0:00:03 > 0:00:07'My name's Benedict Cumberbatch, and I'm going to take you back in time.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16'Imagine driving around London's West End in the '40s and '50s.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23'You'd almost certainly have seen billboards advertising the plays of Terence Rattigan,
0:00:23 > 0:00:25'the master of the well-crafted play,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29'of upper-class manners and forbidden sexuality -
0:00:29 > 0:00:32'a lost world of reticence and repression.'
0:00:36 > 0:00:41Just over a year ago I was asked to take part in a revival of a Rattigan play, After The Dance,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44and I had some preconceived ideas that gave me cause for trepidation,
0:00:44 > 0:00:46as well as the usual actorly concerns -
0:00:46 > 0:00:49"Oh, a bit typecast for me, you know, class-wise."
0:00:49 > 0:00:52"It's a bit upper-middle class, stuff I want to get away from."
0:00:52 > 0:00:56I think I had fears of him, as a writer, of not having any relevance
0:00:56 > 0:00:59in the 21st century. I was worried about, "Why do this play now?"
0:00:59 > 0:01:02But by experiencing an audience reaction to it,
0:01:02 > 0:01:05which varied both in demographic and age remarkably,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08for what you'd imagine a Rattigan audience to be comprised of,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11it just showed how universal his appeal was.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13I found myself at the start
0:01:13 > 0:01:17of a huge upsurge of interest in Rattigan,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19and now, in his centenary year,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22it seems that people can't get enough of him all over again.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27But Rattigan himself remains an enigmatic figure -
0:01:27 > 0:01:30a troubled homosexual with a gift for commercial theatre,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33who yearned to be taken seriously as a playwright
0:01:33 > 0:01:36but who always felt an outsider.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38So who was Terence Rattigan,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40and what does he still have to say to us today?
0:01:58 > 0:02:01As one of the highlights of Rattigan's centenary,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04his play Cause Celebre is being performed here at the Old Vic.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09It's the story of an upper-class woman who has a scandalous affair
0:02:09 > 0:02:11with the young chauffeur she employs.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15- Let me take your cap. - Thank you, miss.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19By the way, it's "Mrs". "Mrs" three times over, as it happens.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21HE CHUCKLES
0:02:22 > 0:02:25- Divorced?- Yes,
0:02:25 > 0:02:27once. Other one died.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31And now seven years gone with old Rats -
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Mr Rattenbury, my present one.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36I'm giving things away, aren't I?
0:02:37 > 0:02:41'The director of this production is a friend of mine, Thea Sharrock,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44'who also directed me in After The Dance last year.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47'I asked her what she thought Rattigan's appeal is today.'
0:02:47 > 0:02:50When we first talked about After The Dance,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52I was reticent, very irritatingly, I remember.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55- Do you mean when you said no? - Yeah, when I said no!
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Well, you know, I had, I think, this prejudice.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01What would the sympathies be for these characters
0:03:01 > 0:03:03in this privileged world between the wars?
0:03:03 > 0:03:06How was a modern audience going to be drawn in?
0:03:06 > 0:03:10Essentially, although the characters that he often writes about,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and After The Dance is a very good example of that,
0:03:13 > 0:03:16are of a very small sliver of society,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19what he is really interested in
0:03:19 > 0:03:22is what it is that drives us,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24what it is that makes our hearts ache,
0:03:24 > 0:03:26what it is that makes us laugh,
0:03:26 > 0:03:31what it is that makes us feel happy and take pleasure in other people,
0:03:31 > 0:03:36and how we have an amazing capacity to hurt other people.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39He always said, "This is the class that I come from,"
0:03:39 > 0:03:42and he wrote about them because he understood them,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45but you don't have to be a member of the class to understand it,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47and that is what's so brilliant about his writing,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50and why he's been so misunderstood for so long,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53because people, like you, have made that mistake
0:03:53 > 0:03:58of going, "Well, isn't it only that he writes about
0:03:58 > 0:04:01a certain type of person for a certain type of person?"
0:04:01 > 0:04:03And the answer is, no, he doesn't at all.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09Terence Rattigan, like me, was educated at Harrow public school,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12a place that seems to have played an early role
0:04:12 > 0:04:15in nurturing his interest in theatre and playwriting.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18Perhaps my prejudice of his limited appeal
0:04:18 > 0:04:22came from my introduction to him whilst in this privileged bubble
0:04:22 > 0:04:24of private-school education -
0:04:24 > 0:04:27not that Harrow is particularly associated with theatre.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Many former prime ministers, statesmen, even royalty
0:04:30 > 0:04:35have passed through its doors, as well as the odd commoner like me.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37Rattigan was at Harrow 65 years before me,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41but in many ways, the school hasn't changed that much -
0:04:41 > 0:04:43well, at least to look at.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52Harrow is a boarding school, and there are several houses
0:04:52 > 0:04:54where the boys live during term time.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58I was at one called The Park, which was also Rattigan's old house.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02On Speech Day every summer term,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06we would all be called together for the annual house photograph.
0:05:08 > 0:05:101991...
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Summer of '91...
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Autumn of '95...
0:05:18 > 0:05:22Yeah. That's me. I had to double-check!
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Blond hair, you see? Proof that I was once blond.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28And look at those huge hands! Wicket-keeper's hands, I think,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31which is what I ended up being. That's first year,
0:05:31 > 0:05:36so I go up to '95. And then there, hair getting worse...
0:05:36 > 0:05:39'94, so '95's the last year.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45There we are. I think I'm wearing my Rattigan Society tie.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47So many, many ties to remember.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50That one was purple with white rats on it.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53It was our theatre-going society tie,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56and named in honour of the great man himself.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01And terrible centre parting, replete with curtains.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05It's strange being here. It's wonderful,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08but it's like one of the lyrics in one of the Harrow songs -
0:06:08 > 0:06:11"your heart will thrill at the thought of the Hill",
0:06:11 > 0:06:14and it's...it's...it's very true. You get a rush of memories.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18I wonder what Rattigan felt like at the same time.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Let's see if we can find him.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25Now, where is he?
0:06:25 > 0:06:28He starts in, er, 19...
0:06:28 > 0:06:291927.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Where is he?
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Rattigan. There!
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Gosh!
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Very stern. Very severe centre parting, as well.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46This is the second year, '28.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50You can pick him out very easily. Right on the end here.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53He's already got some kind of piping on a blazer,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56which I presume is a sports colour.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59So he was already achieving something in the world of sports.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03And then...'29.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06Then he's in his full flannels, and that would be for cricket.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10A high achiever, and a very dapper dresser at a young age.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13He certainly looked the part.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16But in reality, without a scholarship,
0:07:16 > 0:07:18he wouldn't have made it to Harrow at all.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Rattigan was born into a civil-service family
0:07:22 > 0:07:25in Kensington, London, in 1911.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29His father, Frank, was a diplomat, and from the age of two,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Terence spent much of his time with his grandmother,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35whilst his parents lived a glamorous life overseas.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40But in 1922, following a row with the foreign secretary,
0:07:40 > 0:07:44his father was forced to retire on a small pension.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47It was a huge humiliation.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49But, by winning the scholarship to Harrow,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52his son Terence could still have the opportunity
0:07:52 > 0:07:55to follow in his father's footsteps into the diplomatic service.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59But young Terence Rattigan's main passion was for drama.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04The first dramatic criticism I ever received
0:08:04 > 0:08:06came from a master at Harrow,
0:08:06 > 0:08:09and was scrawled rather angrily in red ink
0:08:09 > 0:08:11across the top of a one-page playlet in French
0:08:11 > 0:08:14which I, with the rest of a very junior class,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17had been set to compose during prep.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22It ran, "French execrable. Theatre sense first-class."
