Man in an Orange Shirt

Last updated

Man in an Orange Shirt
Man in an Orange Shirt.jpg
Written by Patrick Gale
Directed by Michael Samuels
Starring
Composer Dan Jones
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of episodes2
Production
Production company BBC
Original release
Network BBC One
Release31 July 2017 (2017-07-31)

Man in an Orange Shirt is a two-part British television movie from the BBC. It was produced by Kudos Film and Television and premiered on 31 July 2017 at BBC One. The film drama tells three love stories from two generations of a family, in the 1940s and in 2017.

Contents

Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Morris, and Oliver Jackson-Cohen act in the lead roles, directed by Michael Samuels. The script and idea come from the British best-selling-author Patrick Gale, whose family history is the autobiographical core of the plot. The film won 2018 International Emmy Award for Best TV Movie or Miniseries.

Plot

Man in an Orange Shirt features two separate yet interwoven stories: [1] Part 1 tells of the obstacles that Western society is putting into the love relationship of the two veterans Michael and Thomas in the immediate post-war period. Part 2 describes the trials and tribulations of 21st century partnerships, using the example of Michael's grandson Adam. The stories are linked by Flora, as Michael's grieving wife and Adam's grandmother, whose unrequited love for Michael and conservative education results in a hateful response to Adam's coming-out.

Part 1

In London today, a grandmother looks at an old photo of her deceased husband and remembers the beginning of their relationship in the turmoil of World War II. In the 1940s, young Flora Talbot is a London teacher whose fiancé, Michael Berryman, is captain in the British Army, stationed in Italy. During a mission, Michael is reunited with an old schoolmate, Captain Thomas March, who is badly wounded in the attack. Michael is close as Thomas convalesces, and before Thomas returns to England, the men share a kiss. Thomas makes Michael promise to seek him out in London after the war. Immediately upon his return, Michael visits Thomas before he even tells Flora he is back. Michael and Thomas spend a perfect weekend away from the rest of the world in the old manor cottage once owned by Michael's deceased parents. When their brief time together comes to an end, Michael tells a very upset Thomas of his intent to marry Flora. Thomas eventually agrees to be Michael's best man, and presents the couple with a painting of the cottage as a wedding gift.

Shortly before the birth of their son, Robert James, Flora finds a box of old love letters from Thomas in her husband's desk drawer. In a mixture of anger and fear over sexual laws, she burns the letters and confronts Michael, who is devastated by the loss of the letters. Flora begins birth contractions, and the midwife sends Michael out of the house. He wanders through the city and is tempted to cruise for sex in a public toilet. Instead, he takes flight, buys flowers and returns to Flora. After the birth of their child, the Berrymans never speak a word about the events again. Meanwhile, Thomas is arrested for cottaging, is sentenced to a full year in prison for gross indecency. Michael visits Thomas in prison, but Thomas refuses any further visits. Michael visits Thomas's mother, who shows him a backroom of his many paintings. She notes an unfinished painting of a man in an orange shirt, but even with the face unpainted, she recognises Michael as the subject. Knowing the men's connection, she suggests that Michael could move with Thomas to a family house in France. Michael writes a final letter to Thomas in which he reveals all his feelings, but decides not to mail it. Thomas is released from prison, but leaves with his friends, as Michael looks on. A few years later, Thomas meets briefly with Michael in the presence of Flora and young son Robert, but their mutual feelings remain unspoken.

Part 2

60 years later in 2017, widowed, elderly Flora's only grandchild, Adam, is a veterinarian. He is constantly looking for new male casual sex partners using a mobile app. After Flora bequeaths Adam his grandfather's old cottage, he hires architect Steve, who lives in an open relationship with the older Caspar. Despite Adam's fear of intimacy, he embarks on a slow love affair with Steve, who eventually tells Caspar he is leaving him for Adam. As Flora learns about the relationship and thus Adam's sexual orientation, the fear and rage that she had silenced against her husband breaks out.

When Adam and Steve find the cottage painting by Thomas during the clean-up, Flora reacts with mock ignorance, though it is inscribed to her and Michael with a wish that it someday hang in their home. In the picture frame, however, art connoisseur Caspar discovers another, hidden painting of Michael standing in the door of the cottage. This painting is the eponymous "Man in an Orange Shirt", a finished version of the study Michael saw at Thomas's mother's house. At the sight of the hidden painting, Flora collapses, but finally tells Adam the whole story. Touched, Adam shares this information with Steve, but the two are driven apart again when Steve discovers Adam has re-downloaded his online dating app. Distraught, Adam seeks out Flora, who gives him a small box with some old photos and the never-sent letter from Michael to Thomas, which she had found only after Michael's death. Adam then shows Steve the letter, his feelings the same as his grandfather's many years ago, and the two reconcile.

