I was extremely fortunate to see the original play in London with Eric Portman and Margaret Leighton when I was a student there. I was knocked out with it, especially as the two leads doubled the roles as indeed Julie Christie and Alan Bates do in this wonderful TV version. What a tour de force this is for any actor and you need actors of great quality to make these roles completely different and, more importantly, believable. For anyone who is not familiar with Rattigan's stage play then this is the version to watch. The film version with Burt Lancaster, David Niven and Deborah Kerr, was messed about with by combining the two separate plays and re-writing the characters to suit the American casting of Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth. In this TV production the casting throughout is superlative. They bring this tale of deep loneliness and pathetic hypocrisy to life without it being overly sentimental in any way. I have since directed the play on stage and the more you read the actual script you realize what a wonderful performance this TV version is. Clare Bloom is very effective as Pat Cooper, the hotel manageress. Irene Worth is just superb as the vicious Mrs Railton Bell and the rest of the cast are faultless. Alan Bates and Julie Christie make this a joyous feast of acting to watch. I truly don't know which is the better performance. Also I really loved the music used as the introduction and prologue to this film. A must for anybody who really enjoys first class acting.