0:08:22 > 0:08:25I was awarded two marks out of ten.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30'The school library, the Vaughan, had a large collection of plays
0:08:30 > 0:08:33'to keep the budding playwright inspired.'
0:08:35 > 0:08:38Rattigan spent hours here in the Vaughan library,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41poring over classical texts as well as modern playwrights,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Galsworthy and other authors, Barrie, Pinero.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48I think his interest was sparked mainly by Coke-Norris,
0:08:48 > 0:08:52a very dry classics teacher. who was teaching him Aeschylus's the Agamemnon.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54In class it was a very arduous exercise,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57but he came to read the play here, and was just blown away
0:08:57 > 0:08:59by its sheer power and emotion.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04Whereas his classics teacher had treated the Greek story of Agamemnon
0:09:04 > 0:09:06purely as an exercise in translation,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Rattigan read it as it was meant to be read -
0:09:09 > 0:09:11as a powerful drama.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14"Do you see those who sit before the house,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16children like the shapes of dreams,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19children who seem to have been killed by their kinsfolk,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23filling their hands with meat, flesh of themselves,
0:09:23 > 0:09:25guts and entrails, handfuls of lament?"
0:09:25 > 0:09:29"Clear what they hold - the same their father tasted."
0:09:30 > 0:09:34It's hard to see how that kind of drama could have been made dry in a classics classroom.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36Or is it?
0:09:36 > 0:09:40Rattigan would soon become a central figure
0:09:40 > 0:09:42in the theatre life of the school.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Frank Rattigan encouraged his son's playwriting,
0:09:46 > 0:09:49but only as a hobby. It wasn't looked upon as something
0:09:49 > 0:09:51to be taken seriously as a profession.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55A lot of parents who send their children to a place like Harrow
0:09:55 > 0:09:59or Eton expect their sons to either follow in their footsteps,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02if they are, like Frank Rattigan was, in the diplomatic corps,
0:10:02 > 0:10:04or perhaps medicine or the law.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08But something, watching this school rehearsal of As You Like It,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11resonates with me. Both my parents are actors,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14and wanted me to do anything but become an actor.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16But unfortunately the bug bit quite early,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19and involving myself in productions like this
0:10:19 > 0:10:22where I played Rosalind, when I was all of 14...
0:10:22 > 0:10:26I tried to persuade them that it was a good enough profession for me,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30and, um, thank God, Rattigan did the same.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36I was told that you couldn't make a living out of playwriting.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39You couldn't make a living out of any kind of writing,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43except possibly journalism, and I wouldn't have been trained for that.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47And I remember the argument, endlessly, endlessly,
0:10:47 > 0:10:52used by my father - "You can do it in your spare time, old boy."
0:10:52 > 0:10:55But, of course, I later discovered this was absolute nonsense.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58You can't write in your spare time.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03'Martin Tyrrell, who teaches English and drama studies at Harrow,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06'directed me in my early days on the school stage,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10'and it was he who introduced me to Rattigan's work.'
0:11:10 > 0:11:13What in particular do you think Rattigan drew on
0:11:13 > 0:11:17from his time here, from the people and environs of this school?
0:11:17 > 0:11:22I certainly think he would have found the community very exciting,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25almost like a kind of soap opera,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29with mini-tragedies playing out.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33And he would have seen the marriages of some of the schoolteachers
0:11:33 > 0:11:38teetering on the brink. He would have seen all the politics
0:11:38 > 0:11:41that make for a boarding-school education,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45and hierarchies,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49and the drama of adolescent friendship and sudden enmities.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53It would really have been an extremely good training
0:11:53 > 0:11:55for a playwright, I think.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58While at Harrow, I was fortunate enough
0:11:58 > 0:12:02to play many roles, but one of the most memorable experiences
0:12:02 > 0:12:05was that of playing Arthur Crocker- Harris in The Browning Version,
0:12:05 > 0:12:10one of Rattigan's best-known plays. It's set in a boys' public school.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Crocker Harris is thought to be based on Rattigan's classics tutor,
0:12:14 > 0:12:16Coke-Norris.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19A failed teacher, he's being forced into early retirement,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23while at home, his unfaithful wife describes him as "dead".
0:12:23 > 0:12:26- Wilson...- Sir.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29You were late for chapel this morning.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32I have therefore submitted your name as an absentee.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35I wasn't really late, sir. Only a few seconds, sir.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38I was in the library, and you can't hear the bell.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42You will no doubt recount those excuses to your housemaster, Wilson.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45I fear I am not interested in them.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49The austere, deliberately off-putting Crocker-Harris,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53a man who knows that he is a failure,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56has projected this image
0:12:56 > 0:13:00which has earned him the soubriquet of "the Himmler of the lower fifth".
0:13:00 > 0:13:04Sir, I thought this might interest you.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07- What is it?- A verse translation of the Agamemnon -
0:13:07 > 0:13:09the Browning version.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12'And then there's this marvellous moment
0:13:12 > 0:13:18'when Taplow gives him the Browning version of the Agamemnon.'
0:13:18 > 0:13:25I think you will enjoy it more when you get used to the metre he employs.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27Oh, but it's for you, sir.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29- For me?- Yes, sir.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31I've written in it.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38'Crocker-Harris is moved to tears. It really strikes a chord...'
0:13:38 > 0:13:41- The humanisation of someone. - Humanisation,
0:13:41 > 0:13:45and also the stiff upper lip, which has been stiff and upper
0:13:45 > 0:13:50for so long, being allowed a moment of...
0:13:50 > 0:13:52- To tremble.- ..trembling, yes.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57HE SOBS
0:14:03 > 0:14:06'Rattigan's straitened family circumstances gave him the sense
0:14:06 > 0:14:09'of not really belonging at the school.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12'Public schools in Rattigan's day could be brutal places,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15'where you could be easily made to feel the outsider.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18'But he avoided being the target for bullying or exclusion,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22'largely due to his brilliance on the cricket field.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26He was an excellent batsman, and opened against Eton
0:14:26 > 0:14:29in the annual games at Lord's.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31But it wasn't just Rattigan's social standing
0:14:31 > 0:14:35which made him feel an outsider, but also his sexuality.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39It was probably in these formative years
0:14:39 > 0:14:41that Rattigan would have realised he was homosexual.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44At the time, homosexuality was illegal,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46and viewed as completely unnatural.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53He would have felt under great pressure to conform
0:14:53 > 0:14:58to gender expectations and social expectations.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02He must have felt this wrench within him.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05That's why his plays are, you know, like Coward's,
0:15:05 > 0:15:09full of figures who are tortured by their sexuality.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17In 1930, Rattigan won a scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19to read history.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23I didn't want particularly to take a degree.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26I wasn't going to do any work. I was determined about that.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29I was going to write plays, or...write something.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32I did very little work, and I spent most of the time
0:15:32 > 0:15:37either going to plays at Oxford or coming up to see plays in London,
0:15:37 > 0:15:43or, occasionally, performing - excruciatingly badly,
0:15:43 > 0:15:46and once or twice writing, but usually obscene sketches.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Whilst there, Rattigan worked on a play called First Episode,
0:15:51 > 0:15:55which focussed on the experiences of a group of university friends.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58With a small inheritance, Rattigan put up money
0:15:58 > 0:16:02towards the opening of First Episode in an experimental theatre in Kew.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05It then moved into the West End.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07Rattigan felt he had made it as a playwright,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10and decided to quit Oxford.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13But after a couple of months the play closed,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16and Rattigan found himself broke.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Humiliated, he had to move back in with his parents.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24For the next couple of years he continued to try and prove himself
0:16:24 > 0:16:26as a playwright, but had constant rejections.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32Then, in October 1936, his luck changed.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36A major show at the Criterion Theatre had unexpected flopped.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40The management needed a cheap production for a six-week gap
0:16:40 > 0:16:43until the next play was ready.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Rattigan's rejected comedy, French Without Tears,
0:16:46 > 0:16:48was offered the slot.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52French Without Tears tells the story of five students
0:16:52 > 0:16:54at a residential language school in France,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57when a beautiful, man-hunting young woman, Diana,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59is introduced into their midst.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03It was later turned into a Hollywood film,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06starring Ray Milland and Ellen Drew.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08I do love you, Alan.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11In it, Rattigan explores unreciprocated love,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14but to comic effect.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16Say that again, blast you. Say that again!