Background

The narrative is based in part on the family history of British best-selling author Patrick Gale; it was his screenplay debut. He wrote the story over six years. Like Flora Berryman, Gale's mother had found a stack of love letters from a male friend in her husband's desk shortly after the end of World War II. She also destroyed the letters, for fear that he might be arrested, and out of disgust and ignorance, as she had learned to equate homosexuality with paedophilia.

Filming locations included the London Charterhouse, where Downton Abbey , Agatha Christie's Poirot , Tulip Fever , Miss Austen Regrets and, since 2017, Taboo were also filmed. The wedding and department-store scenes in part one were partly filmed in Wandsworth town hall.

The drama was broadcast as the flagship of the BBC Gay Britannia season, a series of programs in 2017 commissioned to celebrate the fiftieth Anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act 1967: [2] the 1967 Act which decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales.

On 13 August 2017, TVNZ broadcast both parts as a coherent feature film. [3] The US network PBS broadcast the two-piece in June 2018 [2] as part of their anthology series Masterpiece . [4]

Cast

Main

Supporting (part 1)

Supporting (part 2)

Reception

Man in an Orange Shirt received positive reviews from critics and holds an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. [5]

The film won a 2018 International Emmy Award for Best TV Movie or Miniseries. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vanessa Redgrave</span> British actress (born 1937)

Dame Vanessa Redgrave is an English actress. Throughout her career spanning over six decades, she has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and an Olivier Award, making her one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. She has also received various honorary awards, including the BAFTA Fellowship Award, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and an induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Redgrave</span> English actor (1908–1985)

Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE was an English actor and filmmaker. Beginning his career in theatre, he first appeared in the West End in 1937. He made his film debut in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes in 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Redgrave</span> British-American actress (1943–2010)

Lynn Rachel Redgrave was a British-American actress. She won two Golden Globe Awards during her career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franco Nero</span> Italian actor (born 1941)

Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero, known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film Django (1966), which made him a pop culture icon and launched an international career that includes over 200 leading and supporting roles in a wide variety of films and television productions.

<i>Orpheus Descending</i> 1957 play by Tennessee Williams

Orpheus Descending is a three-act play by Tennessee Williams. It was first presented on Broadway on March 17, 1957, with Maureen Stapleton and Cliff Robertson, under the direction of Harold Clurman, but had only a brief run and modest success. It was revived on Broadway in 1989, directed by Peter Hall and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Kevin Anderson. The production ran for 13 previews and 97 performances.

<i>Sleeping Beauty</i> (1959 film) 1959 animated Disney film

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. Based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale, the production was supervised by Clyde Geronimi, and was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson, and Les Clark. Featuring the voices of Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Barbara Jo Allen, Taylor Holmes, and Bill Thompson, the film follows Princess Aurora, who was cursed by the evil fairy Maleficent to die from pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. She is saved by three good fairies, who alter Aurora's curse so that she falls into a deep sleep and will be awakened by true love's kiss.

<i>The Aspern Papers</i> 1888 Novella by Henry James

The Aspern Papers is a novella by American writer Henry James, originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1888, with its first book publication later in the same year. One of James's best-known and most acclaimed longer tales, The Aspern Papers is based on the letters Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Mary Shelley's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, who saved them until she died. Set in Venice, The Aspern Papers demonstrates James's ability to generate suspense while never neglecting the development of his characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Morris</span> English actor (born 1983)

Julian David Morris is an English actor. After appearing in the British television series The Knock (1996) and Fish (2000) during his teenage years, he had his first starring role in the American slasher film Cry Wolf (2005). He subsequently had supporting roles in the thriller Donkey Punch (2008), the historical drama Valkyrie (2008), and another slasher film Sorority Row (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Bull of Norroway</span> Scottish fairy tale

"The Black Bull of Norroway" is a fairy tale from Scotland. A version titled "The Black Bull of Norroway" in the 1870 edition of Popular Rhymes of Scotland was reprinted in an Anglicised version by Joseph Jacobs in his 1894 book More English Fairy Tales.

<i>The Man Within</i> 1929 novel by Graham Greene

The Man Within (1929) is the first novel by author Graham Greene. It tells the story of Francis Andrews, a reluctant smuggler who betrays his colleagues, and the aftermath of his betrayal. It is Greene's first published novel..

