0:00:02 > 0:00:10This programme contains some strong language
0:00:12 > 0:00:16Scarborough, a seaside town on England's Yorkshire coast,
0:00:16 > 0:00:19and Britain's very first holiday resort.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Families and fun-seekers have been drawn to its shores
0:00:24 > 0:00:26since the early 1600s,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29coming to bathe in its wide sandy beaches,
0:00:29 > 0:00:32and enjoy its traditional seaside entertainment.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38But that's not really why I'm here.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Do you know what's it like, Dennis, to feel undesirable?
0:00:45 > 0:00:47No, no, I can't say I do.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53- Norman, not that!- Why not?- Norman! - Because it's wrong.- Wrong?
0:00:53 > 0:00:58Is it wrong to sit between my old pal Reg and this dwarf on my left?
0:00:58 > 0:01:01- Hello, little chap.- Hello.- Norman!
0:01:01 > 0:01:04They've been wrong, telling me to marry Paul and have babies,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08if they're not even going to let you keep them.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10And I should have joined the Mounted Police.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12That's what I should have done.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17I should have joined the Mounted Police.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21TEARFULLY: I want to join the Mounted Police!
0:01:21 > 0:01:25- Please!- I'll get Paul. - What's the matter with her?
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Paul! >
0:01:27 > 0:01:29SHE SCREAMS
0:01:32 > 0:01:35- What's the matter with her? - You'll have to get a doctor.
0:01:35 > 0:01:41Dance, dance, dance. Come on, keep the feet moving, otherwise we never know when you've stopped. Stop!
0:01:41 > 0:01:43- It's much wrong again.- Wrong again!
0:01:43 > 0:01:48I've come to Scarborough because it's the home of Sir Alan Ayckbourn -
0:01:48 > 0:01:50the world's most successful playwright.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26When I came up here, Alan, I came up a road called Paradise Road,
0:02:26 > 0:02:30and as I came to the top of Paradise Road, I thought to myself,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34"You know, I can see why it's called Paradise Road."
0:02:34 > 0:02:39Because it was this beautiful vision of the sea at the top of the road.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Yes, we're in the old town, right bang in the middle of it.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45It's really the most interesting part of Scarborough.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48It's steeped in history, the whole place is wonderful.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52And when you first came here, what drew you here?
0:02:52 > 0:02:54This was, what, in the '50s you came here?
0:02:54 > 0:02:58I was looking for a job, quite honestly. I was a young...
0:02:58 > 0:03:01aspiring actor -
0:03:01 > 0:03:05then an acting ASM working in places like Leatherhead
0:03:05 > 0:03:08and Oxford Playhouse.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12But I was a Londoner and was very ignorant of things north.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16And then somebody, as they do in the end of a season,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20I think it was in Leatherhead, said, "Anyone fancy a job in Scarborough?"
0:03:20 > 0:03:22And I said, "Where the hell is Scarborough?"
0:03:25 > 0:03:27They said, "Oh, it's somewhere up there.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30"You go up to York and then turn right."
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Alan Ayckbourn was born in London in 1939.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44His father Horace was lead violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra,
0:03:44 > 0:03:47while his mother, Irene Worley,
0:03:47 > 0:03:52was a writer of short stories, better known as the novelist Mary James,
0:03:52 > 0:03:54or, to her close family, as Lolly.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58I don't know if it's true or not true,
0:03:58 > 0:04:04but you were quite possibly conceived at Glyndebourne one afternoon
0:04:04 > 0:04:09when your father Horace, who was a violinist with the LSO,
0:04:09 > 0:04:11was performing at Glyndebourne.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Your mother might have taken to sex in the afternoon and here you are.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18That's a nice story. I wasn't there...
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Well, I was around at the time but I can't vouch for it.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24My mother was a ferocious...
0:04:24 > 0:04:28She was a writer, so she made up awful stories.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33But I'm sure that one was true. It's a nice way to be conceived, isn't it? At Glyndebourne.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38I couldn't think of anything nicer. But your mother...
0:04:38 > 0:04:41The story of your mother is absolutely captivating.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45You thought she was married to your father but you then discovered
0:04:45 > 0:04:47that she wasn't actually married to Horace.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51Yeah, I said, "Hey, folks, I'm illegitimate." And that's terrific.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54- How romantic.- It's quite a thing, when you probably discovered that.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57When did you discover that? In the late '50s?
0:04:57 > 0:05:00- Oh, no, much later than that. '70s, I think.- Wow.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04- So you didn't realise?- I was old enough to find it quite romantic.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08I think it would have been quite traumatic if I'd only been 10 or 11.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13In fact, one day we were on a bus and I met...
0:05:13 > 0:05:16this extraordinary man in a beret.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18He said, "Oh, hello, Boo."
0:05:18 > 0:05:21I thought, "Who the hell's Boo?" And it turned out to be my mother.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24He said, "Hello, darling, I haven't seen you for ages."
0:05:24 > 0:05:28And he gave her a kiss and chat, chat, chat. I said, "Who was that?"
0:05:28 > 0:05:29She said, "Oh, that's my ex-husband."
0:05:31 > 0:05:36I said, "Really?" He turned out to be her current husband, actually.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39Very jolly little man. I've never seen him again.
0:05:39 > 0:05:44So he might well be my father, I don't know.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49The romance between Horace and Lolly didn't last,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51and Ayckbourn's parents separated.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53Alan remained with his mother.
0:05:55 > 0:05:56As a child, how...?
0:05:56 > 0:05:59I mean, here you are, your father Horace and your mother have split.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Why did they split?
0:06:02 > 0:06:06I think he was a serial romancer, my daddy, quite honestly.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11And he was sitting in the front row of the fiddle section of the LSO
0:06:11 > 0:06:14and every now and then, he cast a look behind him
0:06:14 > 0:06:18and there was another lovely, young, new violinist.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21He'd say, "Hi what are you doing after the concert?"
0:06:21 > 0:06:23If Mum wasn't in the audience.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28I think that's probably how he met Daphne, his new wife.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32And...
0:06:32 > 0:06:35I asked my mum once why they split up.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37She said, "I'd just had enough of it.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40"I had all these women ringing up, saying...
0:06:40 > 0:06:43TEARFULLY: "I love him. I love him. He's the most beautiful man..."
0:06:43 > 0:06:46She'd go, "Yeah, yeah, you should try living with him."
0:06:46 > 0:06:49And then the 45th one rang up and said, "I love him,"
0:06:49 > 0:06:52and she thought, "No, this one's a sticker."
0:06:52 > 0:06:55And so she said, "OK, you can have him."
0:06:55 > 0:06:59I think she'd just had enough, really. But he was a charmer.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Your mother was extraordinary.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09Not only did she have her own typewriter and typing away,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12writing her stories for magazines, and her short stories,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16but she bought you a typewriter at the age of six.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20So do I take it that you would both be sitting in the kitchen writing away together?
0:07:20 > 0:07:22I can remember...
0:07:22 > 0:07:25You know how those little flashes of childhood come back to you.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28I have a vivid one of me sitting under...
0:07:28 > 0:07:31well, at table-leg height,
0:07:31 > 0:07:36getting covered in this terrible violet blue ink
0:07:36 > 0:07:40that the typewriter gave me.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44And she was thundering away at 120 words per minute.
0:07:44 > 0:07:45Rat-a-tat-tah.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48I just sat there and watched my mum.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53And she dragged me along with her to places like the Women's Press Club,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56which is the most terrifying thing for a male to be in.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58Men weren't allowed in!