0:17:16 > 0:17:18I do love you!
0:17:19 > 0:17:22No! No!
0:17:22 > 0:17:24Chris! Bill!
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Bill! I'm starting for London tomorrow.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Never leave me alone with that girl till I'm safely on the train. Promise!
0:17:31 > 0:17:34- I promise.- I promise.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41Before the opening night, Rattigan was a bundle of nerves.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44Finding the right actors for this production hadn't been easy.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47Some of the tryouts had been a disaster.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50The dress rehearsal itself was also pretty spectacularly awful.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53So he paced the streets of London and went for a haircut,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56a thing that was to become a ritual for him on first nights.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00He went with his family to a restaurant for a meal and a bottle of champagne,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04and in the glum atmosphere, his mother, Vera, began another first-night ritual.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07She took the cork from the bottle and put it in her handbag
0:18:07 > 0:18:10as good luck.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13And with an inexperienced cast,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Rattigan was going to need all the help he could get.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20They were all unknowns. We had to cast it in a second -
0:18:20 > 0:18:24I mean over a weekend. Every sign pointed to disaster.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28When they turned up, the family found an ill-tempered audience.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32It was a wet June night. Most of them had struggled through a very busy West End.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36There were other openings - a Marlene Dietrich film, for example.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39The first 20 minutes of the play went very, very quickly.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43The actors were incredibly nervous. Harold French, the director
0:18:43 > 0:18:46cowered in his box for fear that it would all run away from them.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48But eventually they found their feet,
0:18:48 > 0:18:52and the audience were completely beguiled by the charms of the play.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54And at the end, after many cries of "author, author",
0:18:54 > 0:18:59French went to the back of the theatre and found Rattigan pressed against the wall,
0:18:59 > 0:19:02green with nerves, and eventually persuaded to drag him onto the stage
0:19:02 > 0:19:05where he took his acclaim.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07APPLAUSE
0:19:13 > 0:19:18The first-night success of French Without Tears was confirmed.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22The theatre was packed with delighted audiences every night.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25The play ran for more than a thousand performances.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29This huge commercial success launched Rattigan's career
0:19:29 > 0:19:32as a playwright. He now had money and fame.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38After the success of French Without Tears,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Rattigan embarked on a writer's round of drinking,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45parties, gambling, and a slew of affairs with attractive young men.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49All this living the high life didn't inspire any new work,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52and whether it was simply that, or a writer's block,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55it would be a couple of years before Rattigan wrote another play.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59And when he did, it would turn out to be a far more serious drama.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02After The Dance is set in 1938,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05but looks at the 1920s generation of bright young things
0:20:05 > 0:20:08who, although no longer bright or young,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12insist on partying just like in the good old days.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15I've a good mind to slap you very hard indeed.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18- Go on. Slap away, and I'll slap back.- Ooh!
0:20:18 > 0:20:23At the centre of this world is the hard-drinking historian, David Scott-Fowler.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27Joan, his wife, is unable to tell David the true depth of her feelings for him,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31even though, earlier that day, she has discovered he is in love with someone else.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35I'm glad we never made the mistake of falling in love with each other.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41Sometimes I think ours is the best basis of all for marriage.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44Perhaps it is.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46It's worked for us, hasn't it?
0:20:46 > 0:20:50It might have worked even better if we'd fallen in love with each other,
0:20:50 > 0:20:52like you and Helen.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54That's something different altogether.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59I'm not even sure that I...like Helen as a person.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01Not in the way I like you.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07I know that I love her. That's something I can't explain.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12Unable to face her husband leaving, Joan commits suicide
0:21:12 > 0:21:15by jumping from the balcony of their flat.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18Rattigan's theme here, of unequal feelings within relationships,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21returns many times in his work.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24When rehearsing and performing David Scott-Fowler
0:21:24 > 0:21:27at the National last year,
0:21:27 > 0:21:30one of the discoveries was how the intensity of this drama
0:21:30 > 0:21:34was amplified by the detailed stage directions.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38Rattigan is a joy to perform. He's a very actor-friendly writer.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41It's very clear, in the structure of his plays,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44what the character's emotional arc is over the course of the evening,
0:21:44 > 0:21:49and nowhere is that more in evidence than in his stage directions,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52which can be sublimely subtle. It could be a turn of the head,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55it could be the taking up of a cigarette,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58the changing of a record, all of which speak for unspoken emotions,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02words and thoughts. And I wanted to share one with you that happens
0:22:02 > 0:22:05at the end of After The Dance. In the previous act,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07David's wife, Joan, has committed suicide
0:22:07 > 0:22:11by throwing herself off the balcony, and, this last scene,
0:22:11 > 0:22:13David's left alone on stage.
0:22:17 > 0:22:22"David goes to the window, hesitates a moment, and then steps out on to the balcony."
0:22:26 > 0:22:30"As if making a terrific effort, he slowly leans over
0:22:30 > 0:22:32and looks down."
0:22:34 > 0:22:37"He stays in that position for a few seconds,
0:22:37 > 0:22:41and then steps back into the room, closing the window after him."
0:22:47 > 0:22:51That, for me, said everything in that moment
0:22:51 > 0:22:55about what David Scott-Fowler understood to be his fault -
0:22:55 > 0:22:58the death of his wife, and how he was coming to terms
0:22:58 > 0:23:03with the reality of what she'd done by looking over that balcony and facing his own future,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05of pretty certain death by going back to the bottle.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08It's amazing stuff.
0:23:08 > 0:23:13After The Dance first opened in June 1939.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16But war was looming. Audiences dropped off,
0:23:16 > 0:23:18and the play had to close after just six weeks,
0:23:18 > 0:23:23and, until our recent production, was rather a forgotten play.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29'I've come to the British Library, where many of Rattigan's letters and manuscripts are kept.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34'His biographer, Michael Darlow, knows this material intimately.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36'I asked him what happened to Rattigan
0:23:36 > 0:23:39'when After The Dance closed unexpectedly early.'
