Classics on TV: Great American Playwrights at the BFI

Of the more than 3000 theatre plays produced on British TV to date, one in ten is an adaptation from a work by an American dramatist. This is perhaps not too astonishing, given America's predominance in Western culture more generally, but the conversation that existed between Broadway and the major British television channels during the 20^th century enriched British televisual culture, and has encouraged the broadcast of more politically and formally daring shows.
The Classics on TV season at the BFI celebrates this special relationship, and sees the screening of some lesser known but remarkable adaptations of plays by the likes of Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neil and Arthur Miller. One particular gem is Once in a Lifetime, an uproarious comedy by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart satirising 1930's Hollywood. Broadcast in 1988, the film taps in to the nostalgic strain in British television of that decade, and is a Jazz age romp about out of work vaudevillians trying to make it in the talkies.
Other films being screened include Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Miller's The Crucible and Clifford Odets' moving commentary on Depression era American, Rocket to the Moon, which stars John Malkovich and Judy Davis.
Rocket to the Moon will be screening at 6pm on January 27th, and Once in a Lifetime will be finishing off the season on January 29th at 6.10pm.
Don't miss these television classics as you've never seen them before – on the silver screen, in the glorious surrounds of London's BFI.