0:07:58 > 0:08:02But because I was not really a male, but a very small male,
0:08:02 > 0:08:08I would sit amongst these very, very strong-minded, strong-voiced,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12heavily made-up ladies of the press.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17Quite fearsome, most of them. Quite scary.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21And I sat there... I remember being in hairdressers
0:08:21 > 0:08:25and all sorts of strange places, editor's offices,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29and incredibly glamorous women floated in and out.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32- Wow.- So these strong-minded women, of course,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35are one of the features of your plays, which, I think,
0:08:35 > 0:08:40in its own way, it was rather revolutionary at the time to see
0:08:40 > 0:08:42ordinary middle-class women,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45suddenly to see them in all their strength and personality,
0:08:45 > 0:08:50and, obviously, one begins to understand why, given that
0:08:50 > 0:08:55you had this sort of domination of a woman in your life
0:08:55 > 0:08:57who introduced you to this world.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00Yes. I mean, she...
0:09:00 > 0:09:06I always think I was privileged to have what few men get the chance of -
0:09:06 > 0:09:11maybe a lot of them don't want it -
0:09:11 > 0:09:14but sitting listening to women talking to each other,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16woman to woman.
0:09:16 > 0:09:22And with the small child open tape-recorder going,
0:09:22 > 0:09:27who is completely invisible to them or forgotten about.
0:09:27 > 0:09:33And it came back a few years... several years later,
0:09:33 > 0:09:36women come up and say, "How do you know that?
0:09:36 > 0:09:39"How do you know that's what we talk about?"
0:09:40 > 0:09:43# I'm going to love you
0:09:43 > 0:09:46# Like nobody's loved you
0:09:46 > 0:09:52# Come rain or come shine
0:09:52 > 0:09:55# High as a mountain
0:09:55 > 0:09:59# And deep as a river
0:09:59 > 0:10:05# Come rain or come shine
0:10:05 > 0:10:10# I guess when you met me
0:10:10 > 0:10:14# It was just one of those... #
0:10:14 > 0:10:18- Have you got him to sleep?- Yes.- Aw.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22They look so lovely like that, don't they? Like little cherubs.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Yes, well, I'm really glad you could come this afternoon.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Colin really will appreciate that.
0:10:30 > 0:10:31Seeing us all.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48What I'm saying is, really, I wouldn't blame him...
0:10:48 > 0:10:51not altogether...if he did...
0:10:51 > 0:10:54with someone else, you know, another woman.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Wouldn't blame him, wouldn't blame her. Not as long as I was told.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Providing I know, that I'm told, all right.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05Providing I feel able to say to people,
0:11:05 > 0:11:10"Yes, I am well aware that my husband is having an affair with such-and-such or whoever,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13"that's quite all right, I know all about it.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16"We're both grown-up people, we know what we're doing.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20"He knows I know, she knows I know. So mind your own business."
0:11:20 > 0:11:21I'd feel right about it.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25But I will not stand deception.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28I'm simply asking that I be told.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32Not to...necessarily know.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38But sometimes. See?
0:11:38 > 0:11:41After Lolly's marriage broke down, she married again.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45This time, to the local bank manager, Cecil.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49And then Lolly didn't even tell you she was about to get married again?
0:11:49 > 0:11:54There was a letter somewhere from me saying, "Dear, Mummy, I hope you have a nice marriage."
0:11:54 > 0:11:58And she... Yeah.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02I was at boarding school from the age of seven.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Probably to accommodate her life as much as anything.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07So many of these features,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11this sort of rather dysfunctional family life that you had,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15- seem to find their way quite easily into lots of your plays.- Yeah.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19I'm not aware that my feelings towards you have altered that much.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22- What, not at all?- Not that I'm aware of. I still feel the same.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Oh, Gerard, we don't kiss, we hardly touch each other.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30We don't make love, we don't even share the same bed now, we sleep at different ends of the room!
0:12:30 > 0:12:33That's just sex you're talking about, the sexual side.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35- Yes, of course it is.- There's more to it than that, surely?
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Not at the moment there isn't.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41You mean that the sex is the only thing that's mattered to you in our relationship?
0:12:41 > 0:12:45- No, of course not.- Well, that's what you seem to be saying. - What I'm saying is...
0:12:48 > 0:12:50All I'm saying is that once that's gone,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54all that, it becomes important.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56If you hadn't been the son of Lolly,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59would you have written Woman In Mind?
0:12:59 > 0:13:04Well, I was aware that my mother was, at that point, going,
0:13:04 > 0:13:06as it were, slightly round the twist.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11And she was getting increasingly eccentric, even by her standards.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13And then the doctor, banging vaults into her head,
0:13:13 > 0:13:15didn't seem a very good idea.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18Cos it didn't seem to be making her any better.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20That experience stayed with me
0:13:20 > 0:13:25and then I read the remarkable Oliver Sacks book,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32And I realised the potential
0:13:32 > 0:13:35for perceiving things that weren't there,
0:13:35 > 0:13:40or the complex games your brain plays with you.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Squeezy cow, squeezy.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45I have no idea what you're saying.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50- What are you saying? - Sore bite. Sore bite.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52Who are you, anyway?
0:13:53 > 0:13:57- Where am I? - Octabinsa. Climb octabinsa.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00This is sure pardon, choosem.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03Oh, God, I've died.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06- TEARFULLY:- Oh, I'm in hell.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10- I've died and I've gone to hell. - Choosen.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14Oh, why have I gone to hell? Why me?
0:14:15 > 0:14:20- I've tried so terribly hard, too. Oh, terribly hard.- Susan.
0:14:20 > 0:14:25You've no idea how hard I've tried. There must be some mistake.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28- Susan.- Susan.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Yes, that's me. Susan.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33Me, Susan!
0:14:33 > 0:14:36As Alan helped his mother to rebuild her life again
0:14:36 > 0:14:39after the breakdown of yet another marriage,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42he began trying to establish himself as an actor.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46It was while at boarding school that Alan Ayckbourn got his first taste of the theatre.
0:14:46 > 0:14:52Then an old school master, acquainted with the legendary actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit,
0:14:52 > 0:14:54set him up with his first professional audition.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59He was the first professional actor I met up close.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02And I thought they were all like him.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Good morning to the day.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10And of course, he was a complete leftover from another era.
0:15:10 > 0:15:15Oh, Volpone, by blood and rank a gentleman, canst not...
0:15:15 > 0:15:23In meeting Wolfit, I was in direct touch with Irving and Tree and all the way back.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26And here was the last of the great actor-managers.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29Everything he said was law.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Big, big, big. Big face.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Paws the size of potholes.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38..and lame indeed.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41HOWLS
0:15:48 > 0:15:54Full of old Five and Nine, make-up, which he'd never quite removed after generations of...
0:15:54 > 0:15:58So he'd stick his face very close to you and say, "What are you doing?"
0:15:58 > 0:16:01And you'd say, "Just bringing in..."
0:16:01 > 0:16:03And he'd say, "Well, walk properly."
0:16:03 > 0:16:09Anyway, it was encouraging, and, um...I auditioned for the great man.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12Were you any good?
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Well, not that bad. I mean, I lacked an awful lot of technique,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18but what I lacked in technique, I made up for a lot in sincerity.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23And because I knew better than to show my lack of technique,
0:16:23 > 0:16:25I kept very, very still on stage.
0:16:25 > 0:16:31And, um, I got a lot of reviews. "His lizard-like stillness."
0:16:31 > 0:16:34I wanted to be part of the theatre. I wanted to be an actor.
0:16:34 > 0:16:40After his summer season with Wolfit, Ayckbourn went to work at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44From there he moved on to the Thorndike in Leatherhead.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49It was at the end of that season that he heard about a job going in Scarborough.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08I came up on the train and then got picked up in a van and got driven
0:17:08 > 0:17:11over the most fantastic countryside.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15When I arrived, there were several things going for it. First, it was by the seaside,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19which was ace as far as I was concerned, wonderful.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21The second thing was that, um...
