Mike Newell – What Was Pebble Mill?

Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration

Here are some grabs from Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration, a Second City First transmitted in April 1976. It is a very strange and disturbing play by Ian McEwan, about the oppressive relationships that both Jack Flea’s mother and partner, have with him. It was shown in April 2016 at the mac, as part of the Flatpack Film Festival.

Here is the entry from the Radio Times, courtesy of the BBC Genome project, http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/689430d99ef64c58a1b6c3c947b854fc

“A series of new plays from Birmingham
Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration by IAN MCEWAN
Jack Flea finds himself living with a woman nearly twice his age, who decides to make him her fantasy child. It is a role our young hero cannot resist.
Script editor PEDR JAMES
Designer MALCOLM GOULDING. Producer TARA PREM. Director MIKE NEWELL

Cast:

Ruth: Sara Kestelman, David: David Wilkinson, Mrs Lee: Eileen McCallum, Mr Lee: Ivor Roberts”

Save

Early to Bed + Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration

The BFI are screening two Pebble Mill Second City Firsts, Early to Bed and Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration as part of a series of forgotten dramas. The screening is to be held on Tuesday 3rd February, at 6.10pm at the BFI Southbank, NFT3. You can book tickets online: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=CBAD85AB-44CD-4D30-ACE5-F25672CFAB42&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=4159993E-A281-42E4-A299-3431E39987B4

Early to Bed. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Early to Bed was Alan Bleasdale’s first television play. It was directed by Leslie Blair, and starred David Warwick, Alison Steadman, Johnny Meadows and Patricia Leach. The 1975, ‘Second City First’ is set in a Lancashire mining village, it tells the story of an eighteen year old, played by David Warwick, who has an affair with his married, next door neighbour – Alison Steadman. Bleasdale thought that Blair’s direction turned an average script into a very watchable play.

Here is the link to the synopsis of Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration from the BBC Genome project: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/689430d99ef64c58a1b6c3c947b854fc

Synopsis

Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration by IAN MCEWAN
Jack Flea finds himself living with a woman nearly twice his age, who decides to make him her fantasy child. It is a role our young hero cannot resist.
Script editor PEDR JAMES
Designer MALCOLM GOULDING Producer TARA PREM Director MIKE NEWELL

Contributors

Editor: Pedr James
Designer: Malcolm Goulding
Director: Mike Newell
Ruth: Sara Kestelman
David: David Wilkinson
Mrs Lee: Eileen McCallum
Mr Lee: Ivor Roberts

The Fosdyke Saga – Tara Prem

Photo by Lynda Kettle

THE FOSDYKE SAGA

The Fosdyke Saga was written originally as a stage play by Alan Plater, based on Bill Tidy’s Daily Mirror cartoon strip about a Lancashire tripe dynasty.

Michael Coveney, in his obituary of Alan Plater in The Guardian earlier this year, referred to:

‘his deliriously funny adaptation of Bill Tidy’s Fosdyke cartoon strip in the Daily Mirror. Plater’s job, said Tidy, was to glue his balloons together, and this he did in The Fosdyke Saga (1975) at the Bush theatre in London and its sequel, Fosdyke Two, the following year. Both shows, directed by Hull Truck founder Mike Bradwell, toured with great success, The first show concentrated on the growth of the tripe industry during the first world war, and the actor Philip Jackson claimed a place in the Guinness Book of Records, as it was then known, for playing 22 characters, including a prison warder, King George V, a sausage dealer, the Salford Ripper and Baron von Richthoven.’

I saw the play, directed by Mike Bradwell at the Bush theatre, and immediately wanted to produce it for TV.

It didn’t fit into any usual category of theatrical adaptation for BBC television, and caused the Contracts Department a bit of a headache.

“Who are these Bush people and why do we have to pay them any money?” In the end they did, and the money paid for the theatre to install some much needed air- conditioning.

We wanted to keep the idea of a theatre setting and recorded the play with an audience, in the studio theatre of the Haymarket in Leicester.

Mike Newell was recruited to direct this TV version.

Tara Prem (Producer)