0:23:41 > 0:23:46After After The Dance, he got what, in effect, was a writer's block...
0:23:48 > 0:23:51..which he actually later himself described
0:23:51 > 0:23:54as a nervous breakdown, and he really couldn't write.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57And he consulted this psychiatrist,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01who advised him to, um...
0:24:01 > 0:24:05get into the services and see some active service.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15Following the outbreak of war, there was a huge surge of volunteers
0:24:15 > 0:24:17wanting to join up and fight Hitler.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Rattigan wanted to join the RAF, but the competition was fierce.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26He wouldn't have got into the Air Force,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29but the interview board... Suddenly one of them said,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32"Oh, you're the chap who wrote French Without Tears!"
0:24:32 > 0:24:34And so he got accepted for the Air Force.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Oh, boy! Er... I mean, thanks very much, sir.
0:24:39 > 0:24:44And he then launched into his training as an officer,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46air-gunner, radio operator,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49and he writes this letter, fairly early in his training,
0:24:49 > 0:24:54to his father, and describes the huge concentration required
0:24:54 > 0:24:57to remember all the drills, all the knobs you have to turn
0:24:57 > 0:24:59to get the radio equipment to work properly,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02and how it demands such total concentration,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04keeping your head.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Suddenly, um, he was in a war,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10concentrating, having to stay alive,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12having responsibility for other men.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17It transformed him, and the urge to write came back.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21In 1941, whilst on a mission in West Africa,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25Rattigan started a new play, Flare Path.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28He carried the handwritten manuscript in his kit bag
0:25:28 > 0:25:33at all times, until one long, eventful flight to Freetown.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36RATTLE OF GUNFIRE
0:25:37 > 0:25:40On the way down... We were shot at on the way down.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43We were damaged, and one of the engines packed up,
0:25:43 > 0:25:45and it looked as if we wouldn't make it.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49We had to lighten the aircraft, and everybody's luggage had to go overboard.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54And my own kit bag was just poised on the point of going over,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58when I suddenly delved into it, and, regarded with enormous suspicion
0:25:58 > 0:26:02by the rest of the crew, I began pulling the pages away
0:26:02 > 0:26:05from the hardbacked notebook, and throwing the hardback
0:26:05 > 0:26:10but keeping the paper. We arrived with two minutes' fuel.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12We were really lucky to get down,
0:26:12 > 0:26:16and I was lucky to have the manuscript of the play.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25The play features a group of airmen and their loved ones
0:26:25 > 0:26:27during the night and the following morning
0:26:27 > 0:26:29of a night-bombing mission over Germany.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32It dealt with love, fear, bravery,
0:26:32 > 0:26:34and the emotional trauma of war,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37precisely catching the mood in Britain at that time.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41On seeing it, Winston Churchill apparently said
0:26:41 > 0:26:43it was a masterpiece of understatement.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47Rattigan later adapted it into the film Way To The Stars.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53I know what you've come to tell me, Peter.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57- You do?- Yes. You see...
0:26:57 > 0:26:59he didn't ring up this evening,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02and I counted one plane missing when you came back over the town.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06Tell me just one thing.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10How much hope is there?
0:27:13 > 0:27:15I see.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19- No hope at all. - Not very much, I'm afraid.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23As well as Flare Path, many of Rattigan's dramas
0:27:23 > 0:27:27were turned into successful films for which he wrote the screenplays.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30One of the most celebrated was The Winslow Boy,
0:27:30 > 0:27:32a play which opened in 1946,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35later made into a film by Anthony Asquith.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Rattigan takes the real story of a naval cadet
0:27:38 > 0:27:41who is expelled from college for an alleged minor theft.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45It charts his father's determination to get him a fair trial.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Rattigan champions the rights of the individual
0:27:48 > 0:27:51against the legal and political establishment.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53It was seen at the time as part of a post-war move
0:27:53 > 0:27:55to greater democracy.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01- Have you ever studied Magna Carta, sir?- Not very closely, I'm afraid.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04- Have you?- Closely enough to know that there's a clause
0:28:04 > 0:28:08which states that no subject of the king may be condemned without trial.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10- My son, I presume, is a subject of the king.- Certainly.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15- And he has been condemned without trial.- From the purely civilian point of view.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17And from a purely civilian point of view,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21I'm going to fight you, sir. And I'm going to win.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32Writing for films was a lucrative business,
0:28:32 > 0:28:37and by the late '40s, Rattigan was one of the best-paid screenwriters in the world.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40JAZZ-DANCE MUSIC
0:28:43 > 0:28:46'His success bought him a lavish lifestyle,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49'both in London and in the countryside.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54'He bought himself a mansion near Ascot, called Little Court.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57'It would become famous for its weekend parties.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00'The house has been restored to its former glory
0:29:00 > 0:29:03'by the current owners. I'm meeting someone here
0:29:03 > 0:29:05'who remembers those party days well,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08'and who hasn't been back since the 1950s.'
0:29:08 > 0:29:09- Hello.- Hello!
0:29:09 > 0:29:12- Lovely to meet you. My name's Benedict.- Mine's Jean.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16'Jean Dawnay, now known as Princess Jean Galitzine
0:29:16 > 0:29:18'after marrying into Russian aristocracy,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21'was a famous fashion model,
0:29:21 > 0:29:24'and met Rattigan at a party after the war.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27'They became very close friends, and many, including Rattigan's mother,
0:29:27 > 0:29:32'thought they might one day get married.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35'She's agreed to show me round and share some of her memories.'
0:29:35 > 0:29:38- After you. Come on in.- Oh, lovely.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42Amazing.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45It's unbelievable.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49And when was the last time that you were here, Jean?
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Well, I would think about 50 or 60 years.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55- Wow. - It's strange to go back so much,
0:29:55 > 0:29:57and still have clear memories.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01I can even remember his mother sitting there. Isn't that amazing?
0:30:01 > 0:30:04I can really see her, almost. She was a very distinguished woman,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07very grande dame, very much a Victorian type of...
0:30:07 > 0:30:11Silver-white hair and lovely blue eyes,
0:30:11 > 0:30:14which is where he got his blue eyes from.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Is your memory of this room being used as an entertainment space
0:30:17 > 0:30:20- in the evening?- Absolutely. I can practically see them.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24I remember one particular party was for Marilyn Monroe,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27because she was here to make a film, The Prince And The Showgirl,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30Laurence Olivier. And so we had everybody and his wife
0:30:30 > 0:30:33you ever heard of in the theatre world.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37Great party. And she'd just got married to Arthur Miller,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40and so she was trying to rather live up to his intellect,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43and she was sweet. Very touching.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46- It feels like it was a happy place. Was it a happy place?- Oh, very.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50People longed to be asked, and they loved it when they came,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53and so on, and it was always fun.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57'Jean's relationships with various boyfriends
0:30:57 > 0:30:59'were of constant interest to Rattigan,
0:30:59 > 0:31:03'and some of her experiences inspired his female characters.'
0:31:03 > 0:31:07- That's fantastic.- Most relationships are so complicated.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09One's more keen on the other,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12or one's not sure of themselves with the other - whatever it is.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16- And did you share that in conversation with him?- Oh, yes,
0:31:16 > 0:31:18and we would analyse it all - oh, what a woman feels.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21All the time, he would always ask me, "What did he say?"