0:17:21 > 0:17:26that it was a theatre in the round, which was good news as a stage manager
0:17:26 > 0:17:30because it meant much less heavy humping and moving of scenery.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33So, um, that was good news.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38And third, of course, was it was run by a man called Stephen Joseph, whom I was yet to meet.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43I was employed sight unseen by this extraordinary maverick figure.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48Stephen Joseph was to become Alan Ayckbourn's mentor and inspiration.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52The son of actress Hermione Gingold and publisher Michael Joseph
0:17:52 > 0:17:56was a stage director and a pioneer of theatre in the round.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01It turned out Stephen was a... was a theatre figure
0:18:01 > 0:18:04who did not easily court popularity.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07I mean, he attacked all established forms of theatre,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11which, as a 17-, 18-year-old, I thought was tremendous.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15He arrived here by accident on his motorbike one day
0:18:15 > 0:18:20in pursuit of a space and the chief librarian said, "You can have the first floor."
0:18:20 > 0:18:23I don't think he knew what he was letting himself in for.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Stephen Joseph opened the Library Theatre in Scarborough,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Britain's first professional theatre in the round,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32in 1955.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38So, there was this little makeshift space, with temporary seating,
0:18:38 > 0:18:43and do-it-yourself rostra, which we put up individually.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46And then this little acting area, 22 by 24,
0:18:46 > 0:18:53in which he proceeded to do mostly large, mostly new plays.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Despite London being at the centre of new British drama,
0:18:56 > 0:19:01Ayckbourn was more than happy to remain in Scarborough working with Stephen Joseph.
0:19:01 > 0:19:07In 1959, he made his debut as a writer with a play called The Square Cat,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10written with his then wife, Christine Roland,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13under the pseudonym, Roland Alan.
0:19:13 > 0:19:19The Square Cat came about as a row I had with Stephen because I was appearing in a play
0:19:19 > 0:19:22and I came off complaining about the part and he said,
0:19:22 > 0:19:26"If you can write a better play than this, you're on."
0:19:26 > 0:19:30And I said, "Anyone can write a better play than that. I'm...
0:19:30 > 0:19:31"I'll take you on, mate."
0:19:31 > 0:19:38So the following summer, I presented him with...well, just before that, I presented him with The Square Cat,
0:19:38 > 0:19:43which was...my whole ego was blown to bits
0:19:43 > 0:19:47because I was writing for myself a leading role
0:19:47 > 0:19:50where I displayed talents which I did not have,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53singing, dancing, all smiling.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56And, um...of course...
0:19:56 > 0:20:00- Playing the guitar. - Playing the guitar. - Which you couldn't play.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04I got three lessons from a guy in Trafalgar Row just along the road.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08The Square Cat, written, directed and starring Ayckbourn,
0:20:08 > 0:20:14'was a farcical comedy and proved to be a hit with the Scarborough seaside audiences.'
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Was it because this was a place which expected to be entertained
0:20:18 > 0:20:23that you felt you had to write something which WOULD entertain them, one way or another?
0:20:23 > 0:20:24I think that was always in me.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29I mean, inclement weather was fortunately on our side, I think.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33We all looked out of the window at 12 o'clock on a matinee day and prayed for rain
0:20:33 > 0:20:36because a quick, sharp shower would bring them running in.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38Um, and, um...
0:20:38 > 0:20:43I think, I think...Stephen's idea,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45which was populist,
0:20:45 > 0:20:50really, I mean, he just wanted to widen the barriers - which I carried on with -
0:20:50 > 0:20:54widen the basis for theatre, where...
0:20:54 > 0:20:57There's a terrible feeling in this country, quite often,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00where people feel that theatre is not for them.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04They are born with that feeling and they go on feeling that.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07And, um...one spent one's life trying to say,
0:21:07 > 0:21:14"Well, it is. You watch much more difficult things on television every day of your life,
0:21:14 > 0:21:19"and yet theatre seems to be difficult, it's hard work."
0:21:20 > 0:21:25Ayckbourn continued to write a play each year for the Library Theatre's summer season
0:21:25 > 0:21:28and by 1964, writing under his own name,
0:21:28 > 0:21:33the experimental Mr Whatnot was the first of his plays
0:21:33 > 0:21:35to be staged in the West End.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38And despite a stellar cast, including Ronnie Barker,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41it proved to be a colossal flop.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46Universally sank with all hands on board. It was a terrible disaster.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48And Stephen said,
0:21:48 > 0:21:54"Look, forget Mr Whatnots and things, which are all very experimental for their time,
0:21:54 > 0:22:00"why don't you just try and write a well-made play?" And I went, "Well-made play? Please!
0:22:00 > 0:22:05"I'm a new dramatist. I don't want to write Rattigan or Coward, for goodness sake."
0:22:05 > 0:22:07Heavens! So I...
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Then he persuaded me and I sat down and tried to write a well-made play.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14It nearly worked. Not quite.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17But it sort of...had wheels.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Well, it wheeled to the West End.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24- Yeah.- And it had Richard Briers in it and Celia Johnson.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27- And it was a big hit.- Yeah, yeah.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31So Alan actually chose you to play the part of Greg.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35Greg, that's right, yes. A young man in those days.
0:22:35 > 0:22:41And they said Ayckbourn was coming to the theatre just to see a little run-through early.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46And he appeared, this rather badly-put-together person, and...
0:22:46 > 0:22:52with this one, terrible old suitcase and appeared in the auditorium.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55I said, "Oh, Mr Ayckbourn, nice to see you."
0:22:55 > 0:22:58And I said, "Are you all right?"
0:22:58 > 0:23:02- He said, "I'm staying in digs at the moment."- In digs?- Yes, digs.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07- And I said, "You haven't got much luggage."- He said, "Well, I've only got one suit."
0:23:07 > 0:23:12And I said, "That's dreadful!" And he'd had a tiny flop at the Arts Theatre,
0:23:12 > 0:23:17and this, relatively speaking, was unbelievable success.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21I couldn't believe it, er... when the reviews started coming in
0:23:21 > 0:23:23and the box office started rattling.
0:23:23 > 0:23:29And my bank balance went from alarmingly red to alarmingly black
0:23:29 > 0:23:31in about the space of two weeks.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34And then you got a telegram.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39Yes, from the man whom I'd scorned - Noel Coward.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41And what did it say?
0:23:41 > 0:23:46"Dear Alan Ayckbourn, thank you so much for a beautifully constructed, beautifully written play.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48"Yours sincerely, Noel Coward."
0:23:48 > 0:23:52And I rang Dicky Briers up and said,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55"I got a... Are you winding me up? Someone sent me
0:23:55 > 0:23:58"a telegram from Noel Coward." He said, "No, he was in last night.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01"He said he loved it, old boy."
0:24:01 > 0:24:03And I said, "Did he talk about it?"
0:24:03 > 0:24:06He said, "No, he just said, 'How old is the author?'
0:24:06 > 0:24:08"And I said, 'Well, he's probably 26.'
0:24:08 > 0:24:14"And he went, 'Oh, dear God! How depressing!' and left the room."
0:24:16 > 0:24:18And, um...so that was nice.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21It was a nice moment.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26So there's this play which is phenomenally successful, which puts you on the map,
0:24:26 > 0:24:31but all this in the context of the theatre scene in London changing.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Did you feel slightly isolated in...
0:24:34 > 0:24:36BOTH LAUGH
0:24:36 > 0:24:40I was writing plays with French windows, for God's sake!
0:24:40 > 0:24:44The dramatist with so many people who don't worry about, you know,
0:24:44 > 0:24:48the war in Suez or anything, they just worry about cups of tea.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53So, um...I got a reputation rather rapidly for being...
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Phrases were used like, um...
0:24:56 > 0:25:00dizzy spin-like thistledown, you know, and all that business.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02So I was certainly lightweight.
