Summer's Lease | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama |
Based on | Summer's Lease by John Mortimer |
Directed by | Martyn Friend |
Starring | John Gielgud Susan Fleetwood Rosemary Leach |
Composer | Nigel Hess |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 4 |
Production | |
Producer | Colin Rogers |
Running time | 55 minutes |
Production company | BBC |
Original release | |
Network | BBC Two |
Release | 1 November – 22 November 1989 |
Summer's Lease is a British television drama series which aired in four parts on BBC2 in 1989. [1] It is based on John Mortimer's novel of the same title, adapted by the author. John Gielgud won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance and the soundtrack, composed by Nigel Hess was awarded the Television and Radio Industries Club award for best television theme.
In a 1991 review, John J. O'Connor of The New York Times called the series "more successful as travelogue than drama." O'Connor summarised that despite some excellent performances, the characters "are not terribly interesting." [2]
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He worked in films throughout most of his career, and played more than sixty cinema roles. From an artistic but not theatrical background, Richardson had no thought of a stage career until a production of Hamlet in Brighton inspired him to become an actor. He learned his craft in the 1920s with a touring company and later the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In 1931 he joined the Old Vic, playing mostly Shakespearean roles. He led the company the following season, succeeding Gielgud, who had taught him much about stage technique. After he left the company, a series of leading roles took him to stardom in the West End and on Broadway.
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Summer's Lease is a novel by Sir John Mortimer, author of the Rumpole novels, which is set predominantly in Italy. It was first published in 1988 and made into a British television mini-series, first shown in 1989. The title "Summer's Lease" is a play on a line from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: And summer's lease hath all too short a date. The novel involves the leasing of a Tuscan villa for the summer holidays. It is divided into six parts: "Preparations", "Arrival", "First Week", "Second Week", "Third Week", and "The Return".
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