0:31:21 > 0:31:24If I had an argument with a boyfriend,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27"What did he say that made you so cross, or you made him so cross?"
0:31:27 > 0:31:31I could tell him anything, and we would talk about every situation.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36It was lovely. It was like going to a father-confessor.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39You must have seemed like the perfect couple.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43We were so happy. If one could have a relationship like that...
0:31:43 > 0:31:45- It's ideal.- Yeah.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51You know, he was...oh, homosexual.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53And, of course, now it's quite natural,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56but those days it was not at all considered natural,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59and they put people in prison. Can you imagine?
0:31:59 > 0:32:01I mean, it's unbelievable.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03But it did cause...
0:32:03 > 0:32:06People had to turn the other way, as if you didn't know.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10- And that's why I often wonder if his mother knew about it.- Mm.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14I honestly don't know whether she refused to admit it,
0:32:14 > 0:32:19or didn't know, because sometimes people were very innocent then.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22# Here we are
0:32:22 > 0:32:24# Out of cigarettes
0:32:24 > 0:32:27# Holding hands and yawning
0:32:27 > 0:32:29# Look how late it gets
0:32:29 > 0:32:31# Two sleepy people
0:32:31 > 0:32:34# By dawn's early light
0:32:34 > 0:32:38# And too much in love to say good night #
0:32:38 > 0:32:41'Visiting Rattigan's house in the Berkshire countryside
0:32:41 > 0:32:45'and chatting to Jean has given me a real sense of his lifestyle
0:32:45 > 0:32:47'in the early '50s.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49'He obviously spent lots of time writing here,
0:32:49 > 0:32:51'but also knew how to enjoy himself,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55'and it seems his diary was pretty full of socialising and parties.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00'But as Jean told me, behind the public persona,
0:33:00 > 0:33:05'there were secrets. He had to keep his intimate relationships private.'
0:33:05 > 0:33:07Hello, Benedict. You found your way, then?
0:33:07 > 0:33:10- It's good to see you. - Lovely to meet you.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12Come in and we'll have a little talk in the saloon.
0:33:12 > 0:33:17'One of Rattigan's partners at this time was Adrian Brown.
0:33:17 > 0:33:23'Adrian started a six-year relationship with the 44-year-old Rattigan when he was just 22.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27'I asked him how difficult it was to keep an affair like theirs secret.'
0:33:27 > 0:33:29Well, it wasn't hard if you were gay,
0:33:29 > 0:33:31because there were all sorts... HE LAUGHS
0:33:31 > 0:33:35..of private societies, private clubs and this sort of thing.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37It was great fun, to tell you the truth.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40No-one must know about it, because it wouldn't be nice,
0:33:40 > 0:33:43- and everybody had to be nice. - Did you ever meet Vera Rattigan?
0:33:43 > 0:33:46- Did you ever meet his mother? - No. I never met her at all.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49I had quite expected that tea parties would take place,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52that sort of thing, but they never did,
0:33:52 > 0:33:56so I never met the good lady, or did any of his other chums,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59because Mother then might discover that he was not quite nice, you see.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03He had these strange proclivities, and Mother must be protected.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07The man of great sophistication and ease and bon viveur,
0:34:07 > 0:34:11and the wit, the person who is comfortable in his skin in public -
0:34:11 > 0:34:14was he at all different in private?
0:34:14 > 0:34:17No, not really. He was always very witty and well dressed.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20He had a good tournure de phrase.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23He could bring back a repartee to any question.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26It was this, and the cigarette would be held up there
0:34:26 > 0:34:28until he was ready to smoke it again,
0:34:28 > 0:34:33and there would usually be a gin and tonic in the other hand.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35- Dosing with both hands all the time. - Yes.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38'The social-butterfly image of Rattigan
0:34:38 > 0:34:41'is certainly in keeping with his desire to entertain
0:34:41 > 0:34:43'within his plays. However, he was not content
0:34:43 > 0:34:47'to purely be a Noel Coward figure. There was another side to him,
0:34:47 > 0:34:51'which wanted to be seen as a serious dramatist.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55He preferred to be thought of for the undertones
0:34:55 > 0:34:59and the subtext writing that he could do in the Chekhovian manner.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03He was not quite as good at the comedies as Noel Coward was,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07but he was better at the serious plays than Noel Coward was,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10so he valued himself on the serious plays
0:35:10 > 0:35:15like The Winslow Boy and The Browning Version.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17Those were where he thought he was going.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21# I'm sitting on top of the world
0:35:22 > 0:35:25# Just rolling along
0:35:25 > 0:35:27# Just rolling along #
0:35:28 > 0:35:30Alongside Noel Coward,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33Rattigan was fast becoming one of the UK's leading playwrights.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37At the time, the theatre establishment was run by a small group of men,
0:35:37 > 0:35:41an elite group, and at the head of that was a man called Binkie Beaumont,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44a theatre manager of notorious influence and power.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48He was the puppet-master of the West End,
0:35:48 > 0:35:51controlling exactly which productions would get the go-ahead.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56He was homosexual, and his preference for working with other homosexuals was notorious.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01If you didn't fit into Binkie's set, you had no chance in the West End.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04He would have a big influence on Rattigan's fate.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08He was said to be suave, sophisticated, well dressed
0:36:08 > 0:36:11and well mannered, with a smile always on his face
0:36:11 > 0:36:13even at his most ruthless.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18With his background and his success,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Rattigan fitted naturally into Binkie's set.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25And although he wanted to be considered as a serious playwright,
0:36:25 > 0:36:27he wrote a controversial article in 1950
0:36:27 > 0:36:33which linked him even more closely with the entertainment-driven commercial theatre of Beaumont.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36There was a long tradition in British theatre,
0:36:36 > 0:36:41going back to Bernard Shaw, of writing plays which engage with social issues.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44But in his article, Rattigan attacked what he called
0:36:44 > 0:36:46"the play of ideas" for being too concerned
0:36:46 > 0:36:48with contemporary problems.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54Rattigan says, "I don't think that ideas, per se,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57social, political or moral, have a very important place in theatre."
0:36:57 > 0:37:01"They definitely take third place to character and narrative, anyway."
0:37:01 > 0:37:05And then the bit that got him into real trouble - "The trouble with theatre today
0:37:05 > 0:37:08is not that so few writers refuse to look facts in the face
0:37:08 > 0:37:11but that so many refuse to look at anything else."
0:37:11 > 0:37:14The critical storm that joined this article
0:37:14 > 0:37:16was quite unprecedented.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21He became identified with safe, conservative, commercial choices
0:37:21 > 0:37:23in the theatre world.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28And the commercial theatre of the time was still restricted
0:37:28 > 0:37:30in what it could show.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33All plays had to be approved by the Lord Chamberlain,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36effectively a censor, before they could be performed.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39In 1952, Rattigan wrote a play inspired
0:37:39 > 0:37:42by the suicide of one of his lovers, Kenneth Morgan,
0:37:42 > 0:37:46called The Deep Blue Sea. It's believed the earliest drafts
0:37:46 > 0:37:49focussed on a failed homosexual relationship,
0:37:49 > 0:37:51but this would never have been accepted.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56The final version, with a heterosexual couple,
0:37:56 > 0:37:58was a huge West End success.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01Deep Blue Sea ran for 500 performances,
0:38:01 > 0:38:03and Rattigan wrote the screenplay for the film
0:38:03 > 0:38:06starring Vivien Leigh and Kenneth More.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27The Deep Blue Sea's main character is Hester.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31Driven by passion, she leaves her upper-class husband
0:38:31 > 0:38:34to live with a younger man. But when he decides to leave,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37her fragile new world starts to crumble.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41Hes, this is our last chance. We're death to each other, you and I.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45- It's not true.- It is, darling, and you've known it longer than I have.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48- I haven't finished them! - Well, all right.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50SHE SOBS
0:38:50 > 0:38:54Oh, I'm sorry, Hes. Oh, I'm sorry. Please don't cry!
