comrades.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15This, I did. Shortly afterwards, the memorial exploded.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17I had nothing whatever to do with the outrage.
0:53:17 > 0:53:23Never in the whole of my life have I heard anything so lame and stupid!
0:53:23 > 0:53:27I won't waste more time discussing your conduct!
0:53:27 > 0:53:29I'll come straight to the point.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33At 4:00am this morning, my own niece, Rowena Torrance,
0:53:33 > 0:53:37was seen to enter your room in an advanced state of nudity.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41What excuse had she for being with you at that hour?
0:53:41 > 0:53:44She'd come to...borrow a cup of sugar.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46She's on a diet!
0:53:46 > 0:53:49- I didn't give into her demands. - Was she provocative?
0:53:49 > 0:53:51Nobody's provocative at four in the morning.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54It wasn't me who let your niece into the room.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57That isn't true. I saw the incident with my own eyes.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00Do you confirm that, Superintendent?
0:54:00 > 0:54:02I handed you the binoculars myself.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05And you left the blind up, as well, McTurk.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10The last indulgence of a sensualist.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16Hm! My niece, upon careful scrutiny,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19appears to be as much in need of repair
0:54:19 > 0:54:21as the memorial to the fallen.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23For your outrage upon the living
0:54:23 > 0:54:25and your friend's outrage upon the dead,
0:54:25 > 0:54:29the city fathers have decided to expel you both from this fair city.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33Can't I see Rowena to say farewell? I-I love her very much!
0:54:33 > 0:54:35It seems a pity not to return a cup of sugar.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41He didn't take the commission that seriously.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45He sort of... He just tossed, no pun intended, he tossed it off.
0:54:45 > 0:54:46He wanted to put The Beatles
0:54:46 > 0:54:50in a lot of compromising sexual positions, you know,
0:54:50 > 0:54:54and I think that was the thing that actually got the script killed.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57That's a Dionysian impulse.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04This is the spirit of a great comic writer.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08It's infantile, it's crazed, it's vindictive.
0:55:08 > 0:55:14His ambition here is to drive an audience crazy.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19Joe did push the boundaries of what was considered acceptable.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21I mean, even today I have at home
0:55:21 > 0:55:27some really outrageous, still unpublished stuff.
0:55:27 > 0:55:32It shows that Joe always wants to be really provocative.
0:55:32 > 0:55:33He really wants to shock you.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36It does shock you, but it's still funny.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39I'd been asked to do a sketch to do with sex for a review that's
0:55:39 > 0:55:40being put on.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42Kenneth Tynan is involved.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46He said there was going to be no phoney artistic shit.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48Since the review is called Oh! Calcutta!,
0:55:48 > 0:55:50it begins with an artistic title.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53I wasn't going to put myself out, but then
0:55:53 > 0:55:58I found an old pornographic sketch I wrote long before Sloane or Ruffian.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01I typed it up, reworked some of the pornographic elements
0:56:01 > 0:56:03and posted it off.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06They can have the sketch...if they dare to do it.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11SHE SIGHS
0:56:11 > 0:56:12I can't get it enough.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17Poor Auntie. Your old hole is never satisfied.
0:56:17 > 0:56:18How can it be?
0:56:18 > 0:56:22I haven't had anyone interfere with me since I was two...
0:56:22 > 0:56:26Except my old English sheepdog and you occasionally.
0:56:26 > 0:56:27Oh, never mind, dear.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29Charles has promised to bring a friend over
0:56:29 > 0:56:30to poke you one of these days.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33I know, dear, but Charles has promised to bring this
0:56:33 > 0:56:36hypothetical friend for so long, but he always disappoints me.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40Have you tried a rolled up copy of a Lady's Friend?
0:56:40 > 0:56:42I've tried everything from the London Illustrated News
0:56:42 > 0:56:44to Peg's Paper.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48None of them has the correct...pliancy and...verve.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51Well, of course, you could always borrow Charles.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53- DOOR OPENS - Oh, shush! Here he is now.- Hello.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56Hello, Eliza. Oh, I feel shagged out.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58We were just talking about you.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Couldn't we have it in less, Laura?
