John McGrath
Birth : 1935-07-01, Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, UK
Death : 2002-01-22
History
Born in Birkenhead from Irish Catholic stock, John McGrath was a British playwright, screenwriter. producer, director and socialist who took up the cause of Scottish independence and the principles of a radical, popular theatre with the creation of the 7:84 theatre company alongside his wife, Elizabeth MacLennan, and brother-in-law, David MacLennan. His most famous plays are arguably The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil which was brought to television in 1974 by John Mackenzie for the Play for Today strand, and Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun which was made into the film The Bofors Gun in 1968. He also wrote the screenplays for films such as Billion Dollar Brain, The Virgin Soldiers, The Reckoning, The Dressmaker and 1991's Robin Hood, and produced films such as Carrington and Aberdeen.
Co-Producer
Kaisa is a Scot, a successful London lawyer, who snorts coke and has one-night stands with strangers. Her mother calls from Aberdeen with some story begging her to fly to Norway and collect her alcoholic dad whom she hasn't seen in years.
Producer
A dramatized account of the Scott Inquiry about the sales of arms to Iraq.
Writer
A dramatized account of the Scott Inquiry about the sales of arms to Iraq.
Producer
Painter Dora Carrington develops an intimate but extremely complex bond with writer Lytton Strachey. Though Lytton is a homosexual, he is enchanted by the mysterious Dora and they begin a lifelong friendship that has strangely romantic undertones. Eventually, Lytton and Dora decide to live together, despite the fact that the latter has fallen in love with military man Ralph Partridge, whom she plans to marry.
Writer
In 1871, 'tired of the speakers of English', Mairi Mhor began writing resistance songs in Gaelic, protesting at the displacement of the Scottish Highland and Island folk by the Southern landlords. Unjustly imprisoned in Inverness at the age of 51, she expresses her anger in song, discovering a talent for music; these songs became central to the identity of the region and are still sung today. The achingly beautiful landscape of Skye, and the music it inspired, provide a haunting canvas for this valuable piece of historical research.
Writer
An elderly woman learns that she is dying of cancer. She and her husband leave their small farm on the Isle of Skye to visit their children to inform them of the news. During the journey, the couple rediscover their love for each other.
Writer
The Swashbuckling legend of Robin Hood unfolds in the 12th century when the mighty Normans ruled England with an iron fist.
Executive Producer
In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.
Writer
In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.
Writer
A woman looks back on her life as a political activist in Scotland from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Director
A woman looks back on her life as a political activist in Scotland from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Writer
In his further adventures Frank finds success and unhappiness.
Director
In his further adventures Frank finds success and unhappiness.
Writer
Frank, a young lad from Sheffield, leaves home to seek his fortune in London; he finds the big city not all what he had expected
Director
Frank, a young lad from Sheffield, leaves home to seek his fortune in London; he finds the big city not all what he had expected
Various
The "ceilidh play", as writer John McGrath styled it, is presented in the BBC's 1974 "Play for Today" production to a live audience intercut with filmed reconstructions of the Highland Clearances and the Victorian obsession with hunting stags. Restored in high definition from the original film masters held in the BBC Archives.
Writer
The "ceilidh play", as writer John McGrath styled it, is presented in the BBC's 1974 "Play for Today" production to a live audience intercut with filmed reconstructions of the Highland Clearances and the Victorian obsession with hunting stags. Restored in high definition from the original film masters held in the BBC Archives.
Writer
Three stories reflecting life in the Orkney Islands, two set in the past, and one in the present.
Novel
Screenplay
Michael Marler, a successful business man in London, is about to make his way to the top. The death of his father brings him - after 37 years - back to his hometown Liverpool, where he is confronted with his lost Irish roots. He finds out that his father died because of a fight with some anglo-saxon teddy boys. It becomes "a matter of honour" for him, to take his revenge without involving the British police
Writer
The core of the plot is the romantic triangle formed by the protagonist, a conscripted soldier named Private Brigg; a worldly professional soldier named Sergeant Driscoll, and Phillipa Raskin, the daughter of the Regimental Sergeant Major. The location is a British army base in Singapore during the Malayan Emergency.
Director
In the first part, The Compartment, an insane man boards a quiet railway coach and starts to annoy a patient man trying to read a paper with incessant small talk in an increasingly menacing manner until he finally pulls out a gun and screaming class hatred bile, humiliates the man until his stop is reached. In part two, Playmates, he breaks into a lonely house and proceeds to terrorise a spinster woman who lives there.
Writer
A national service NCO (David Warner) comes face to face with an embittered Irish Gunner (Nicol Williamson) who is determined to humiliate him.
Screenplay
A former British spy stumbles into in a plot to overthrow Communism with the help of a supercomputer. But who is working for whom?
Producer
A frank dialogue on sexual likes and dislikes that place between a man and his mistress in bed together.
Producer
Ken Russell's silent film treatment of the 19th century comic novel by the Brothers Grossmith - George and Weedon. Starring Bryan Pringle, Avril Elgar and Murray Melvin. Adapted by Ken Russell and John McGrath. First shown on BBC2 at 10.10pm on Saturday 12th December 1964 - as part of the 'Six' strand.
Writer
Ken Russell's silent film treatment of the 19th century comic novel by the Brothers Grossmith - George and Weedon. Starring Bryan Pringle, Avril Elgar and Murray Melvin. Adapted by Ken Russell and John McGrath. First shown on BBC2 at 10.10pm on Saturday 12th December 1964 - as part of the 'Six' strand.
Producer
FADE TO BLACK follows the history of movie theatres in and around Kansas City. From its humble beginnings as family-owned single screens in the early 20th century to the large multiplexes of today. Theatre owners have overcome technological advances in entertainment but can they overcome a pandemic and a wearing public.