0:38:54 > 0:38:57You don't know what it does to me. I've got to get out of here.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00Not this minute, Freddie! Not just this minute!
0:39:00 > 0:39:03- You've got all your things here. - I'll send for them.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06But you promised you'd be in for dinner. You can't break a promise!
0:39:06 > 0:39:10Don't leave me alone, Freddie! Don't leave me alone tonight!
0:39:10 > 0:39:13Not tonight, Freddie! Not tonight!
0:39:13 > 0:39:15Come back, Freddie! Don't go, Freddie!
0:39:15 > 0:39:18- SHE SOBS - Don't go, Freddie!
0:39:18 > 0:39:21Freddie, don't leave me alone tonight.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24SHE SOBS
0:39:33 > 0:39:36'As part of the wide revival of Rattigan's work,
0:39:36 > 0:39:40'a new feature film of The Deep Blue Sea is being produced.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46'I've come to a sound studio in Soho, London,
0:39:46 > 0:39:49'where the film's director, Terence Davies,
0:39:49 > 0:39:54'is adding the finishing touches to the sound.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57'He's going to let me have a rare sneak peek at it.'
0:39:57 > 0:39:59Beware of passion, Hester.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03It always leads to something ugly.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08What would you replace it with?
0:40:11 > 0:40:14A guarded enthusiasm.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19My first experience of the play was seeing it at the Almeida.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23It was a school outing, and it was the most extraordinary experience,
0:40:23 > 0:40:27and one of the main reasons why I took this nonsense profession up
0:40:27 > 0:40:30and really had a go at being an actor.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34I'm fascinated to know what drew you to The Deep Blue Sea
0:40:34 > 0:40:38- as potential for film. - Well, it came out of the blue.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42I didn't really know it. Sean O'Connor, one of the producers,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45asked if I'd like to do a Rattigan,
0:40:45 > 0:40:48and the only one I remembered was The Deep Blue Sea,
0:40:48 > 0:40:52and so I said, "Well, I'll read it." And at first I was very worried,
0:40:52 > 0:40:56because I didn't really know what it was about subtextually.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59So I read it a few more times, and I said, "I know what it's about now."
0:40:59 > 0:41:02"It's about love, the nature of love,
0:41:02 > 0:41:05of one person wanting a kind of love from the other person
0:41:05 > 0:41:10which the other person can't give." Once I knew that, I said I'd do it.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14Why I was drawn to it was that here was someone
0:41:14 > 0:41:18who's actually very conventional, and has married for companionship
0:41:18 > 0:41:22and not sexuality, because Collyer was a nice man,
0:41:22 > 0:41:27and then she finds sex. She finds eroticism and sex.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30And that's so powerful that it consumes her.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33She leaves her husband and goes and lives with a man.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35That you did not do in the '50s.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38What's she going to do? How is she going to live?
0:41:38 > 0:41:41And she takes that risk without actually thinking about the risk.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46That's what's extraordinary - that you can be overwhelmed
0:41:46 > 0:41:48by this emotion called love,
0:41:48 > 0:41:52but also, I suppose, what I did respond to deeply
0:41:52 > 0:41:55is the fact that she's an outsider, and I feel like an outsider.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59Always have done, even though I'm the eldest of ten children.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02I've always felt as though I've been looking in at life.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Other people participate in life, and I seem to always just look at it.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08And that's what I liked about it as well.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13'Rattigan, too, was undoubtedly an outsider.
0:42:13 > 0:42:18'Although he was hugely successful and mixed in all the right circles,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20'he was an onlooker of life,
0:42:20 > 0:42:24'unable to be open about his homosexuality
0:42:24 > 0:42:27'in his private life, or directly express it in his work.
0:42:28 > 0:42:33'In 1953, following the critical success of The Deep Blue Sea,
0:42:33 > 0:42:35'Rattigan wrote a much lighter affair,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38'The Sleeping Prince.'
0:42:39 > 0:42:42Despite being commercially successful,
0:42:42 > 0:42:44it disappointed the critics.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47Rattigan was becoming highly sensitive to their criticism,
0:42:47 > 0:42:50and used a preface to a new collection of his works
0:42:50 > 0:42:54to argue that, just because his plays were commercially successful,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57there was no reason not to take them seriously.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00To help his argument, he invented a comic character called Aunt Edna,
0:43:00 > 0:43:04an aging lady theatregoer living in a Kensington hotel.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08"Aunt Edna does not appreciate Kafka - 'so obscure, my dear,
0:43:08 > 0:43:10and why always look at the dark side of things?' -
0:43:10 > 0:43:14she is upset by Picasso - 'those dreadful reds, my dear,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17and why three noses?' - and she is against Walton -
0:43:17 > 0:43:20'such appalling discords, my dear, and no melody at all'."
0:43:20 > 0:43:23"She is, in short, a hopeless lowbrow,
0:43:23 > 0:43:27and the great novelist, the master painter, and the composer of genius
0:43:27 > 0:43:32are, and can afford to be as disregarding of her tastes as she is unappreciative of their works."
0:43:32 > 0:43:35"Not so, unhappily, the playwright,
0:43:35 > 0:43:39for should he displease Aunt Edna, he is utterly lost."
0:43:39 > 0:43:43"'Oh, it was so dull, my dears. Don't think of going to it at all.'"
0:43:43 > 0:43:46"'So much talk. So little action! So difficult to see the actors' faces,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49and even the tea was cold.'"
0:43:54 > 0:43:56Ugh!
0:43:56 > 0:43:59Aunt Edna was intended as a light-hearted creation,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03but she quickly came to be seen as synonymous with Rattigan himself.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06Yet again, Rattigan had helped to pigeonhole himself
0:44:06 > 0:44:08as belonging to a rather old-fashioned,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12light, commercial theatre - a spectacular own goal.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15But in his next play, Rattigan would once again display
0:44:15 > 0:44:18his more serious side.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24Separate Tables explored the difficulties
0:44:24 > 0:44:28of honest sexual expression. It opened in 1954,
0:44:28 > 0:44:32and two years later was made into an award-winning film.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36One of the central characters, played in the film by David Niven, is the major.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38I rather think you mean a lot to her.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41He's uncovered as a fraud who has been arrested for molesting women
0:44:41 > 0:44:44in a local cinema.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47One's awfully apt to try and excuse oneself sometimes by saying,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50"Well, what I do doesn't do anybody else much harm."
0:44:51 > 0:44:55But one does, you see, and it's not a thought that I like very much.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03Well, mustn't miss the old train, what, what?