0:57:01 > 0:57:03My balls feel as though they're made of cotton wool.
0:57:03 > 0:57:04SHE SIGHS
0:57:04 > 0:57:06What on earth is the matter with you, Eliza?
0:57:06 > 0:57:07Laura hoped that you might have
0:57:07 > 0:57:09managed to give it to me for a change.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12You see, poor Auntie hasn't had good shag since she was two.
0:57:13 > 0:57:14When would you like it?
0:57:14 > 0:57:17Well, now please, if you could manage.
0:57:17 > 0:57:18My dear, if only I could.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22But you see, Laura gave me one of her vacuum sessions.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24The end of the vacuum cleaner is fitted over the end of...
0:57:24 > 0:57:26Stop!
0:57:26 > 0:57:29If only I had a prick, instead of this smelly, old hole,
0:57:29 > 0:57:31I could have such a time.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34Ugh! I am frustrated, I have been for years.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37Don't talk to me about frustration.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39When I was little, I used to hang around outside
0:57:39 > 0:57:42the headmaster's study in the hope of getting a good thrashing.
0:57:44 > 0:57:46Other boys used to be caned, whipped.
0:57:48 > 0:57:50- I got nothing. - How humiliating for you.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54HE GROWLS
0:57:54 > 0:57:55Ohhh!
0:57:57 > 0:57:59I say, Eliza, you're in luck.
0:57:59 > 0:58:00Charlie!
0:58:00 > 0:58:02I knew, if you went on discussing school
0:58:02 > 0:58:06and flagellation, you'd get yourself worked up into such a state.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08Stand by the day bed, Eliza!
0:58:08 > 0:58:10I shall make a charge at you!
0:58:10 > 0:58:12Just lift your dress higher!
0:58:15 > 0:58:16MUSIC STARTS
0:58:16 > 0:58:17Oh, God!
0:58:17 > 0:58:20LOUD MOANING
0:58:20 > 0:58:21Oh, Auntie, I must see!
0:58:24 > 0:58:25MOANING AND SCREAMING
0:58:25 > 0:58:27MUSIC STOPS
0:58:30 > 0:58:32Thank you, Charlie, dear.
0:58:32 > 0:58:34I didn't cum, Eliza.
0:58:34 > 0:58:36I couldn't manage it, so I just peed up you.
0:58:36 > 0:58:39Well, whatever you did, Charles, it was very nice.
0:58:45 > 0:58:47Whatever is the matter with you, Laura?
0:58:47 > 0:58:50While you were diddling Auntie, I got carried away with
0:58:50 > 0:58:51several reels of embroidery cotton.
0:58:51 > 0:58:53I'm afraid the lime green and vermilion
0:58:53 > 0:58:55are still wedged in my maze.
0:58:55 > 0:58:58Oh, really, Laura, how inconsiderate of you!
0:58:58 > 0:59:00I need the lime green for my table runner.
0:59:03 > 0:59:07Joe enjoyed his sex, I think. Yes, he did.
0:59:07 > 0:59:12When I first read Joe's diaries,
0:59:12 > 0:59:14I was shocked...
0:59:15 > 0:59:17..by...
0:59:18 > 0:59:22..the...the revelation...
0:59:22 > 0:59:26of him going to public lavatories
0:59:26 > 0:59:29and parading himself and...
0:59:31 > 0:59:33..wanting to...
0:59:33 > 0:59:36I don't know, use the rough trade for sex.
0:59:36 > 0:59:39On the way home, I met an ugly Scotsman who said
0:59:39 > 0:59:40he liked being fucked.
0:59:40 > 0:59:42I fucked him against a wall.
0:59:42 > 0:59:45The sleeve of my rain mac is covered in white wash from the wall.
0:59:45 > 0:59:46It won't come off.
0:59:48 > 0:59:49I hate Christmas.
0:59:50 > 0:59:56Joe was having such success alone
0:59:56 > 0:59:58that he was...
0:59:58 > 1:00:05beginning to realise that that is perhaps where the future lay.