0:25:02 > 0:25:08And, er, so I stuck with that label for quite a few years.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10Remember, this was the mid '60s,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14and British theatre had been revolutionised in the previous decade.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Osborne's Look Back In Anger, Beckett's Waiting For Godot,
0:25:18 > 0:25:22Stoppard's Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25Bond's Saved, and, of course, there was Harold Pinter.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29When The Birthday Party flopped on its London debut,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33out of the blue, Pinter approached Stephen Joseph in Scarborough
0:25:33 > 0:25:36and proposed that he direct his own production
0:25:36 > 0:25:39under the banner of Scarborough's theatre in the round.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44So he arrived. And I remember, we auditioned for him in...
0:25:44 > 0:25:50Glasshouse Stores in... It was a pub in Brewer Street, um, upstairs.
0:25:50 > 0:25:55He looked at me and said, "Stanley." So I read Stanley, sight unseen.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58I said, "He's very interesting, this pianist, isn't he?
0:25:58 > 0:26:03"He comes...he comes on and talks about his concert career
0:26:03 > 0:26:09"and then two men come along in a van and they bundle him out and he's taken off somewhere.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13"So what I'm really interested in knowing, Harold,
0:26:13 > 0:26:18"is where he comes from, and secondly where he goes to in the van."
0:26:18 > 0:26:21And he gave me that very serious look and he said,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25"I think the answer to that is mind your own fucking business."
0:26:25 > 0:26:28I said, "Ah, thank you very much."
0:26:28 > 0:26:32It's an answer I've always wanted to give an actor, but never had the courage to.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35That was a very valuable note from Harold.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39I thought, oh, maybe this guy does know what he's doing.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45Just six months after Relatively Speaking opened in London,
0:26:45 > 0:26:49Ayckbourn's mentor, Stephen Joseph, died.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54But there was no question that Alan would remain in Scarborough,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57continuing the work that Stephen Joseph had begun.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05Over the next few years, a pattern emerged.
0:27:05 > 0:27:11Every summer, Alan would write and direct a new play for Scarborough
0:27:11 > 0:27:13that would transfer to London the following year,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17albeit with a more established director and a starrier cast.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21In 1973, a year after he formally took over
0:27:21 > 0:27:24as the artistic director of the Library Theatre, Ayckbourn wrote
0:27:24 > 0:27:28what is arguably his most famous play.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31- Norman?- Hm? I mean yes?
0:27:31 > 0:27:35The Norman Conquest trilogy charts the relationships of six characters
0:27:35 > 0:27:39as they come together over a weekend at a country house.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Each play takes place, respectively,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45in the dining room, the sitting room, and the garden.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48They weren't designed for people who share a house with Norman.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52Despite the riotous success of the plays in Scarborough,
0:27:52 > 0:27:57London producers were reluctant to put all three straight into the West End.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00But Ayckbourn didn't want them to be split up.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05So eventually, The Norman Conquest made its London debut at the Greenwich Theatre.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09Tom Courtenay played the part of Norman, and was joined by a cast
0:28:09 > 0:28:13that would go on to be future stars of British television.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16Let's get seated.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20Now, um, Reg, you go up the end there, won't you?
0:28:20 > 0:28:24One of the most popular of all Ayckbourn's plays,
0:28:24 > 0:28:28The Norman Conquest is also the closest to pure farce.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31'There's a scene when they have dinner.'
0:28:31 > 0:28:36Penny Keith is trying to set the places where everybody is to sit.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39No, not there, Ruth dear. Would you mind sitting one seat further up?
0:28:39 > 0:28:41'Eric Thompson,'
0:28:41 > 0:28:46he directed the placement scene perfectly logically.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49It was quite amusing and it made sense.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53And then Alan came to see it being rehearsed.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55No, you're here, Tom. Sit here.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59- Oh.- Annie, you should be sitting here, you're the hostess.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01No, she can't sit there, she's out of order.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04- She's the hostess, she should sit at the head.- We've two women together.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08- I'll move down here, that's easy enough.- No, Ruth, you stay where you are...
0:29:08 > 0:29:11'I remember, it was very confusing'
0:29:11 > 0:29:14and we didn't quite know how to pace it.
0:29:14 > 0:29:16And he did come in.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21Cos he sort of saw in his head exactly how it should be.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25I don't want to worry you, but now you've got a woman at both ends.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27That's what I'm saying. Why don't you listen?
0:29:27 > 0:29:32No, we've got Ruth there, then Annie, Norman over there and Tom next to...
0:29:32 > 0:29:33Ah, that's where we've gone wrong.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35Tom, you're in the wrong seat.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38- But I thought she said... - I'd like to sit down permanently.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40- Will you listen?- Tom, move to the end.- Reg!
0:29:40 > 0:29:42- I've just moved from there. - I'm sitting down now...
0:29:42 > 0:29:48'His one simple move, that only he knew about, made the thing.'
0:29:48 > 0:29:52It grew from being quite amusing to hysterically funny.
0:29:52 > 0:29:57And he has this sort of thing in his head about what's funny.
0:30:00 > 0:30:01Tom.
0:30:03 > 0:30:09- Tom, you are sitting here.- Oh. Back where I started.- Reg, at the top.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11- This is wrong, you know.- At the top!
0:30:11 > 0:30:13- Ruth...- I've sat down, I refuse to get up.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Ruth, you are all right where you are.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20- Good evening, carry on, talk amongst yourselves.- No, not there, Norman.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22Is that my father's suit you've got on?
0:30:22 > 0:30:26If he was a man with extraordinary arm and inside leg measurements,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29- yes, indeed.- Norman, not there. - Why not?- Because it's wrong.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34Is it wrong to sit between my old pal Reg and this dwarf on my left?
0:30:34 > 0:30:37- Hello, little chap.- Hello.- Norman!
0:30:37 > 0:30:41- Sarah, this is all right, I'll sit here.- But now we've got...
0:30:41 > 0:30:44- This is fine.- It's fine.- Fine.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48I mean, it was an absolutely huge hit, wasn't it?
0:30:48 > 0:30:49I mean, huge, huge.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53And the little bit where I sat at the dining table
0:30:53 > 0:30:57on a small chair, the table's down, I ate like that...
0:30:57 > 0:31:01I actually saw a bloke one night fall out of his seat
0:31:01 > 0:31:03in the circle.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05Laughing. We couldn't stop them.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09Penny Keith would be standing there on my left.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13Penny doesn't corpse, but she just couldn't hold it.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16The...the fright of it.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20The whole house up. Brilliant.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22I'd make it worse by going lower in the chair.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24HE LAUGHS
0:31:24 > 0:31:28I don't think I've ever before or since heard laughter like it.
0:31:28 > 0:31:29Certainly not in Table Manners.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32For years afterwards,
0:31:32 > 0:31:35I couldn't go to have dinner with anyone, ever,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39without people saying to me, "Oh, Penny, come on, you know how to place people around."
0:31:39 > 0:31:43The joyful thing about that is people used to say to me about Sarah,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46"You know, she's so like my mother, she so like my sister,
0:31:46 > 0:31:47"she's so like my wife."
0:31:50 > 0:31:53By the summer of 1975,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57five Ayckbourn plays were running simultaneously in the West End,
0:31:57 > 0:31:59the most ever by a single author.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03To mark his success across the Atlantic,
0:32:03 > 0:32:05where four Ayckbourns were playing,
0:32:05 > 0:32:10the corner of Broadway and 45th Street was renamed Ayckbourn Alley for the day.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14Quite an achievement for a writer
0:32:14 > 0:32:19who many were still eager to dismiss as a lightweight entertainer.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24But by now, Alan Ayckbourn's heart belonged to Scarborough
0:32:24 > 0:32:29and he had determined his future, indeed, his destiny, was here.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39It's a small community. It's bigger than a village,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41and small enough not to become impersonal.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46As they say, all human life is here.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49In fact, once you settle here,
0:32:49 > 0:32:51which I've only just done permanently,
0:32:51 > 0:32:54and realised the undercurrents that go on,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57the politics and the rises and falls of individuals,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00which probably suit my style of writing,
0:33:00 > 0:33:06because I do write about small communities as a rule, not big general worldwide events.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09It's one big landlady in summer, Scarborough.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13It opens up and welcomes the rest of the world, a million visitors.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16And in winter it becomes itself again
0:33:16 > 0:33:18when everyone goes about their own occupations.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31In the winter of 1976, rehearsals got under way
0:33:31 > 0:33:36for the Library Theatre's production of Just Between Ourselves.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43I honestly think Pam and me have reached the end of the road.
