It was not an easy film to make, fiercely hot throughout most of the shooting, and no fun at all for Alan Bates, who was decked out in Proust’s suffocating assortment of vests and undergarments. At the time I thought the film would attract little notice, nor did it, and it’s never been repeated or the script printed until now. Still, we must have had a good time, and there’s a photograph of Alan Bates and myself (reproduced in Writing Home) sitting on one of Proust’s sofas, both of us helpless with laughter.

About The Old Crowd and The Madness of King George I have nothing much to add to what I’ve already written. The Old Crowd, the original TV script of which is printed in an earlier volume, was one of a succession of films that Lindsay Anderson developed but never managed to make. The money in this case had been allocated by the Swedish Film Institute, and I adapted my TV script, which Lindsay then rewrote. It was wasted labour for both of us as we then found that someone in Sweden had pocketed the funds, a circumstance which Lindsay found entirely unsurprising.

No such setbacks affected the making of The Madness of King George, which was an entirely happy experience. Nigel Hawthorne, who had played the part so notably on the stage, was anxious lest, like other stage successes of his, the part might be taken over in the film by an actor with more box-office clout. This had happened with the film of Shadowlands, in the play of which Nigel had had a great success as C. S. Lewis, but which, when it came to the film, was played by Anthony Hopkins.

So identified was Nigel with the part, no other actor was even considered, nor indeed any other director, though it would not have been hard to find one with a better track record than Nicholas Hytner, who, never having made a film, had no track record at all. The upshot was that the film was made with the same team as had done the play, a circumstance which gained us some moral credit in the profession. I’m not sure that this was entirely deserved, as my cupidity had never actually been put to the test. If someone in Hollywood had offered me five million dollars for the script on the understanding that George III was played by Sylvester Stallone, who knows what my reaction might have been?

Unsurprisingly, though, nobody did.

The Old Crowd

CAST

in order of appearance

PIANO TUNER

GEORGE

BETTY

HAROLD

GLYN

RUFUS

PAULINE

STELLA

DICKIE

BRIAN

KEVIN

SVEND

OSCAR

MOTHER

PETER

SUE

MR GREGORY

MRS BROOKSTONE

TOTTY

CAPTAIN

SERGEANT

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, WARDROBE MISTRESS, YOUNG FAMILY, SCHOOLMASTER, PUPIL, NUNS, PATIENTS, CONDUCTOR, SOLOISTS, CABBY, SOLDIERS, MEDICAL AUXILIARIES, NURSE, OFFICIALS, ORDERLY, FUMIGATION SQUAD, DRESSER, ASSISTANT, DIRECTOR

EXT. ENGLISH ROADS. DAY.

A large furniture-removal van drives speedily across an empty landscape.

EXT. TOWN HOUSE (STILL PHOTO). NIGHT.