Michael Hastings

Writer

September 2, 1938 (73 years)

† November 19, 2011

Biography

No biography available.

Filmography

7.0

ITV Playhouse

ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.

6.3

Performance

An anthology series of various plays and dramatic performances.

7.0

Centre Play

Anthology series of half hour plays produced in BBC's Television Centre's studios.

6.5

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense

A short-lived anthology television series from Hammer Studios. Though similar in format to the 1980 series Hammer House of Horror, the Mystery and Suspense series had feature-length episodes, usually running around 70 minutes without commercials. Co-produced by Hammer Studios with 20th Century Fox Television, it is known in the United States as Fox Mystery Theater. Unlike 1980's Hammer House of Horror, all episodes feature American actors as either the leads or in key roles. It first broadcast in the UK on ITV in 1984, though was not simulcast and was shown in different timeslots throughout the various regions.

6.3

The Search for the Nile

The Search for the Nile is a 1971 BBC One docudrama miniseries about the 19th-century European quest to find the source of the Nile River, focusing on explorers like Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, and David Livingstone. The acclaimed six-part series, starring Kenneth Haigh as Burton, is known for its detailed portrayal of the explorers' hardships, rivalries, and discoveries, winning a Primetime Emmy and a Peabody Award.

6.0

Absolute Hell

Black comedy set in Soho, London, right after World War II. Half of the fun is seeing a slew of very familiar faces kick up their heels as gay men, lesbians, party-girls, drunks, and drag queens. Originally aired as part of the anthology series "Performance."

6.1

Tom & Viv

The story of the marriage of the poet T. S. Eliot to socialite Vivienne Haigh-Wood, which had to cope with her gynaecological and emotional problems and his growing fame.

8.0

The Changeling

Just days before her wedding, Beatrice-Joanna has a chance encounter with Alsemero, and realizes that she has met her one true love. To marry the man she loves, she persuades the love-struck henchman De Flores to murder her fiance, but does not anticipate the tragic consequences of her actions.

4.7

The Adventurers

The wealthy playboy son of an assassinated South American diplomat discovers that his father was murdered on orders of the corrupt president of the country- a man who was his father's friend and who, in fact, his father had helped put into power. He returns from living a jet-set life in Europe to lead a revolution against the government, only to find out that things aren't quite as black and white as he'd assumed.

5.7

The Nightcomers

Prequel to the Henry James classic "Turn of the Screw" about the events leading up to the deaths of Peter Quint and Ms. Jessel, and the slow corruption of the children in their care.

5.4

The American

After the horror of the Civil War, 'ignorant' Christopher Newman made his fortune. He travels to France is search of cultural treasures. He won't get past the Paris nightlife. After an affair with a haughty painter, he falls in love with the daughter of the late marquis de Bellegarde. She was married off and traumatized by her abusive late husband for the family's sake. Her elder brother supports their ruthless mother, but junior Valentin is besotted with the artist and strikes a partnership with Christopher.

N/A

Murder Rap

Wally, a caretaker in a block of flats, loses his job when the flats are used to rehouse Bhengali families.

5.0

The Deep Blue Sea

Hester Collyer is rescued by a neighbor after attempting suicide in the flat she shares with her young lover, ex-RAF pilot Freddie Page. The neighbors alert her husband, who arrives at the flat only to find her fully recovered...

5.5

A Doll's House

One of Ibsen's best known plays, A Dolls House caused a sensation when first published, as it provided a critique on the conventions of Victorian marriage. Nora Helmer feels suffocated and belittled in her marriage to banker Torvald. When faced with blackmail as a result of an attempt to save her husband's life, Nora decides that the only way to discover the real world is to step outside the illusions within her doll's house.

6.0

Stars of the Roller State Disco

Unemployed youngsters spend their days at the roller disco, circling round and round, before being called to take up low-paid jobs as they become available. For others, it's a subsistence existence of vending machine food, video games, with sex and drugs freely available as distractions.

6.0

Six Characters in Search of An Author

Adaptation of Pirandello's play.

5.7

Forbidden

In Berlin in the early 1940s, romance is forbidden between the young countess who is studying veterinary medicine and a young man she meets at the home of a former professor. But they fall in love. She gets involved in helping Jews escape from the Nazis. All get out of Berlin except the young man. There is a room in her apartment where he can't be seen through the windows and a chest converted into a sofa where she and her brothers played hide-and-seek as children. This real life hide-and-seek game has high stakes. The movie is said to be based on a true story.

N/A

Auntie Kathleen's Old Clothes

A boy reflects on time he spent staying with his aunt and uncle.

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