0:33:47 > 0:33:53SANDER WHIRRING
0:33:56 > 0:34:00I'm saying Pam and me have reached the end of the road.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02Ah.
0:34:04 > 0:34:05Terrible thing to say.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09She's drinking as well, you know.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14- Yeah, I'm the cause of that. - I shouldn't think so.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19'Well, what I always try to do is write a very serious play.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23'Hopefully, it has this veneer of fun on top of it but it's only a veneer.'
0:34:25 > 0:34:27Women need a rock.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29A rock.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32Trouble is I'm a bloody marshmallow.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35SANDER WHIRRING
0:34:35 > 0:34:39Weakness in a man, that's something women can never respect...
0:34:39 > 0:34:42It is both funny and terribly, terribly sad.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47And it depends where you're standing. And I love that sort of humour.
0:34:47 > 0:34:52It is laughter on the one side, but tragedy on the other.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55And the two can run together.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58That's been my discovery through life of my plays.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03You know what it's like, Dennis?
0:35:03 > 0:35:04To feel undesirable?
0:35:04 > 0:35:07No, no, I can't say I do.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11LAUGHTER
0:35:12 > 0:35:15- That's what he's done to me. - Sorry, who has? Are we still talking about Neil?
0:35:15 > 0:35:18He's made me feel ashamed.
0:35:18 > 0:35:20Why should I be made to feel ashamed?
0:35:20 > 0:35:23- Depends what you've been up to, eh? - HE LAUGHS
0:35:23 > 0:35:27Hasn't even paid me the compliment of going after another woman.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29I think I could accept that. Just about.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33But to be frozen out...
0:35:33 > 0:35:35So I was unnatural.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37Some kind of freak.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41- Start her up, Dennis. - I can't,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44- I haven't got the keys. - Start her up and let's slip away.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48Vroom, vroom.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50- You all right?- Vroom.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53- Pam... Pam!- Vroom! Vroom!
0:35:53 > 0:35:57- Now, come on, Pam. Pam! - Vroom...oh...
0:35:57 > 0:35:59- Oh, Dennis.- What is it?
0:36:00 > 0:36:01I think I'm going to be carsick.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Hold on! Not on the upholstery you won't. Come on.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07Come on.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Oh, blimey O'Reilly. Bloody pikeys!
0:36:12 > 0:36:18You can say what you like, Dennis. I'm not staying out here a moment longer. I want my surprise, Dennis.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23- Mother, can you give me a hand, please?- You naughty boy.
0:36:23 > 0:36:28- Look, mother!- It's all right, Dennis. It's all right. I've seen nothing, you needn't worry.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32- Mother!- It's all right. There's no-one in there.- Can somebody give me a hand?- Get out of my way.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35All right, on your own head be it.
0:36:35 > 0:36:36Dennis? Dennis...
0:36:38 > 0:36:42- Could you give us a hand, please? - I told you not to come in. Serve you right.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45There are certain things it's best a wife doesn't know about.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48You poisonous old woman! You're loving this, aren't you?
0:36:48 > 0:36:50It's what you wanted all along, wasn't it?!
0:36:50 > 0:36:54Dennis would go off with somebody to break up my home!
0:36:54 > 0:36:58- Don't know what you're talking about. You're being...- You nasty old toad!
0:36:58 > 0:36:59- Oh!- You've always hated me.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02- You've always wanted my home. - Now, Vera...
0:37:02 > 0:37:06I don't know what's come over you. What's the matter with you?
0:37:06 > 0:37:09Please! Vera!
0:37:09 > 0:37:13- 'I want you to put that... - You old toad!- Put that...'
0:37:13 > 0:37:17COMMOTION CONTINUES TO FADE
0:37:17 > 0:37:20'You CAN walk safely in daylight on your own street
0:37:20 > 0:37:22'without feeling threatened,
0:37:22 > 0:37:25'without being subjected to 9-foot high obscene graffiti'
0:37:25 > 0:37:27on every street corner.
0:37:27 > 0:37:33Parents, you CAN feel confident your children are free to go outside to play.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Women, you can now walk without fear alone at night.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40There IS someone here for you, speaking out for you,
0:37:40 > 0:37:45fighting your corner, and that man is here!
0:37:45 > 0:37:50Standing in front of you today! Thank you and bless you all!
0:37:50 > 0:37:53CANNED APPLAUSE
0:37:53 > 0:37:56Alan Ayckbourn's latest play, Neighbourhood Watch,
0:37:56 > 0:38:01not only deals with the familiar themes of the aspirational and dysfunctional world
0:38:01 > 0:38:05of Middle England, but is also uncannily prescient
0:38:05 > 0:38:07about the state of Britain today
0:38:07 > 0:38:10and, in particular, the turbulent summer of 2011.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15- They've just been arrested. - Arrested, who has?
0:38:15 > 0:38:18The Wrigleys, two of them, anyway. Typical police cock-up.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21Can you believe they send two officers, two!
0:38:21 > 0:38:24One of them was barely an officer. It was a policewoman.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26That's all they sent...
0:38:26 > 0:38:29'It's about a group of well-meaning citizens
0:38:29 > 0:38:36'living on a suburban estate somewhere in the land I usually visit.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39'Sort of, four or five miles outside Redding.'
0:38:39 > 0:38:42...as bent as the Wrigleys, as they saw it...
0:38:42 > 0:38:45'And they get fearful as, indeed, people do these days
0:38:45 > 0:38:48'about violence and crime
0:38:48 > 0:38:51'and imagined violence and imagined crime
0:38:51 > 0:38:56'and so they start a well-meaning neighbourhood watch scheme,
0:38:56 > 0:38:58'only it goes sadly awry.'
0:38:58 > 0:39:01We never intended to run our neighbourhood watch scheme on fear, did we?
0:39:01 > 0:39:04Not exactly fear, just the occasional warning.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06You know, the occasional friendly warning.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09- Like the warning they gave to Mr Button?- What warning was that?
0:39:09 > 0:39:13- They set fire to his pigeons. - Dear heaven!
0:39:13 > 0:39:16'It was written last October, I think.'
0:39:16 > 0:39:19As we were rehearsing, people kept...
0:39:19 > 0:39:22Journalists kept ringing up and saying, "Can you foresee the future?"
0:39:22 > 0:39:25And I said, "Well, I thought it might happen,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28but I didn't realise it was actually going to happen."
0:39:28 > 0:39:32Then we were sort of torn between being terribly topical
0:39:32 > 0:39:34and wishing the riots would stop.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39I've taken certain precautions out there since the incident.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44I put up properly-worded signs. "Private property." "Trespassers will be prosecuted."
0:39:44 > 0:39:47That sort of thing, at regular intervals...
0:39:47 > 0:39:51'It does embrace a lot of my concerns about society today.'
0:39:51 > 0:39:53I'll be amazed if half of them can read anyway.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58'We've polarised into people who take very extreme views.'
0:39:58 > 0:39:59We do need to take action, certainly.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02I believe it must fall well short of unprovoked violence.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19Despite Ayckbourn's self-evident writing credentials
0:40:19 > 0:40:23and the box office bonanza greeting each one of his plays,
0:40:23 > 0:40:26his knack of giving theatregoers a good night out
0:40:26 > 0:40:30still grated with the majority of critics and reviewers well into the '70s.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32So it came as a shock when Sir Peter Hall,
0:40:32 > 0:40:35the director of the National Theatre,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38not only commissioned him to write a new play,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40but asked him to co-direct as well.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47Alan surprised everybody by his...