1:00:05 > 1:00:08And...things that were happening to him,
1:00:08 > 1:00:13like meeting Paul McCartney and things like that, he didn't
1:00:13 > 1:00:16go home to Kenneth, he came straight to the theatre to tell me
1:00:16 > 1:00:20and Simon Ward and, of course, we loved hearing these stories.
1:00:21 > 1:00:25Kenneth was moving further and further away.
1:00:25 > 1:00:31And Kenneth, when he felt threatened by whoever it was,
1:00:31 > 1:00:34he would actually kick up.
1:00:34 > 1:00:37They would go to Morocco and there was quite a long tradition
1:00:37 > 1:00:41of it, almost, that there was some sort of sexual freedom there.
1:00:43 > 1:00:46When they were in Morocco, they seemed very happy together.
1:00:46 > 1:00:50I think that that was their new life.
1:00:50 > 1:00:56I remember I got a card from Kenneth and Joe when they were in Tangier,
1:00:56 > 1:01:01which had a lot of Moroccan boys with snakes curling round them,
1:01:01 > 1:01:03and the message was,
1:01:03 > 1:01:09"The snakes are real. The boys are stuffed. Love, Joe and Ken."
1:01:09 > 1:01:12So they obviously saw eye to eye on that sort of thing.
1:01:12 > 1:01:15They were more relaxed.
1:01:15 > 1:01:19There wasn't a tension of him, or rather Joe,
1:01:19 > 1:01:23going off and seeing all these - inverted commas -
1:01:23 > 1:01:25"important people".
1:01:31 > 1:01:34Just after these were taken, I lay naked on the terrace
1:01:34 > 1:01:37trying to get my back and buttocks a decent colour.
1:01:37 > 1:01:38I burned my bum a bit.
1:01:39 > 1:01:42I took a shower and then Nasim arrived.
1:01:42 > 1:01:44We had a long sex session.
1:01:45 > 1:01:48I'd frequently given my best sexual performance with people
1:01:48 > 1:01:51I didn't love, in fact, rather despised.
1:01:51 > 1:01:54I fucked the arses off ageing queens,
1:01:54 > 1:01:57but found a beautiful, young boy too difficult to cum...
1:01:57 > 1:01:59because I loved him too much.
1:02:00 > 1:02:03After a lunch of hard-boiled eggs and cold potatoes,
1:02:03 > 1:02:05I got down to work.
1:02:05 > 1:02:07Larbe arrived and, after lemon tea,
1:02:07 > 1:02:09he disappeared into the bedroom with Kenneth.
1:02:11 > 1:02:16So Halliwell can be happier in that climate, where he's not
1:02:16 > 1:02:20humiliated and internally reminded of his failure.
1:02:20 > 1:02:23Kenneth and I sat talking of how happy we both felt
1:02:23 > 1:02:25and how surely it couldn't last.
1:02:26 > 1:02:30We'd have to pay for it or be struck down from a fire by disaster.
1:02:31 > 1:02:35To be young, good-looking, healthy, famous, comparatively rich
1:02:35 > 1:02:38and happy is surely going against nature.
1:02:41 > 1:02:44The minute they set foot in London,
1:02:44 > 1:02:47Halliwell is the factotum,
1:02:47 > 1:02:51if anything, and Orton is the man.
1:02:51 > 1:02:57Everybody in, it seems, in the theatre world
1:02:57 > 1:03:01wanted Joe and nobody wanted to meet Kenneth Halliwell.
1:03:06 > 1:03:13Peter Willes actually referred to Kenneth Halliwell as being like
1:03:13 > 1:03:18a writer's wife, and he'd had all these problems with writers' wives,
1:03:18 > 1:03:23and I think he thought that Kenneth now was holding Joe back.
1:03:23 > 1:03:28I was taken by Joe to a party in the Pall Mall area
1:03:28 > 1:03:31in a very grand room.
1:03:31 > 1:03:36Peter Willes used to like to mix his connections with aristocracy
1:03:36 > 1:03:41with the theatrical avant-garde, he quite liked that frisson.
