Letters: Harold Pinter Published on Wed 31 Dec 2008
Philip Purser writes: The television work of Harold Pinter (obituary, 27 December) was formidable and useful in making his name known to the masses. In April 1960 he came top of the audience ratings with A Night Out. Only four months later came another nocturnal title, Night School, about blighted youth, to seal his mastery of what might be called misery-comedy.
In 1962 the Eurovision partnership launched a daring annual venture, The Largest Theatre in the World, whereby on a given day every country should transmit its own production, in its own tongue, of a specially written TV drama. Britain opened the batting with Terence Rattigan's Heart to Heart, then came Italy, and next should have been France, but Jean Cocteau died before he had finished his script. The BBC was invited to fill the gap, and did so with Pinter's The Tea Party, a claustrophobic piece about a self-made tycoon driven to despair by the advent of a new wife, a new brother-in-law and a new secretary.
But perhaps the greatest tribute to his work came in another prestigious drama project, Granada's Best Play of ... anthology, which originally aimed to pick the best work of each year of the century (although in the end only six were made and screened between 1976 and 1978), which Laurence Olivier supervised, starred in, or both. The choice was always a theatrical masterpiece, except the one for 1961, when Olivier and his producer Derek Granger picked a television play - Harold Pinter's The Collection, with Olivier himself giving a striking new slant to the part of an elderly homosexual.
Hilary Wainwright writes:
At Red Pepper magazine, we saw a practical side of Harold Pinter. Sometimes it was advice, with great attention to detail, for example, on the magazine's launch. Sometimes it was sheer, self-sacrificing dedication, attending bedraggled meetings in chilly rooms above a pub and rekindling enthusiasm. Sometimes it was the enjoyment of a convivial AGM and party beneath the dilapidated chandeliers of the Irish Club in Eaton Square.
He had a fierce determination that was infectious. In the difficult days of founding Red Pepper, he made Denise Searle, its first editor, and I feel that we had to make it work. It would probably not have come into being without him. Financial support was the least of it, though he was generous when others saw the project as a well-meant fantasy. He gave us ideas, opened his address book, even rallied his friends when New Labour tried (unsuccessfully) to to ban us from the party conference, and occasionally wrote, beautifully and passionately. What struck me always was his political courage and complete absence of deference.
Philip Purser writes: The television work of Harold Pinter (obituary, 27 December) was formidable and useful in making his name known to the masses. In April 1960 he came top of the audience ratings with A Night Out. Only four months later came another nocturnal title, Night School, about blighted youth, to seal his mastery of what might be called misery-comedy.
In 1962 the Eurovision partnership launched a daring annual venture, The Largest Theatre in the World, whereby on a given day every country should transmit its own production, in its own tongue, of a specially written TV drama. Britain opened the batting with Terence Rattigan's Heart to Heart, then came Italy, and next should have been France, but Jean Cocteau died before he had finished his script. The BBC was invited to fill the gap, and did so with Pinter's The Tea Party, a claustrophobic piece about a self-made tycoon driven to despair by the advent of a new wife, a new brother-in-law and a new secretary.
But perhaps the greatest tribute to his work came in another prestigious drama project, Granada's Best Play of ... anthology, which originally aimed to pick the best work of each year of the century (although in the end only six were made and screened between 1976 and 1978), which Laurence Olivier supervised, starred in, or both. The choice was always a theatrical masterpiece, except the one for 1961, when Olivier and his producer Derek Granger picked a television play - Harold Pinter's The Collection, with Olivier himself giving a striking new slant to the part of an elderly homosexual.
Hilary Wainwright writes:
At Red Pepper magazine, we saw a practical side of Harold Pinter. Sometimes it was advice, with great attention to detail, for example, on the magazine's launch. Sometimes it was sheer, self-sacrificing dedication, attending bedraggled meetings in chilly rooms above a pub and rekindling enthusiasm. Sometimes it was the enjoyment of a convivial AGM and party beneath the dilapidated chandeliers of the Irish Club in Eaton Square.
He had a fierce determination that was infectious. In the difficult days of founding Red Pepper, he made Denise Searle, its first editor, and I feel that we had to make it work. It would probably not have come into being without him. Financial support was the least of it, though he was generous when others saw the project as a well-meant fantasy. He gave us ideas, opened his address book, even rallied his friends when New Labour tried (unsuccessfully) to to ban us from the party conference, and occasionally wrote, beautifully and passionately. What struck me always was his political courage and complete absence of deference.
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