0:40:47 > 0:40:50certainty of who he was...
0:40:50 > 0:40:51as a writer.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56I wasn't going to do Bedroom Farce
0:40:56 > 0:40:59if the author didn't really want me to.
0:40:59 > 0:41:06So I tried to manufacture a situation where he did
0:41:06 > 0:41:10what I wanted and I did what he wanted.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12And it...it worked.
0:41:12 > 0:41:17How did the critics respond to the fact that you had put this on?
0:41:17 > 0:41:22Oh, they were enraged, almost to a man,
0:41:22 > 0:41:24that we should be using public money
0:41:24 > 0:41:27in order to amuse ourselves by doing commercial plays.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30This was disgraceful!
0:41:30 > 0:41:34I mean, I really couldn't believe it. I thought they'd taken leave of their senses.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38Peter Hall was bravely and defiantly single-minded.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41If some thought Bedroom Farce sat uncomfortably
0:41:41 > 0:41:45with the familiar National repertoire of classics and new writing,
0:41:45 > 0:41:48they'd also failed to notice that Ayckbourn's play
0:41:48 > 0:41:52had been the longest-running show in repertoire in the National's history,
0:41:52 > 0:41:57and was providing the subsidised theatre with much-needed income as well.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00Peter Hall wanted Alan Ayckbourn back at the National,
0:42:00 > 0:42:05directing, not only his own work, but other playwrights', too.
0:42:05 > 0:42:10There's a quote in the biography of Alan which says,
0:42:10 > 0:42:13which quotes you as saying, to Alan Ayckbourn,
0:42:13 > 0:42:17"No doubt, you can do very well without the National Theatre.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20"But can the National Theatre do without you?"
0:42:20 > 0:42:23Yes, I hope it's one of those enigmatic questions.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25That was quite a brave thing to do.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27- I mean, someone who...- Yeah.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30Who was, I thought,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33a very good director, but not sure of it himself.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37And I think the test of him coming to the National
0:42:37 > 0:42:41and the test of me asking him to come to the National
0:42:41 > 0:42:45are both of them pretty dangerous moments.
0:42:45 > 0:42:46But theatre is like that.
0:42:48 > 0:42:53Alan took leave of absence from Scarborough and headed south,
0:42:53 > 0:42:58a big step for the writer who'd enjoyed the autonomy of being outside of London.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01But Hall had presented him with an offer he just couldn't refuse -
0:43:01 > 0:43:04to direct a whole season at the National
0:43:04 > 0:43:06with his own company of actors.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Alan said that you were the one actor he knew he wanted
0:43:11 > 0:43:14from the start when he was casting.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17He tells the story of how he took you out for lunch
0:43:17 > 0:43:21and as you're both men of few words and large appetites, as he put it,
0:43:21 > 0:43:24you had "fixed the season before the soup was on the table."
0:43:24 > 0:43:28Yes. And then we just carried on eating.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32Alan's quite quick when he wants to be. He just put the whole season in front of me
0:43:32 > 0:43:36as though it would make any difference to me, as though I'd read it,
0:43:36 > 0:43:38I just looked at it and said, "That's perfect."
0:43:38 > 0:43:42He gives you a lot of freedom to develop your own character.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44He's a great director. He's calm.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48And logical and...
0:43:48 > 0:43:49good.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53I took out of my own moat to give to her. I took out of my wife's moat.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56I walk hungry plenty of days in this city
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and now I've got to sit in my own house
0:43:59 > 0:44:03and look at a son of a bitch punk, like that, which he come out of nowhere.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06I give my house to sleep.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08Take the blankets off my bed for him.
0:44:08 > 0:44:13And he takes and puts his dirty, filthy hands on her like a goddamn thief!
0:44:13 > 0:44:16- But, Eddie, she's a woman now! - Stealing from me.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19She wants to get married, Eddie. She can't marry you, can she?
0:44:19 > 0:44:23What are you talking about marrying me? What the hell are you talking about?
0:44:25 > 0:44:29Arthur Miller saw Ayckbourn's production of the View from the Bridge
0:44:29 > 0:44:32and said that it was the best he had ever seen.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37Despite his residency at the National,
0:44:37 > 0:44:40Ayckbourn continued to write for the company in Scarborough,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43returning each year for the traditional summer season.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46I mean, it is almost... He finishes with...
0:44:46 > 0:44:48I mean, almost that.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52Many of his earlier plays were now seen as classics
0:44:52 > 0:44:55and were not only a staple of the amateur dramatics scene,
0:44:55 > 0:44:57but proving hugely popular on television
0:44:57 > 0:45:01with a regular slot in the Christmas TV listings.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11Absurd Person Singular is set in three kitchens
0:45:11 > 0:45:13over three consecutive Christmases.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20- Still raining, I see. - Oh, shut the door, it's coming in.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22Oh, cats and dogs. Dogs and cats.
0:45:26 > 0:45:2718.23.
0:45:29 > 0:45:3118.23, getting on.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34- Seven minutes, they'll be here.- Oh.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39- I've got a few games lined up. - Games?- Just in case.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42This production made a lasting impression
0:45:42 > 0:45:44on a young Catherine Tate.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47I would have been about 13 or something,
0:45:47 > 0:45:54and I just happened to stumble upon this,
0:45:54 > 0:46:00this sort of event going on on my television.
0:46:00 > 0:46:06And with people that I don't think up until that point,
0:46:06 > 0:46:08I'd recognise from TV.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11I'd more recognise them from my life, probably!
0:46:11 > 0:46:14And I was really pulled in by it.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16- MUMBLED:- You know.- Hmm?
0:46:20 > 0:46:25- What?- Presents.- The what?
0:46:25 > 0:46:27SHE MUMBLES
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Oh, well, yes, of course! That's why we came, wasn't it?
0:46:32 > 0:46:37- We've brought you a present. - Seasonal something!- Oh!
0:46:37 > 0:46:39- Thank you.- Oh, I'm afraid we didn't
0:46:39 > 0:46:41bring anything for you and your husband.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45- We didn't realise you'd be here, you see.- Oh, sorry about that.
0:46:45 > 0:46:47- Never mind.- Not to worry.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50Oh, we could give them the...
0:46:50 > 0:46:53- You know, that we got given this evening.- The what?- You know, the...
0:46:53 > 0:46:57- That we got in the thing. - What, that? They don't want that!
0:46:57 > 0:47:00No, I meant the...
0:47:00 > 0:47:01You know!
0:47:01 > 0:47:03SHE PANTS
0:47:03 > 0:47:05Oh, well, if you like.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Now, this is nothing very much.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12We were given it this evening in a cracker, actually.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15Now, we were going to keep it for our budgie,
0:47:15 > 0:47:18but we thought your George might like it.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20For his collar!
0:47:20 > 0:47:21Oh.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26- So you know where he is! - Yeah, as if you couldn't guess!
0:47:26 > 0:47:27Woof, woof!
0:47:28 > 0:47:30- Woof, woof!- Thank you.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Woof, woof! Woof, woof!
0:47:34 > 0:47:39- Thanks a lot. - Right, that's your lot, no more.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid we haven't got you anything at all.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46We're not really much ones for present-buying.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49- Oh, we didn't expect it!- No, no!
0:47:51 > 0:47:55'It had a very lasting effect on me,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59'to the point where I thought what I knew I wanted to do was after
0:47:59 > 0:48:03'I had seen the TV show, I wanted to see the words.'
0:48:03 > 0:48:05Because I think his language
0:48:05 > 0:48:11and the precision of his characterisation is exquisite,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15and it just made...it delighted me.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17What I really honed into was the comedy of it,
0:48:17 > 0:48:24it wasn't comedy with a laughter track, it was proper comedy acting.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27But there was nowhere to tell you when to laugh.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30There was these people, not in happy situations,
0:48:30 > 0:48:35but what was coming out of it, well, it was painfully funny.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38But for me, I just thought, "Wow, amazing."