1:03:41 > 1:03:44And Harold Pinter was very at ease there
1:03:44 > 1:03:47and Joe was rather taken with it all, too.
1:03:47 > 1:03:51Kenneth writes on the wall when Joe comes home,
1:03:51 > 1:03:54"Joe Orton is a spineless twat."
1:03:56 > 1:04:02I'm not sure how much of that sort of abuse a partner can take.
1:04:04 > 1:04:07Kenneth is suffering from tightness in the chest.
1:04:07 > 1:04:10Today's argument went on for the best part of the morning.
1:04:10 > 1:04:12He suddenly shouted,
1:04:12 > 1:04:16"I hope I die of heart disease. I'd like to see how you manage then.
1:04:16 > 1:04:20"When I'm not around, you won't be able to write in this flip way."
1:04:20 > 1:04:23The inference that I don't know how cruel and senseless life is hurt me.
1:04:25 > 1:04:29"I won't have you monopolising the agony market!" I shouted in a fury.
1:04:31 > 1:04:35I think it's bad that we live in each other's pockets 24 hours a day,
1:04:35 > 1:04:36365 days a year.
1:04:38 > 1:04:42Clearly, Kenneth had mental health problems.
1:04:42 > 1:04:46Kenneth was seeking psychiatric help.
1:04:47 > 1:04:54I believe that that's where the plot
1:04:54 > 1:04:58for What The Butler Saw came from
1:04:58 > 1:05:03because it's set in a psychiatrist's private clinic.
1:05:03 > 1:05:11He must have been retelling Joe about what was happening
1:05:11 > 1:05:13in this psychiatrist's chair.
1:05:13 > 1:05:15Madness is the order of the day.
1:05:15 > 1:05:19What The Butler Saw is his masterpiece.
1:05:19 > 1:05:20There's something healing about it.
1:05:20 > 1:05:25It's just so bold and nobody remotely came close to that
1:05:25 > 1:05:28in English or Western theatre.
1:05:28 > 1:05:30It's just... He's way out there.
1:05:30 > 1:05:33Orton makes the genre of farce,
1:05:33 > 1:05:38makes it a metaphor for a psychotic breakdown.
1:05:38 > 1:05:45The psychiatrist and the inspector of psychiatry, Dr Rance,
1:05:45 > 1:05:47are both clearly off their heads.
1:05:49 > 1:05:51Good morning, are you Dr Prentice?
1:05:51 > 1:05:53Yes, have you an appointment?
1:05:53 > 1:05:55No, I never make appointments.
1:05:55 > 1:05:58I'd like to be given details of your clinic.
1:05:58 > 1:06:02You specialise in the complete breakdown and its by-products?
1:06:02 > 1:06:04Yes, but it's highly confidential.
1:06:04 > 1:06:06My files are never open to strangers.
1:06:06 > 1:06:08You may speak freely in front of me.
1:06:08 > 1:06:10I represent Her Majesty's Government,
1:06:10 > 1:06:13your immediate superiors in madness.
1:06:13 > 1:06:16I'm from the commissioners.
1:06:16 > 1:06:18- Which branch?- The mental branch.
1:06:18 > 1:06:21Do you cover asylums proper or just houses of tentative madness?
1:06:21 > 1:06:23My brief is infinite.
1:06:23 > 1:06:25I'd have sway over a rabbit hutch
1:06:25 > 1:06:27if the inmates were mentally disturbed.
1:06:27 > 1:06:30You're obviously a force to be reckoned with.
1:06:30 > 1:06:34I hope our relationship will be a pleasant one.
1:06:34 > 1:06:36Why are there so many doors?
1:06:36 > 1:06:38Was the house designed by a lunatic?
1:06:38 > 1:06:41Yes. We have him here as a patient from time to time.
1:06:41 > 1:06:45Is your couch regulation size? It looks big enough for two.
1:06:45 > 1:06:47I do double consultations.
1:06:47 > 1:06:49Toddlers are often terrified of a doctor,
1:06:49 > 1:06:51so I've taken to examining their mothers at the same time.
1:06:51 > 1:06:54Has the theory received much publicity?
1:06:54 > 1:06:56I don't approve of scientists that publicise their theories.
1:06:56 > 1:06:58I must say I agree with you.
1:06:58 > 1:07:02I wish more scientists would keep their ideas to themselves.
1:07:02 > 1:07:05Is this something to do with you, Prentice?
1:07:05 > 1:07:07It's a prescription, sir.
1:07:07 > 1:07:10"Keep your head down and don't make a sound."
1:07:10 > 1:07:14Do you find your patients react favourably to such treatment?
1:07:14 > 1:07:16I can claim to have had some success with it.
1:07:16 > 1:07:19Your ideas are, I think, in advance of the times.
1:07:21 > 1:07:22WOMAN MOANS
1:07:24 > 1:07:26There's a naked woman behind there.
1:07:29 > 1:07:33People are being punished by the velocity of farce.
1:07:33 > 1:07:36In other words, at a certain speed, all things disintegrate.
1:07:36 > 1:07:41I think it does coincide with the fact
1:07:41 > 1:07:45that Kenneth is having psychiatric treatment.
1:07:49 > 1:07:51Went to Peter Willes' for dinner.
1:07:52 > 1:07:55When we got there, he stared at Kenneth in horror.
1:07:55 > 1:07:58"That's an old Etonian tie", he screeched.
1:07:58 > 1:07:59"Yes," said Kenneth, "it's a joke".
1:08:01 > 1:08:03Willes wrinkled up his face in an evil sort of way,
1:08:03 > 1:08:06"Well, I'm afraid it's a joke against you, then.
1:08:06 > 1:08:09"People will imagine you're passing yourself off as an old Etonian.
1:08:09 > 1:08:11"It will make them angry."
1:08:12 > 1:08:15"I don't care," Kenneth said, laughing a little too readily,
1:08:15 > 1:08:16"I want to make them angry."
1:08:17 > 1:08:20"But why?" Willes said. "People dislike you enough already.
1:08:20 > 1:08:22"I mean, it's permissible as a foible of youth,
1:08:22 > 1:08:25"but you, a middle-aged nonentity, it's sad and pathetic."
1:08:27 > 1:08:32After an uneasy silence, a sort of rapprochement was restored.
1:08:32 > 1:08:35The conversation drifted on in a desultory way
1:08:35 > 1:08:37until Kenneth exploded.
1:08:38 > 1:08:42"All you people that are mad on Joe really have no idea what he's like."
1:08:42 > 1:08:44Willes paled.
1:08:44 > 1:08:47"I'm not mad on Joe. Whatever do you mean?"
1:08:50 > 1:08:55I think he wanted Joe to himself, not necessarily sexually,
1:08:55 > 1:08:57but Joe was a great prize
1:08:57 > 1:09:03and because Joe was particularly involved in breaking the bounds
1:09:03 > 1:09:08of sexual freedom, whatever, and Peter Willes was thrilled by this.
1:09:09 > 1:09:11Took a walk.
1:09:11 > 1:09:13Nobody to pick up, only a lot of disgusting old men.
1:09:15 > 1:09:17I shall be a disgusting old man myself one day,
1:09:17 > 1:09:18I thought, mournfully.
1:09:20 > 1:09:22Only I have high hopes of dying in my prime.
1:09:29 > 1:09:36The last time I saw Joe was when he came to Leicester, August 1st.
1:09:36 > 1:09:40I pushed my new baby in a pram
1:09:40 > 1:09:44and he said, "Oh, I'll push the pram."
1:09:44 > 1:09:46And then I left to go home
1:09:46 > 1:09:53and he kissed me and he said, "Keep writing to me.
1:09:54 > 1:09:58"If you write to me, I'll always answer your letters."
1:10:00 > 1:10:03And then he was gone, and I never saw him again.
1:10:20 > 1:10:22My brother says,
1:10:22 > 1:10:24"I've got to go down and I've got to identify the body."
