This return to the angry young men of British drama's new wave pulled out all the stops
• Beyond the kitchen sink
Why can't all radio documentaries be as classy as the ones put out by *Archive on 4*? It's clever, witty, erudite. It's always packing a good anecdote or three and there's very rarely much to be bored with; in short, this dreamboat documentary strand is the perfect first date of radio.
Archive on 4 pulled out its usual stops for *British New Wave – Beyond The Kitchen Sink *, last week's season-opening primer for a blockbuster drama season that has retooled Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and This Sporting Life for radio. The show had depth, smarts and a lovely personal strand from arts presenter and theatre critic, Paul Allen. Allen wove in the detail of his teenage years growing up in postwar Britain, describing the bleak interim period between the spirit of '45 and the seismic cultural change that gave rise to Alan Sillitoe and John Osborne, Ken Loach and Ken Russell.
There were no nightclubs young people could go to, he said. Nowhere but teashops, and parties where dads would be on the decks. There was little that gave any hint of the raw, gritty (is kitchen sink culture ever described as anything but?), power of the angry young men – a movement initially manufactured by the Royal Court press officers, as Allen so neatly pointed out.
"You did think life was going to improve and everything else was going to get better," said John Osborne, in a clipped interview from the archives. "And in a superficial way, it did … then it all fell apart, slowly, and became nasty and unpleasant." This, listeners could pinpoint, is probably where Osborne's rage set in. To the programme's credit, Allen didn't indulge in cultural mythologising, he was more concerned with the stuff often left out by social historians and critics. Namely, where were the angry young women (present, but typically forgotten by history as it turns out) and how much impact did the new wave really have at the time? Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.
• Beyond the kitchen sink
Why can't all radio documentaries be as classy as the ones put out by *Archive on 4*? It's clever, witty, erudite. It's always packing a good anecdote or three and there's very rarely much to be bored with; in short, this dreamboat documentary strand is the perfect first date of radio.
Archive on 4 pulled out its usual stops for *British New Wave – Beyond The Kitchen Sink *, last week's season-opening primer for a blockbuster drama season that has retooled Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and This Sporting Life for radio. The show had depth, smarts and a lovely personal strand from arts presenter and theatre critic, Paul Allen. Allen wove in the detail of his teenage years growing up in postwar Britain, describing the bleak interim period between the spirit of '45 and the seismic cultural change that gave rise to Alan Sillitoe and John Osborne, Ken Loach and Ken Russell.
There were no nightclubs young people could go to, he said. Nowhere but teashops, and parties where dads would be on the decks. There was little that gave any hint of the raw, gritty (is kitchen sink culture ever described as anything but?), power of the angry young men – a movement initially manufactured by the Royal Court press officers, as Allen so neatly pointed out.
"You did think life was going to improve and everything else was going to get better," said John Osborne, in a clipped interview from the archives. "And in a superficial way, it did … then it all fell apart, slowly, and became nasty and unpleasant." This, listeners could pinpoint, is probably where Osborne's rage set in. To the programme's credit, Allen didn't indulge in cultural mythologising, he was more concerned with the stuff often left out by social historians and critics. Namely, where were the angry young women (present, but typically forgotten by history as it turns out) and how much impact did the new wave really have at the time? Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.