<i>How About You</i> (film) 2007 Irish film

How About You is a 2007 Irish film directed by Anthony Byrne. The film is based on a short story sometimes published as "How About You" and sometimes published as "The Hard Core" in This Year It Will Be Different, a 1996 collection of short stories by Maeve Binchy. It tells the story of a young woman named Ellie who is left in charge of the residential home run by her older sister, during Christmas period. Most of the residents have gone with their families during the holidays, but four residents, known as the hardcore, remain. Their behaviour will cause much trouble and will lead to the residence facing closure.

<i>The Man in the Net</i> 1959 film by Michael Curtiz

The Man in the Net is a 1959 American film noir mystery film starring Alan Ladd and Carolyn Jones, and directed by Michael Curtiz. The supporting cast features Diane Brewster.

<i>Kipps</i> (1941 film) 1941 film by Carol Reed

Kipps is a 1941 British comedy-drama film adaptation of H. G. Wells's 1905 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Carol Reed and stars Michael Redgrave as a draper's assistant who inherits a large fortune. The film's costumes were designed by Cecil Beaton.

<i>The Years Between</i> (film) 1946 British film

The Years Between (1946) is a British film directed by Compton Bennett and starring Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson and Flora Robson in an adaptation of the 1945 play The Years Between by Daphne du Maurier. It was shot at the Riverside Studios.

<i>Mourning Becomes Electra</i> (film) 1947 film

Mourning Becomes Electra is a 1947 American drama film by Dudley Nichols adapted from the 1931 Eugene O'Neill play Mourning Becomes Electra, based in turn on the Oresteia. The film stars Rosalind Russell, Michael Redgrave, Raymond Massey, Katina Paxinou, Leo Genn and Kirk Douglas.

<i>Letters to Juliet</i> 2010 American romantic drama film directed by Gary Winick

Letters to Juliet is a 2010 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero. This was the final film of director Gary Winick before his death on February 27, 2011. The film was released theatrically in North America and other countries on May 14, 2010. The idea for the film was inspired by the 2006 non-fiction book Letters to Juliet, by Lise Eve Friedman and Ceil Jann Friedman, which chronicles the phenomenon of letter-writing to Shakespeare's most famous romantic character.

<i>A Quiet Place in the Country</i> 1968 film

A Quiet Place in the Country is a 1968 giallo thriller film directed by Elio Petri, and starring Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave. Based on the short story "The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions, its plot follows an artist who relocates to a rural villa with his girlfriend, where he begins to experience increasingly terrifying, apparently supernatural events.

<i>Déjà Vu</i> (1997 film) 1997 American film

Déjà Vu is a 1997 American dramatic romance film directed by Henry Jaglom. It stars Stephen Dillane, Victoria Foyt, and Vanessa Redgrave. It premiered at the American Film Institute Festival on 25 October 1997 and was released theatrically on 22 April 1998.

<i>The Secret Scripture</i> (film) 2016 Irish film

The Secret Scripture is a 2016 Irish film, directed by Jim Sheridan from a screenplay by Sheridan and Johnny Ferguson, which is based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Sebastian Barry. The film stars Vanessa Redgrave, Rooney Mara, Eric Bana, Theo James, Aidan Turner, and Jack Reynor.

<i>Cross Streets</i> 1934 American melodrama film directed by [rank R. Strayer

Cross Streets is a 1934 American melodrama film directed by Frank R. Strayer, which stars Claire Windsor, Johnny Mack Brown, and Anita Louise. The screenplay was written by Gordon Morris and Anthony Coldeway, was produced by Invincible Pictures and was released by Chesterfield Motion Pictures on January 22, 1934.

References

  1. Boedeker, Hal (14 June 2018). "Man in an Orange Shirt examines gay life". Orlando Sentinel . Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  2. 1 2 Tartaglione, Nancy (31 July 2017). "Masterpiece Boards Vanessa Redgrave-Starrer Man in an Orange Shirt". Deadline Hollywood News. Archived from the original on 3 August 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  3. "Man in an Orange Shirt, in the TVNZ-Online-Mediathek". tvnz.co.nz. 2017.
  4. "Acclaimed Drama Man in an Orange Shirt Will Premiere on Masterpiece Next Spring". blogs.weta.org. 31 July 2017.
  5. "Man in an Orange Shirt". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  6. Clarke, Stewart (27 September 2018). "International Emmy Award Nominations Unveiled". Variety . Retrieved 29 September 2018.