The Operation (film)

The Operation
Directed by Roy Battersby
Produced by Kenith Trodd
Written by Roger Smith
Based on novel Ludo by Roger Smith
Starring George Lazenby
Tom Kempinski
Maureen Shaw
Production
company
BBC TV
Distributed by BBC1
Release date
 February 1973
Running time
 75 mins
Country United Kingdom
Language English

The Operation is a 1973 British television film for BBC1's Play for Today about an asset stripper trying to buy up a row of houses.[1]

Plot summary

David, a property magnate, returns to his old home town to develop a site. He has an affair with the wife of a grocer whose building is coveted by David. The grocer ends up shooting David.

Cast

  • George Lazenby as David Alder
  • Tom Kempinski as George Timmins
  • Maurice Roeves as Ted Hardin
  • Maureen Shaw as Diane Hardin
  • John Ralpey as Chief Rotarian
  • Patsy Smart as cleaner

Reception

The TV critic for The Times called it a "tedious affair":

The males had got lost somewhere between John Osborne's Angry Young Men and some future sequel to Last Tango in Paris... We had wife swappings, a casino, a lavatory, an Irish hideaway, Rolls Royces and other environmental titbits... Influenced no doubt by the presence of a film star in the cast the camera lingered self consciously on profiles when it was not lingering self consciously even more on the furniture. George Lazenby, the star in question, brought to the part of the magnate a lazy, self conscious insolence that suited the odious fellow well. The rest had little to do except let the camera wander over their faces.[2]

The Spectator called it:

As insulting a piece of meretricious rubbish as I have seen in a long and weary while... a jejune fantasy of power and wealth. George Lazenby... [acts] with all the life and conviction of a garden gnome... Why not just laugh the whole thing off as a silly piece of nonsense? Why feel angry? Because this was put out by the BBC as a serious treatment of serious themes, a 'play for today,' God help us. In this context I found it insulting.[3]

Controversy

The play led to the BBC being criticised by its advisory council for its use of bad language, and depiction of sexual blackmail and wife swapping.[4][5]

References

  1. ↑ Allan, Elkan. "Stripping wives and assets." Sunday Times [London, England] 25 Feb. 1973: 48. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
  2. ↑ Leonard Buckley. "The Operation." Times [London, England] 27 Feb. 1973: 11. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.
  3. ↑ Clive Gammon, "Television: Barrel's bottom" The Spectactor 3 March 1973 p 17
  4. ↑ "Sex scenes in play 'broke BBC's guidelines'." Times [London, England] 6 Apr. 1973: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.
  5. ↑ Roger Smith at BFI Screenonline
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