Scandal and Concern on Sunday
John Wyver writes: This coming Sunday, as part of BFI Southbank’s Muse of Fire: Richard Burton season, which kicked off last night, I am introducing a rare screening of John Osborne’s television play A Subject of Scandal and Concern, produced for the BBC in November 1960. This was recorded in April that year to 2-inch Ampex videotape and simultaneously tele-recorded to 16mm film, but we are projecting in NFT3 a very fine 35mm copy from the collection of the BFI National Archive.
Produced in the studio by Tony Richardson, this was made just a year or so after the release of the director’s film version of Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, in which Burton gave a compelling performance as Jimmy Porter. The television play, which was Osborne’s first for the medium, is a very different animal, being the true story of Victorian social reformer George Holyoake, was who was tried and sentenced to prison for blasphemy [correction made, as below].
I have been digging into the literature about Holyoake and Osborne, tracking down the press coverage of the production, and looking at the BBC production file in the Written Archives Centre at Caversham. Fortuitously it is one of those that has been previously vetted. So I think I have some interesting facts and reflections to share in my introduction, including a note about Burton’s fee of £1,000, which was regarded as astronomical at the time, and next week I plan to share some more of those here.
The last person to be imprisoned for blasphemy in this country was John William Gott, in 1921. Earlier than Gott, but later than Holyoake, was my ancestor Thomas Pooley, who was imprisoned for blasphemy in 1857. Holyoake did much to plead Pooley’s case and to get him released. I write about Pooley here: https://lukemckernan.com/2025/03/30/an-unfortunate-man/
Many thanks, Luke – there are then so many sources that get this wrong, although I note that Wikipedia says ‘In 1842, Holyoake became one of the last persons convicted for blasphemy.’ I have corrected the above, and I shall make sure to get this right on Sunday.