Man in an orange shirt

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Movie
Original title Man in an orange shirt
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 2017
length 120 minutes
Rod
Director Michael Samuels
script Patrick Gale
production Lisa Osborne
music Dan Jones
camera Wojciech Szepel
cut Ewa J. Lind
occupation

Man in an Orange Shirt is a two-part British television film from the BBC . It was produced by Kudos Film and Television and premiered on July 31, 2017 on BBC One . The film drama tells three tragic love stories from two generations of one family (1944/45 and 2017).

Vanessa Redgrave , Julian Morris and Oliver Jackson-Cohen played the leading roles, directed by Michael Samuels . The script and the idea come from the British bestselling author Patrick Gale , whose family history is the autobiographical core of the plot.

action

Two separate and yet interwoven stories: Part 1 tells of the obstacles that Western society posed to the love affair between the two veterans Michael and Thomas in the immediate post-war period. Part 2 describes the twists and turns of partnerships in the 21st century using the example of Michael's grandson. The stories are linked by Flora, the suffering wife of Michael and grandmother of Adam, whose unrequited love for Michael and conservative upbringing result in an initially hateful reaction to Adam's coming out.

Part 1

In what is now London, a grandmother tells her grandson, while playing cards, about an old cottage in the country that belonged to his grandfather. As she goes to bed, she looks at an old photo of her deceased husband and remembers the beginning of their relationship during the turmoil of World War II. The remainder of the episode takes place exclusively in the 1940s and 1950s. The young Flora Talbot, a London teacher who receives a letter from her lover and childhood friend Michael Berryman, who as captain ( Captain of) a unit British army in stationed Italy is. During a mission, he met an old schoolmate by chance, Thomas March of the same rank. Cpt. March is badly wounded in the attack and Berryman takes care of him. Before March returns to England, the two of them kiss. Thomas makes Michael promise to look for him in London after the war is over. In fact, Michael pays Thomas a visit to his studio immediately after his return, even before he gets in touch with Flora. The couple spends a perfect weekend far away from all worries in the old estate of Michael's dead parents, before the bitter reality returns and Michael decides to marry Flora. Thomas reluctantly agrees to be the best man and gives the couple a painting of the cottage for their wedding. Michael, who does not want to get involved in another meeting with Thomas, impregnates Flora on their wedding night. Shortly before their son Robert James was born, Flora found a pile of old love letters from Thomas in her husband's desk drawer. In a mixture of anger and fear, she burns them all and confronts Michael that same evening. Her contractions begin during an argument, the midwife sends Michael out of the house. He wanders through the city and is tempted to cruise on a public toilet . Instead, he runs away, buys flowers and returns to Flora. After the birth of their child, the Berrymans never say a word about what happened again. Meanwhile, Thomas is arrested while cottaging and sentenced to a full year in prison for gross indecency (German: “ gross unnatural fornication ”). He refuses Michael's visit and his letters also remain unanswered. Michael finally writes one last letter in which he reveals all his feelings, but decides against sending it. Years later there was only one brief encounter, but the presence of Flora and Robert meant that mutual feelings remained unspoken. Thomas moves to France and, as it turns out later, becomes a well-known artist.

Part 2

Sixty years later, the vet Adam, the only grandson of the widowed Flora, is constantly looking for new - male - casual sex partners on the Internet. After Flora bequeathed his grandfather's old estate to him, he hires the architect Steve, who lives in an open relationship with the older Caspar, to renovate it. Despite Adam's fear of a permanent bond, he gets involved in a love affair with Steve, who previously separated from Caspar. When Flora learns of the relationship and thus Adam's sexual orientation, the fear and anger breaks out of her, which she had turned into silence towards her husband. When Adam and Steve find Thomas' painting while cleaning up, Flora only reacts with mock ignorance. In the frame, however, art connoisseur Caspar discovers another painting in which Michael can be seen standing in the door of the cottage. This painting is the eponymous Man in an Orange Shirt . At the sight of the hidden painting, Flora collapses, finally tells Adam the whole story and gives him a small box with some photos and the letter from Michael to Thomas, which she had never sent, and which she found only after Michael's death. Adam finally shows the letter to Steve after a heated argument, and the two reconcile.

background

The story is based in part on the family history of British bestselling author Patrick Gale, who hereby celebrated his screenwriting debut. He wrote the story over a period of six years. Like Flora Berryman, Gale's mother had found a pile of love letters from a friend in her husband's desk shortly after the end of World War II. She also destroyed the letters, out of fear that he might be arrested and out of disgust and ignorance, since she had learned to equate homosexuality with pedophilia.

The location was, among others, the London Charterhouse , where Downton Abbey , Agatha Christie's Poirot , Tulip Fever , Miss Austen Regrets and, since 2017, Taboo were filmed.

The drama aired as the flagship of the BBC Gay Britannia season 2017 , a series of programs celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act. The 1967 Parliament Act decriminalized homosexuality in England and Wales. Up to this point in time, sexual contact between two men was imprisonment of up to ten years (for comparison: the maximum sentence for rape was five years).

On August 13, 2017, TVNZ broadcast both parts as a coherent feature film. The US broadcaster PBS will broadcast the two-parter in June 2018 as part of their anthology series Masterpiece . A German-language broadcast is not yet available.

success

From 723 reviews, the IMDb determined an average rating of 8.2 out of 10 stars. Viewers under 18 gave an average of 9.0, 18–29 year olds 8.3, and viewers of all other age groups an average of 8.0–8.1 stars. When viewing the episodes individually, Part 1 scored slightly better with an average of 8.4 out of 10 stars (61 ratings) than Part 2 with 8.1 stars (49 ratings).

occupation

Main cast
Secondary cast 1st part - Michael & Thomas
  • Adrian Schiller : Lucien
  • Flaminia Cinque: Rita
  • Laura Carmichael : Daphne Talbot
  • James Godden: Private Begley
  • Tommy Bastow: Private Bates
  • Andrew Havill: Major Fanshawe
  • Oliver Finnegan: Wykeham (student)
  • Ben Barker: Travis (student)
  • Hal Scardino : Dwight
  • William Hoyland: Headmaster
  • Eileen Page: Geraldine
  • Arthur Bateman: Robert Berryman
  • Gay Hamilton: Agnes
  • Paul Clayton: Registrar
  • Phil Dunster: Bruno
  • Ed White: Head of Department
  • Elizabeth Edmonds: midwife
  • Frances de la Tour : Mrs. March
Secondary cast 2nd part - Adam & Steve

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ New two-part drama Man In An Orange Shirt commissioned for BBC One . BBC MediaCentre film article, July 15, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  2. ↑ My father's love for another man: how I turned my parents' tragic secret into a TV drama . The Guardian, July 28, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b IMDB entry, section Trivia . Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  4. ↑ IMDB entry, section Filming Locations
  5. ↑ IMDB film list with location in London Charterhouse . Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  6. ↑ Man in an Orange Shirt in the TVNZ online media library. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  7. ↑ Nancy Tartaglione: Masterpiece Boards Vanessa Redgrave-Starrer 'Man In An Orange Shirt' - TCA In: deadline.com from July 31, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  8. ↑ Acclaimed Drama Man in an Orange Shirt Will Premiere on Masterpiece Next Spring WETA blog article dated August 31, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  9. ↑ IMDB entry, section User Ratings
  10. ↑ IMDB entry, section Rated Episodes