0:45:03 > 0:45:06In Rattigan's original script,
0:45:06 > 0:45:08the major's offence was a homosexual one,
0:45:08 > 0:45:10but again Rattigan toned it down
0:45:10 > 0:45:13to avoid the Lord Chamberlain's blue pencil
0:45:13 > 0:45:15and appeal to a mainstream audience.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19Paranoia about homosexuality had re-emerged with a vengeance
0:45:19 > 0:45:22after the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War,
0:45:22 > 0:45:26and there was a concerted drive against male vice,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29with a huge increase in arrests.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32The early 1950s were characterised by a series
0:45:32 > 0:45:34of notorious homosexual scandals.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37The rich and the famous became targets,
0:45:37 > 0:45:41including Sir John Gielgud, the foremost classical actor
0:45:41 > 0:45:45of his generation. He was arrested for gross indecency.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48His court appearance and arrest caused a sensation
0:45:48 > 0:45:51in the tabloid press, and the exposure risked his both reputation
0:45:51 > 0:45:57and his career. The judge fined him £10 and told him to see a doctor.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05'With such stories hitting the press,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08'it was understandable that Rattigan should feel constrained
0:46:08 > 0:46:12'about addressing homosexuality in his work.'
0:46:12 > 0:46:16But by 1956, the social mood in Britain was changing,
0:46:16 > 0:46:20and, ironically, a more overt theatre was emerging,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24but outside the commercial theatre of the West End.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27Here at the Royal Court in Sloane Square,
0:46:27 > 0:46:30a man called George Devine was encouraging a new generation
0:46:30 > 0:46:35of young writers and directors who hated the middle-brow, middle-class theatre of Binkie Beaumont.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40Rattigan could hardly have imagined what effect
0:46:40 > 0:46:43an evening trip to a new play at this theatre would have
0:46:43 > 0:46:45on his future career.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50Rattigan had an apartment here in Eaton Square,
0:46:50 > 0:46:54so he didn't have far to travel on the night of the 8th of May 1956
0:46:54 > 0:46:58to Sloane Square, to attend the world premiere of Look Back In Anger,
0:46:58 > 0:47:00a play by a very young new talent, John Osborne.
0:47:00 > 0:47:05It was a night that was to mark the beginning of Rattigan's fall from grace,
0:47:05 > 0:47:07and it would be many years until one of his plays
0:47:07 > 0:47:10was applauded in a London theatre again.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16'Not for nothing would Osborne and other writers at the Royal Court
0:47:16 > 0:47:18'become known as the "angry young men",
0:47:18 > 0:47:20'as Rattigan was about to find out.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24'Osborne's play was the catalyst for their new movement.'
0:47:25 > 0:47:30If only something, something, would happen to you,
0:47:30 > 0:47:32wake you up out of your beauty sleep!
0:47:34 > 0:47:36If you could have a child, and it would die.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40Let it grow, let a recognisable human face emerge
0:47:40 > 0:47:43from that little mass of India rubber and wrinkles.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47Please, now, please! If only I could watch you face that.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50I wonder if you might even become a recognisable human being yourself,
0:47:50 > 0:47:53but I doubt it!
0:47:53 > 0:47:56- CHURCH BELLS RING - Now the bloody bells have started!
0:47:56 > 0:47:59In the central character of Look Back In Anger,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02Jimmy Porter, a new generation had found its voice.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05Stop those bells! There's somebody going crazy in here.
0:48:05 > 0:48:07Don't want to hear them!
0:48:07 > 0:48:11# I feel the weather is changing
0:48:11 > 0:48:13# You're growing colder #
0:48:13 > 0:48:16To them, Rattigan and his ilk represented
0:48:16 > 0:48:20what one of them would call "the pale side of the establishment" -
0:48:20 > 0:48:23an establishment they intended to sweep away.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31Rattigan came here for the opening night of Look Back In Anger
0:48:31 > 0:48:34with Binkie Beaumont, who had to restrain him in his seat
0:48:34 > 0:48:37to stop him from leaving early. When the play did finish,
0:48:37 > 0:48:40he was asked for his opinion by a journalist,
0:48:40 > 0:48:43to which he flippantly replied it seemed to him
0:48:43 > 0:48:47that John Osborne was saying, "Look, Ma, I'm not Terence Rattigan."
0:48:47 > 0:48:51This glib response proved him dangerously out of touch with the younger generation,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54and it was seized upon by the press to begin the damaging contrast
0:48:54 > 0:48:58between him and the younger generation of writers.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Playwright David Hare was the resident dramatist
0:49:02 > 0:49:05here at the Royal Court in the early '70s.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09'Though inspired to become a writer by the angry young men,
0:49:09 > 0:49:12'he has a more complicated attitude to Rattigan,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16'whilst respecting some of his work as a playwright.'
0:49:16 > 0:49:19The two greatest plays are The Browning Version,
0:49:19 > 0:49:22which I think is a masterpiece, and The Deep Blue Sea,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25which I think is also a masterpiece. There are some very good plays,
0:49:25 > 0:49:29like The Winslow Boy and Separate Tables, which are very good plays.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31But his subject, in those great plays,
0:49:31 > 0:49:35is so...harrowing, which...
0:49:35 > 0:49:38And I would take Rattigan's true subject to be...
0:49:38 > 0:49:43the impossibility of escaping who you are.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46You're born with a character,
0:49:46 > 0:49:51which is your fate, your destiny, and you can struggle, but you can't -
0:49:51 > 0:49:55- It's a Greek theme.- Why do you think he fell out of favour?
0:49:55 > 0:49:58It wasn't so much that Rattigan was out of favour
0:49:58 > 0:50:02with the British theatre as that he'd written most of his best work.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05In my opinion, he wrote most of his best work
0:50:05 > 0:50:07by the time the Royal Court came along
0:50:07 > 0:50:09and different kinds of writers appeared.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12The Royal Court represented an attempt
0:50:12 > 0:50:16to put plays into the repertory
0:50:16 > 0:50:19which were not necessarily about mainstream, middle-class subjects,
0:50:19 > 0:50:21but about the rest of the population.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24The country's changing and the theatre's changing with it,
0:50:24 > 0:50:29and when it happens, it's so... both invigorating to Rattigan,
0:50:29 > 0:50:32and threatening to him at the same time.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Rattigan's next play, Variation On A Theme,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39was slated by reviewers.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44Any play I wrote was going to get smashed.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46I had no chance with anything.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49They just didn't say why they didn't like it.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53They just said that it must be bad because it is old, effete.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55It is the old theatre.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59'Rattigan didn't do himself any favours
0:50:59 > 0:51:01'by painting himself as a martyr,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03'but even so, the critics were ferocious,
0:51:03 > 0:51:05'and one of those, Benedict Nightingale,
0:51:05 > 0:51:07'now thinks that they went too far.'
0:51:07 > 0:51:11I saw Look Back In Anger, and I was very influenced by that.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14I put on my blue suede shoes and drainpipe trousers, saw the play,
0:51:14 > 0:51:17and to me at that time, Rattigan represented everything
0:51:17 > 0:51:21that was reactionary, and because of the invention of Aunt Edna,
0:51:21 > 0:51:24a bit Philistine, too. I feel I was wrong.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27I saw only one side of him. I think an awful lot of us did.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31He categorised himself as someone who was anti the zeitgeist
0:51:31 > 0:51:37of the time, anti the social drama that was so important at the time.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39# No money
0:51:39 > 0:51:42# Forget the money #
0:51:42 > 0:51:44Feeling rejected by the theatre world,
0:51:44 > 0:51:46Rattigan spent much of the '60s abroad,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49living in Bermuda and spending time in Hollywood.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53He wrote many successful screenplays for television and film,
0:51:53 > 0:51:55including The VIPs and The Yellow Rolls Royce.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57But for me, it was a period
0:51:57 > 0:52:00where Rattigan's quality of writing dropped.