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Something really struck me about the image of this scene
0:48:42 > 0:48:46carrying on where a woman is trying to kill herself.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49And Eva, I think the character is,
0:48:49 > 0:48:52and there's lots of domestic stuff going on, and in the background
0:48:52 > 0:48:55this woman is trying to concuss herself on the oven,
0:48:55 > 0:48:56or hang herself,
0:48:56 > 0:48:59and I just thought, "This is a world that's opened up to me,"
0:48:59 > 0:49:01and I just got very excited about it.
0:49:04 > 0:49:06- CRASH Oh!- Aah!
0:49:06 > 0:49:09- Mrs Jackson!- Aah!
0:49:09 > 0:49:11You shouldn't be down on the cold floor, you know,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14not in your condition.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19You should be in bed, surely. Here. Now, you sit down here.
0:49:23 > 0:49:31There. Oh, now, don't you worry about that oven now. That oven can wait.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34You clean it later!
0:49:34 > 0:49:38No point damaging your health for an oven, is there?
0:49:38 > 0:49:41Mind you, I know just how you feel.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44You suddenly get that urge, don't you?
0:49:44 > 0:49:48You say to yourself, "I must clean that oven if it kills me.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52"I shan't sleep, I shan't eat until I've cleaned that oven."
0:49:52 > 0:49:55It haunts you. I know just that feeling!
0:49:55 > 0:49:58The women, in a way, come across more sympathetically
0:49:58 > 0:50:01in his plays, ultimately, than anyone else, don't they?
0:50:01 > 0:50:09Yeah. I've no doubt that's to do with the extraordinary bond and influence
0:50:09 > 0:50:12of his mother, and I guess, presumably,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15that's where he gets his writing genes,
0:50:15 > 0:50:21because she was churning out stuff at a rate of knots, wasn't she?
0:50:21 > 0:50:23- She was.- On the kitchen table,
0:50:23 > 0:50:28and the idea that she got him one to bang along with...
0:50:28 > 0:50:31But yeah, he has
0:50:31 > 0:50:38a fantastic take on the women,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41on the female characters that he writes.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45In February 1999, Alan's mother, Lolly,
0:50:45 > 0:50:49the woman who'd inspired him since childhood, passed away.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55Your mother lived to quite a ripe old age, didn't she?
0:50:55 > 0:50:58- She was in her 80s...- 80s, yeah.
0:50:58 > 0:51:03..when she died, and at her funeral at Scarborough in the crematorium,
0:51:03 > 0:51:05you brought her here, you wrote an address,
0:51:05 > 0:51:07and I think Heather read it, didn't she?
0:51:07 > 0:51:10Yeah. I couldn't read it. I said it would just break me up.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14And then she read it, and she burst into tears, bless her.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17I just want to read you some of it, because it's rather extraordinary.
0:51:17 > 0:51:22"To someone who gave me gin as a baby to help me sleep at night,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24"who once introduced me to a strange man in a beret
0:51:24 > 0:51:28"on top of a bus in the Strand as a previous husband,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31"who made me a birthday cake when I was seven,
0:51:31 > 0:51:34"short-sightedly using salt instead of sugar,
0:51:34 > 0:51:39"who once threw my father's framed photograph of me at me in a fury,
0:51:39 > 0:51:41"and told me all men were bastards..."
0:51:41 > 0:51:43THEY CHUCKLE
0:51:43 > 0:51:45"..who one night fell through my front door
0:51:45 > 0:51:49"so drunk that I had to carry her to bed,
0:51:49 > 0:51:53"who gave me far more complexes, hang-ups,
0:51:53 > 0:51:57"phobias, prejudices, inspirations and self-insights
0:51:57 > 0:52:00"than any writer has a right to expect from a parent.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05"To her, many thanks, much love, and farewell."
0:52:06 > 0:52:08Well, I knew...
0:52:08 > 0:52:12I was determined to write something, and I sort of sat down,
0:52:12 > 0:52:16and I thought, "I can't write a lot of sentimental schmaltz,"
0:52:16 > 0:52:18because that wasn't our relationship at all.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21I mean, it was much sparkier than that.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24So I thought, "Well, I'll just pile on the images
0:52:24 > 0:52:25"just as they come to me,"
0:52:25 > 0:52:28and that was my mum.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH
0:53:03 > 0:53:05You're probably thinking,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09"Why am I watching a film by that great master of French cinema,
0:53:09 > 0:53:10"Alain Resnais,
0:53:10 > 0:53:15"director of Last Year In Marienbad and Hiroshima Mon Amour?"
0:53:15 > 0:53:16Well, that film,
0:53:16 > 0:53:20which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival five years ago,
0:53:20 > 0:53:24is the third made by Resnais adapted from an Ayckbourn play.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29It's no exaggeration to say that after his mother,
0:53:29 > 0:53:31Resnais is Ayckbourn's greatest fan.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38I've come to Paris to interview him and his wife, Sabine.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Resnais has asked to meet me at this hotel, however,
0:53:41 > 0:53:46he's notoriously shy, and does not wish to be seen on camera.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH
0:54:51 > 0:54:56Resnais and his wife, Sabine, came here to Scarborough every year
0:54:56 > 0:55:01for ten years before ever setting eyes on their hero, Alan Ayckbourn.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51And then, one day at the theatre...
0:55:52 > 0:55:58- Somebody said, "Hey, Alain Resnais's in tonight.".- Here in Scarborough?
0:55:58 > 0:56:02Yeah! And we were doing a play called Revengers' Comedies.
0:56:02 > 0:56:07And I said, "Oh, yeah, great. And Jean-Luc Godard's in the gents(!)"
0:56:07 > 0:56:13And I said, "Well..." And he said, "No, I know what he looks like!"
0:56:13 > 0:56:17I went out and there was this massively tall man
0:56:17 > 0:56:21with this white mane, who looked so out of place.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24And on his arm was the most drop-dead gorgeous woman I've ever seen.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27I thought, "That has to be Alain Resnais!"
0:56:44 > 0:56:47I thought, "This is surreal!"
0:56:47 > 0:56:50And, um, so...
0:56:50 > 0:56:54He kept coming back and then he asked if he could make a film of mine,
0:56:54 > 0:57:00and then he said, "Sabine and I want to get married,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03"and we'd like to get married in Scarborough,
0:57:03 > 0:57:05"because this is where..."
0:57:05 > 0:57:07This gets more and more bizarre!
0:57:07 > 0:57:11So he asked if Heather, my wife, and I would be witnesses.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15And I said we would be absolutely honoured.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18So, anyway, we went and witnessed their wedding
0:57:18 > 0:57:20and then we took them out to dinner.
0:57:20 > 0:57:27And I said to Sabine, "This is amazing, it's so nice.
0:57:27 > 0:57:29"This is your wedding night
0:57:29 > 0:57:34"and we haven't given you a proper present. What would you like most?"
0:57:34 > 0:57:38And she said, "I would love to be in a play of yours in Scarborough."
0:57:38 > 0:57:41And suddenly, there I was, sitting on stage,
0:57:41 > 0:57:46Alain in the audience with a digital camera,
0:57:46 > 0:57:50directing Sabine Azema.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52I felt more like Jean-Luc Godard than ever!
0:57:54 > 0:57:57But it's not just Alain and Sabine.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00All the world, it seems, loves Alan Ayckbourn.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02The Poles.
0:58:05 > 0:58:06The Finns.
0:58:08 > 0:58:09The Italians.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12The Germans.
0:58:12 > 0:58:14The Japanese.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16The Swedes.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19The Czechs.