1:10:27 > 1:10:29And then when he came back, he said,
1:10:29 > 1:10:31"It's Ken, you know, he's done him in".
1:10:35 > 1:10:37I said, "What was the flat like?"
1:10:37 > 1:10:42He went, "Oh, it was awful," he said, "it was like somebody
1:10:42 > 1:10:46"had just thrown a tin of red paint all over the walls."
1:10:49 > 1:10:54Kenneth's just gone mad, just hit him with a hammer.
1:10:54 > 1:10:56Just kept hitting him with a hammer.
1:11:00 > 1:11:06We actually found out about the murder of Joe
1:11:06 > 1:11:08in the newspaper,
1:11:08 > 1:11:12and we had to go in and do the play that night.
1:11:12 > 1:11:15It was standing room only, it was packed.
1:11:15 > 1:11:17We were running around with the body
1:11:17 > 1:11:21and suddenly the lines all started to have different meanings.
1:11:22 > 1:11:26And you heard them for the first time, these lines of dialogue,
1:11:26 > 1:11:28which you hadn't noticed before.
1:11:28 > 1:11:33They suddenly resonated in a different way.
1:11:33 > 1:11:36And Kenneth's suicide note says,
1:11:36 > 1:11:39"If you read his diary, all will be explained."
1:11:39 > 1:11:44And then there's a PS that says, "Especially the latter part."
1:11:44 > 1:11:47And the latter part is clearly missing.
1:11:47 > 1:11:52The diary ends on August the 1st
1:11:52 > 1:11:55and Joe was killed on August the 9th.
1:11:56 > 1:12:00And also, it ends in mid-sentence.
1:12:00 > 1:12:04There was missing pages, clearly there was missing pages.
1:12:04 > 1:12:07What happened to them is a mystery.
1:12:08 > 1:12:12I spoke to Peggy very soon after she'd had to go
1:12:12 > 1:12:18and identify the bodies, or Kenneth's body.
1:12:18 > 1:12:21She said to me, "I don't want to talk about it, darling.
1:12:21 > 1:12:24"All I can tell you is that there was blood on the ceiling."
1:12:24 > 1:12:31However, she had the presence of mind to slip Joe's diaries
1:12:31 > 1:12:35into her capacious handbag, under the noses of the officials
1:12:35 > 1:12:39that had taken her to the scene of the crime.
1:12:39 > 1:12:44I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what happened to the
1:12:44 > 1:12:49missing pages - who had them? Were they destroyed by Peggy?
1:12:49 > 1:12:52But I've come to believe that it may be that the
1:12:52 > 1:12:59diaries are the things, the object themselves, that were the issue.
1:12:59 > 1:13:04Orton wrote these diaries at a desk that was unlocked.
1:13:05 > 1:13:11The diaries were there clearly for Halliwell to read.
1:13:11 > 1:13:15I think the diaries were meant, strategically,
1:13:15 > 1:13:20to help Orton leave Halliwell.
1:13:20 > 1:13:22You could say it was an act of moral cowardice.
1:13:25 > 1:13:28"Dear Peggy, the journal, this must be guarded.
1:13:28 > 1:13:30"As he was writing it, on your advice,
1:13:30 > 1:13:34"so as pray God you are literary executer, this will be protected.
1:13:34 > 1:13:35"My love, Peter."
1:13:38 > 1:13:40Certainly I think that Peter Willes
1:13:40 > 1:13:43almost single-handedly brought about the murder.
1:13:46 > 1:13:49I would nominate Peter Willes as murderer number one
1:13:49 > 1:13:54because he made no hiding of his contempt for Ken...
1:13:56 > 1:13:57..and his exclusion of Ken.
1:14:00 > 1:14:03I know that Willes, sort of, was aware...
1:14:05 > 1:14:09..that Kenneth was ill.
1:14:09 > 1:14:10Mentally ill.
1:14:10 > 1:14:15Peter Willes was attacking Halliwell
1:14:15 > 1:14:19almost on a regular basis.
1:14:19 > 1:14:25I mean, there was a real undermining of Kenneth Halliwell.