0:52:00 > 0:52:02Softened by spongers and sycophants,
0:52:02 > 0:52:05and stagnating by retreating into this old world,
0:52:05 > 0:52:08he remained very out of keeping with the times.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12Nightingale's reviews of the plays would often get a reply from him.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16He wrote me quite a few letters, but he was writing everyone letters.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19I think he stayed up very late at night.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22I think he drank quite a lot. I think he was deeply unhappy
0:52:22 > 0:52:25and alienated, and felt an awful failure,
0:52:25 > 0:52:29and hated himself for all sorts of reasons,
0:52:29 > 0:52:32and what he could do was simply scrawl and write.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36I mean, here are some of the...frankly, scrawls,
0:52:36 > 0:52:40and they're rather incoherent at times.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44This is a postcard Rattigan sent you from his home in Bermuda,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47so it must have been quite late on. January the 24th, but not a year.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51It says, "Dear Benedict Nightingale, I must seize a wobbly pen
0:52:51 > 0:52:54to thank you for a notice that has given me more pleasure and pride
0:52:54 > 0:52:57than any that I can remember. I'm afraid that it's my own fault."
0:52:57 > 0:53:00"I damned myself by that idiotic invention
0:53:00 > 0:53:04in a hastily written preface 22 years ago of Aunt Edna."
0:53:04 > 0:53:07"I've never been allowed to bury the old bitch,
0:53:07 > 0:53:09or even explain more seriously what I meant by her
0:53:09 > 0:53:12(something like Shakespeare's groundlings,
0:53:12 > 0:53:14who have to be satisfied). It doesn't matter."
0:53:14 > 0:53:17"No regrets. Thank you again."
0:53:17 > 0:53:19"Deeply, Terence Rattigan."
0:53:19 > 0:53:24It's a terribly moving admission of a failing.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26Things got very difficult for him.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29But his desperation is what shows through.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31That's what I find distressing, actually.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34He was desperate for acknowledgment,
0:53:34 > 0:53:36much more than any other playwright I know.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39He thought they were probably right about him.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42He thought he was a failure, and, my God, he was not a failure.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46Rattigan's health deteriorated throughout the '60s.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49It wasn't clear what illness he had,
0:53:49 > 0:53:53but it can't have been helped by his heavy drinking.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57But in 1971, Rattigan returned to England to receive a knighthood
0:53:57 > 0:53:59in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02He was only the second playwright to receive such an honour
0:54:02 > 0:54:06since the First World War, the first being Noel Coward.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09A year later, he was diagnosed with leukaemia.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12He was dying when he wrote his final play,
0:54:12 > 0:54:14Cause Celebre.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17Cause Celebre was based on a real-life scandal
0:54:17 > 0:54:21that happened in 1935. Alma Rattenbury,
0:54:21 > 0:54:23the wife of a retired architect,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26began an affair with their 18-year-old chauffeur.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28The chauffeur, in a fit of jealousy and pique,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31bludgeoned the husband to death with a mallet.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35Both were charged with his murder and tried at the Old Bailey,
0:54:35 > 0:54:37and you can see from newspaper articles at the time
0:54:37 > 0:54:40that the trial caused quite a sensation,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43with the public crying out for this scarlet woman's blood.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45I remember the case well.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48I was, er...what, 24?
0:54:48 > 0:54:52And I remember having violent arguments with my family about it.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Of course, naturally both my mother and father hated her
0:54:55 > 0:54:58as a symbol of everything that was dreadful,
0:54:58 > 0:55:03but I, as a budding dramatist, thought that she had a case.
0:55:03 > 0:55:05THEY LAUGH
0:55:05 > 0:55:09- Oh, very good! - Well, I'm not quite Fred Astaire.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11No, and I'm not Ginger Rogers.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23Oh, I just want to go on and on like this.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29I want to go on and on like this till the end of the world.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35'I asked Thea Sharrock, the director of the recent hit production
0:55:35 > 0:55:37'of Cause Celebre at London's Old Vic,
0:55:37 > 0:55:39'why Rattigan chose Alma's scandal in the '30s
0:55:39 > 0:55:43'for a play performed in the '70s.'
0:55:43 > 0:55:45She was turned into a monster by the media,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48because people couldn't believe a woman could behave
0:55:48 > 0:55:51in the way that she did, and yet in 1977,
0:55:51 > 0:55:54she must have felt so normal, and now she feels even more normal.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58And so yet again he's kind of put his finger on the pulse
0:55:58 > 0:56:01and managed to track down a particular character...
0:56:01 > 0:56:03- And show the relevance across time. - Exactly!
0:56:03 > 0:56:07Mrs Davenport, I understand from the jury bailiff
0:56:07 > 0:56:10that you wish to be excused jury service
0:56:10 > 0:56:13- on the grounds of conscience. - Yes, My Lord.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17From this particular jury on this particular case.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20Interwoven with Alma's story is the fictitious Edith Davenport,
0:56:20 > 0:56:24a sexually repressed woman thought to be based on Rattigan's mother.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29I... I have a deep prejudice
0:56:29 > 0:56:31against that woman.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34There's something really interesting about his last play
0:56:34 > 0:56:39managing to kind of wrap up the big themes of love
0:56:39 > 0:56:41and sex and marriage,
0:56:41 > 0:56:45and somehow he's managed to put his own mother right in the heart of it.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49There's something really arresting about that.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54Rattigan attended the opening night of his final play.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56He was there to hear the applause
0:56:56 > 0:57:00as Cause Celebre was acclaimed by both the critics and the public.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05After 20 years in the wilderness,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09Rattigan's reputation was finally on the turn.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12It feels very gratifying, and it's also something
0:57:12 > 0:57:14I didn't think would happen to me.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17I'd always thought they had been a bit unfair to me,
0:57:17 > 0:57:22and I always thought that justice would one day be done.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25Only weeks after Cause Celebre opened,
0:57:25 > 0:57:29Sir Terence Rattigan died. He was 66.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36'It's been fascinating finding out more about Rattigan -
0:57:36 > 0:57:40'a man who was a social insider, yet always an emotional outsider.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44'The intolerance and prejudice of society
0:57:44 > 0:57:47'forced him to hide his own sexuality.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49'Many of his characters in his work
0:57:49 > 0:57:53'have to live with their own inability to express themselves,
0:57:53 > 0:57:56'creating a powerful tension at the heart of his plays.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00'And yet I see his work as a plea for openness and honesty.'
0:58:02 > 0:58:04One of Rattigan's ambitions was to write plays
0:58:04 > 0:58:07that would be remembered 50 years on,
0:58:07 > 0:58:10and in this, his centenary year, he certainly achieved that.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14He was a master of human emotion, and he wrote plays
0:58:14 > 0:58:17that contained themes which were relevant universally
0:58:17 > 0:58:19to all human relationships.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23I think it's that that truly makes him a great playwright,
0:58:23 > 0:58:25and someone who's revered even today,
0:58:25 > 0:58:28100 years after his birth.
0:58:30 > 0:58:34Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:34 > 0:58:38E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk
0:58:38 > 0:58:38.