0:58:20 > 0:58:25Alan Ayckbourn is quite simply the most popular living playwright in the world today.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31Except, possibly, that is, in Brazil,
0:58:31 > 0:58:36one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
0:58:36 > 0:58:41But now, the Brazilians too are rapidly getting in on the act.
0:58:42 > 0:58:47Actor and director Eduardo Muniz has been here in Scarborough for months,
0:58:47 > 0:58:50following the rehearsals of Neighbourhood Watch.
0:58:50 > 0:58:54Anorexic teenage girls who just slip out and walk away, laughing, calm as you like.
0:58:54 > 0:58:56Makes a mockery of justice.
0:58:56 > 0:59:01When you look at those characters on the stage,
0:59:01 > 0:59:05- do you recognise those people in Alan Ayckbourn plays? - Easily. Easily. Easily.
0:59:05 > 0:59:09Every one of them, we can recognise, cos it's so well-written.
0:59:09 > 0:59:11It's very human nature.
0:59:11 > 0:59:17So it doesn't matter if it's in Africa or America or here, or China.
0:59:17 > 0:59:20I think his work is worldwide.
0:59:20 > 0:59:24You can do this in every corner of the world, I think.
0:59:24 > 0:59:26And why not in Brazil?
0:59:26 > 0:59:29THEY SPEAK PORTUGUESE
0:59:35 > 0:59:38Just a few weeks after returning from Scarborough,
0:59:38 > 0:59:41and Eduardo is already in rehearsal with his Portuguese
0:59:41 > 0:59:43translation of Neighbourhood Watch.
0:59:43 > 0:59:47The reading will form part of the second annual Ayckbourn week
0:59:47 > 0:59:48here in Sao Paulo.
0:59:52 > 0:59:56And, this year, Ayckbourn's 61st play, Snake In The Grass,
0:59:56 > 0:59:59has been touring venues throughout the city.
0:59:59 > 1:00:01THEY SPEAK PORTUGUESE
1:00:30 > 1:00:32APPLAUSE
1:00:49 > 1:00:51I feel very strongly about people
1:00:51 > 1:00:54whose work that is considered populist
1:00:54 > 1:00:56is then not considered...
1:00:56 > 1:00:59- Serious.- Serious. And of worth.
1:00:59 > 1:01:03And I don't know, but I suspect
1:01:03 > 1:01:07because he has been very prolific,
1:01:07 > 1:01:12somehow that kind of diminishes his stock as a serious writer.
1:01:12 > 1:01:17Alan Ayckbourn is one of our greatest writers of all time.
1:01:17 > 1:01:20In fact, I think it was in the New York Times
1:01:20 > 1:01:23when The Norman Conquests went over.
1:01:23 > 1:01:28It said there are three great writers - Shakespeare, Chekhov
1:01:28 > 1:01:30and Ayckbourn.
1:01:30 > 1:01:33And that was the company he was keeping in this man's eyes.
1:01:33 > 1:01:37At the end of this month, Neighbourhood Watch will transfer
1:01:37 > 1:01:41with the original Scarborough cast to a theatre off-Broadway.
1:01:41 > 1:01:44It will be directed by the author.
1:01:45 > 1:01:50'Prolific as ever, nothing it seems will stop Alan Ayckbourn,
1:01:50 > 1:01:54'not even the stroke which he suffered in 2006.'
1:01:54 > 1:01:58What went through your mind when that happened, about your work?
1:01:58 > 1:02:00Well, I was shocked, really.
1:02:00 > 1:02:05One always thinks one is immortal until something like that happens.
1:02:05 > 1:02:07I was lying in the hospital, I was there for eight weeks,
1:02:07 > 1:02:10and I was sort of slowly,
1:02:10 > 1:02:15as the panic went down, I was thinking, "At least I can direct.
1:02:15 > 1:02:19"But I don't quite know whether the writing thing will come back.
1:02:19 > 1:02:22"I think as soon as I'm reasonably mobile
1:02:22 > 1:02:26"I can certainly re-tackle the body of work."
1:02:26 > 1:02:32And then mysteriously a little trickle of an idea,
1:02:32 > 1:02:34I always start with these little flickers.
1:02:34 > 1:02:37I thought, "Oh, God, there is a tomorrow!"
1:02:41 > 1:02:43Good evening.
1:02:55 > 1:03:00This one's opening and there's a new one coming.
1:03:00 > 1:03:03That's probably what keeps me going.
1:03:03 > 1:03:08Just the excitement of this opening.
1:03:08 > 1:03:10And then I need a new excitement,
1:03:10 > 1:03:13like a sort of mad literary mountaineer,
1:03:13 > 1:03:15I just need another peak to climb.
1:03:18 > 1:03:21Martin, wake up! Oh, no, these lights aren't working,
1:03:21 > 1:03:23I don't know what's happened to the lights!
1:03:23 > 1:03:27- Martin! Martin, wake up.- We can talk about it!- Martin, it's me.
1:03:27 > 1:03:32- Next door's on fire.- Next door? The house?- Next door's on fire!
1:03:32 > 1:03:34It's on fire, it's on fire! I saw it from the window!
1:03:34 > 1:03:38- Yes, we know it is, Magda, dear.- Oh, it's well alight, it's blazing away.
1:03:38 > 1:03:40What are we going to do, what are we going to do?!
1:03:40 > 1:03:41They seem to be tackling it.
1:03:41 > 1:03:44But will it spread to us? We don't know if it's going to spread!
1:03:44 > 1:03:47- It might. - What are we going to do?!
1:03:47 > 1:03:50- Do be quiet, Martin's trying to think!- All right there?
1:03:50 > 1:03:51Carefully!
1:03:53 > 1:03:55Oh.
1:03:55 > 1:03:56Woo!
1:03:56 > 1:03:58This is the police.
1:03:58 > 1:04:01You are ordered to throw down your weapon
1:04:01 > 1:04:04and step outside with your hands raised.
1:04:04 > 1:04:08- Oh, heavens! It's the police. - I know it is, Hilda, I can hear.
1:04:08 > 1:04:10- What are you going to do? - I'll do as they say.
1:04:10 > 1:04:12This is an official police warning.
1:04:12 > 1:04:15You are ordered to throw down your weapon
1:04:15 > 1:04:18and to step outside with your hands raised.
1:04:18 > 1:04:21- They think I've got a weapon. - Tell them you haven't got one.
1:04:21 > 1:04:23I haven't got a weapon!
1:04:23 > 1:04:29- This is not a weapon, it's Jesus! - This is your final warning.
1:04:29 > 1:04:31Throw your weapon on the ground now
1:04:31 > 1:04:36and proceed outside with your hands in the air.
1:04:36 > 1:04:38I said I haven't got a weapon.
1:04:38 > 1:04:44I can't throw this on the ground, it'll break - see. It's Jesus.
1:04:44 > 1:04:51See, look, see. Can you see? It's Jesus. See, it's Jesus.
1:04:51 > 1:04:52GUNSHOT
1:04:52 > 1:04:53Oh!
1:04:53 > 1:04:55Martin!
1:04:55 > 1:04:57Oh, Jesus!
1:05:05 > 1:05:08APPLAUSE
1:05:17 > 1:05:19Neighbourhood Watch opened to outstanding reviews.
1:05:19 > 1:05:24It has embarked on a national tour, to be followed by a New York run.
1:05:24 > 1:05:27No doubt it will then make its way
1:05:27 > 1:05:30to countless theatres across the globe.
1:05:30 > 1:05:34I think Alan Ayckbourn is Scarborough's gift to the world.
1:05:34 > 1:05:36BELL RINGS
1:05:39 > 1:05:42The hanging of the programme!
1:05:42 > 1:05:44CHEERING
1:05:44 > 1:05:50The 300th new play and Alan's 75th.
1:05:50 > 1:05:52CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
1:06:07 > 1:06:10Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
1:06:10 > 1:06:13E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk