Reply With QuoteThanks for the heads up. I went to the same school as John Braine ( not at the same timeOriginally Posted by Merton Park
) and have always been interested in the book. The cast looks great for a faithful adaptation.
Starting on Thursday 7 April BBC4 a new two part version of the great Room at the Top.
BBC - BBC Four Programmes - Room at the Top
Thanks for the heads up. I went to the same school as John Braine ( not at the same time
With Maxine Peake in the Simone Signoret role as Alice, the older, unhappily married woman. It was Simone who carried the 1959 as much, if not more than Laurence Harvey (& Simone got top billing). Let's hope that Maxine maintains her recent high standard
Steve
Have they pulled it from the schedule? The BBC4 site linked to above says "Sorry, no programmes coming up", and it's not on the schedule for 7 April. Their schedule says they're showing the 2007 adaptation of Fanny Hill
Steve
I agree, Simone was all wrong on paper but did carry the film though I do think it was one of Laurence's better performances ( faint praise I know) but he was always better in in unlikeable parts.
That's odd, it still shows on the remote Sky Plus app as Thursday, but when I looked at the BBC 4 website it now says Fanny Hill. A bit strange.
Thanks for the info, sounds very promising
Now the Sky Plus app says it's Fanny tonight and not RATT..
??
I'd rather see the originals. A remake would make just as much sense if they were to re-set it into these modern days of men marrying celebrity women, or seducing the daughters of men such as Murdoch, Goldsmith or Maxwell, but turning a Fifties *angry young man* drama into what can only become a costume epic with more explicit sex scenes just seems wrong somehow and....... futile.
I am not looking forward to the new Room at the Top. I expect BBC4 will 'sex it up' (as they always do......).
Is performing sex acts convincingly on screen now part of the RADA curriculum ?
To be fair, the sex in the originals was pretty shocking for the time, but back then it had a dramatic purpose. Who is going to be *shocked* by the cynical use of sex nowadays? They might be titillated but it will all seem perfectly normal to be bonking anyone you can lay your grasping fingers on...
Man on the Top perhaps..........
They could insitute the "Robin Askwith Award"?
Apparently the non-appearance of this production was due to some kind of copyright dispute
New BBC drama hit by rights row
(UKPA) � 19 hours ago
A rights row prompted the BBC to pull its dramatisation of classic 1950s novel Room At The Top at the last moment.
The adaptation, starring Silk's Maxine Peake, was due to be screened on BBC4 last night.
But cautious BBC bosses put the broadcast on ice while they look into a potential dispute over the screen rights.
A BBC spokesman said: "Transmission of Room At The Top has been postponed while we address a potential contractual issue which has emerged in the last few days."
Based on the acclaimed 1957 novel by John Braine, Room At The Top stars Matthew McNulty as Joe Lampton, a ruthlessly ambitious, working-class Yorkshireman, who will do anything to climb the social ladder.
Braine died in 1986 and his widow, Pat, 79, who receives royalties from his works, gave her approval for the BBC adaptation.
Instead of airing the first episode of the sexually charged two-part drama last night, BBC4 showed a repeat of erotic costume drama Fanny Hill in the advertised time slot.
The book was previously adapted into a film in 1959 for which Simone Signoret won an Oscar for her performance as Alice, the married woman who seduces Lampton.
Thames Television made a TV series Man At The Top, which revolved around Lampton's exploits that led to a spin-off film.
Last edited by Hugo; 09-04-11 at 12:34 PM.
Sounds like gross incompetence to spend several million � on a production without clearing all these issues beforehand....
Do Romulus films (producers of the 1959 film) still have an interest in the property ? The least they could do was check this beforehand !
Very unusual for the BBC to make what really is a schoolboy error ... what a waste of money if they can't get agreement on this and have to shelve the production.
If only they did spend several million on some of their productions
Steve
Oooooops let's hope it gets sorted out
The other party own the TV rights apparently and it is thought to stem from Man At The Top. Could be that they don't own RATT but do own the TV rights to the Lampton character.
I noticed AA Gill gave his review in the Sunday Times from his advance DVD copy - Peake is praised, McNulty dismissed
It is a very frustrating situation for the viewers waiting to see it, and then being told it was being pulled, due to some rights issues. To make the wait for a resolution more unbearable, the BBC aren't able to give us a fresh broadcast date. I reckon that by the time that this issue has been sorted out, broadcast dates for other upcoming dramas will most likely have been sorted out in advance, probably during the period that the matter of a second party questioning adaptation rights already given to the BBC is resolved, and that will very probably mean that they won't be able to find an alternative broadcast date, leading them to shelve it permanently and release it on DVD in 2012.
Regards.
Last edited by Gemini71; 16-04-11 at 06:37 PM.
It's now December, and the BBC haven't given those of us still waiting to see it a broadcast date. Has there any been any fresh information regarding the rights dispute and the subsequent possibility of a new transmission date?
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