1:14:25 > 1:14:27And he referred him to his doctor,
1:14:27 > 1:14:32a psychiatrist called Dr Ismay,
1:14:32 > 1:14:37and Ismay said that he was in a psychotic state
1:14:37 > 1:14:41and he was a complete, utter mess, really.
1:14:41 > 1:14:48Ismay was more than likely relaying to Peter Willes
1:14:48 > 1:14:52what was happening with Kenneth Halliwell.
1:14:52 > 1:14:54Peter Willes, I've known him for a long time
1:14:54 > 1:14:59and anybody he sends me, I tend to bend over backwards.
1:14:59 > 1:15:01Halliwell, yes, he was unable...
1:15:01 > 1:15:03He wasn't functioning.
1:15:03 > 1:15:05He was in a deep depression,
1:15:05 > 1:15:11serious enough to consider admission to hospital, and I may have
1:15:11 > 1:15:17interpreted that way because of what Peter Willes told me.
1:15:17 > 1:15:20I think there was something Machiavellian going on
1:15:20 > 1:15:23with this doctor.
1:15:23 > 1:15:27I think Peter Willes is a nasty piece of work.
1:15:28 > 1:15:32I thought he was suicidal, but I never thought he was homicidal,
1:15:32 > 1:15:34so can you imagine the shock?
1:15:35 > 1:15:39I felt, in a sense, responsible, although I wasn't,
1:15:39 > 1:15:44but no idea that it would end in such a horrific murder.
1:15:45 > 1:15:47Gruesome.
1:15:47 > 1:15:52In the last two days of his life,
1:15:52 > 1:15:56there are a series of events...
1:15:58 > 1:16:00..affecting Halliwell.
1:16:00 > 1:16:05He was about to be sectioned the following day.
1:16:05 > 1:16:09Because when I described to the psychiatrist on the phone
1:16:09 > 1:16:13about this man, Halliwell, he thought
1:16:13 > 1:16:19he sounded seriously ill enough to warrant immediate admission.
1:16:19 > 1:16:23I spoke to Halliwell that night three times on the telephone
1:16:23 > 1:16:27to find out how he was, it might have been,
1:16:27 > 1:16:31and then setting up the arrangement and then letting him know,
1:16:31 > 1:16:35and then he phoning me back wanting to cancel it.
1:16:35 > 1:16:39Him realising that he was going
1:16:39 > 1:16:45to be separated permanently from Joe
1:16:45 > 1:16:50and that sent him...
1:16:51 > 1:16:53..just...
1:16:53 > 1:16:58It was, if you like, the straw that broke the camel's back.
1:16:58 > 1:17:03Orton was called by someone inviting him to a party,
1:17:03 > 1:17:06but it was not Orton who answered the phone,
1:17:06 > 1:17:09but Halliwell impersonating Orton.
1:17:09 > 1:17:11And the man at the other end said,
1:17:11 > 1:17:17"Whatever you do, Joe, don't bring Halliwell."
1:17:17 > 1:17:20He learned that Orton had betrayed him
1:17:20 > 1:17:26and had not invited him to this party.
1:17:26 > 1:17:32The humiliation was double that now Joe even was, on some level,
1:17:32 > 1:17:34ashamed of him.
1:17:34 > 1:17:37He was at a knife edge.
1:17:37 > 1:17:42And although he called Dr Ismay back
1:17:42 > 1:17:47and said that the pills that he'd been given were working
1:17:47 > 1:17:52and he felt calmer, perhaps in that calm state
1:17:52 > 1:17:58allowed him to, sort of, decide to murder Orton.
1:18:11 > 1:18:13Hilarium Memoriam Joe Orton,
1:18:13 > 1:18:18written and read at my funeral by Donald Pleasence, the famous actor.
1:18:20 > 1:18:24Some met together when he died, not in the name of any god,
1:18:24 > 1:18:28but in his name, whom they lost to the coffin.
1:18:28 > 1:18:30The box which brought him endless mirth.
1:18:32 > 1:18:34The lesson which he could not read again.
1:18:35 > 1:18:37Hilarity in death.