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39-534: Separate Tables is the collective name of two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan , both taking place in the Beauregard Private Hotel, Bournemouth , on the south coast of England. The first play, titled Table by the Window , focuses on the troubled relationship between a disgraced Labour politician and his ex-wife. The second play, Table Number Seven , is set about 18 months after the events of

78-659: A Writers' Guild of Great Britain award twice. His work for American TV includes Concealed Enemies (1984), about the Alger Hiss case, and The Gathering Storm (2002), which focused on a troubled period in the marriage of Clementine and Winston Churchill just prior to World War II . He won an Emmy Award for each script. He was also nominated for his adaptation of the Carl Bernstein / Bob Woodward book about President Nixon , The Final Days starring Lane Smith as Nixon. Whitemore's last work for television

117-608: A foreign country, but it was performed from January 1940. During the war, Rattigan served in the Royal Air Force as a tail gunner; his experiences helped inspire Flare Path . In 1943 Rattigan, then an RAF Flight Lieutenant, was posted to the RAF Film Production Unit to work on The Way to the Stars (a substantial reworking and adaption for film of Flare Path ) and Journey Together . After

156-524: A major new production of Rattigan's final and also rarely seen play Cause Célèbre at The Old Vic in March 2011 as part of The Terence Rattigan Centenary year celebrations. As well as this, Trevor Nunn marked the occasion with a West End revival of Flare Path at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket , between March and June 2011, starring Sienna Miller , James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith . In 2011,

195-613: A more serious play produced After the Dance (1939), a satirical social drama about the " bright young things " and their failure to politically engage. The outbreak of the Second World War scuppered any chances of a long run. Shortly before the war, Rattigan had written (together with Anthony Goldsmith) a satire about Nazi Germany, Follow My Leader ; the Lord Chamberlain refused to license it on grounds of offence to

234-749: A mutiny, informing the Daily Express . Even more annoying to his headmaster, Cyril Norwood , was the telegram from the Eton OTC, "offering to march to his assistance". He then went to Trinity College, Oxford . Success as a playwright came early, with the comedy French Without Tears in 1936, set in a crammer . This was inspired by a 1933 visit to a village called Marxzell in the Black Forest , where young English gentlemen went to learn German; his time briefly overlapped with his Harrow classmate Jock Colville . Rattigan's determination to write

273-408: A once-rising politician now turned to drink -- is dining with his ex-wife. Earlier he was sent to prison for beating her. She, having remarried, is now divorced a second time, and seeks a reconciliation with Martin. Miss Cooper, the manager of the hotel is his mistress. Still, after an off-stage confrontation with the ex-wife, Miss Cooper helps, with great generosity, to bring about a cautious reunion of

312-404: A volatile affair with the politician Henry "Chips" Channon who detailed the relationship in his diary published posthumously in 2022. It has been claimed his work is essentially autobiographical, containing coded references to his sexuality, which was known by some in the theatrical world but not known to the public. There is some truth in this, but it risks being crudely reductive; for example,

351-543: A way, I was not Orton's best sponsor. I'm a very unfashionable figure still, and I was then wildly unfashionable critically. My sponsorship rather put critics off, I think." Rattigan was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 1971 for services to the theatre, being only the fourth playwright to be knighted in the 20th century (after Sir W. S. Gilbert in 1907, Sir Arthur Wing Pinero in 1909 and Sir Noël Coward in 1970). He had previously been appointed Commander of

390-630: A world of repression and reticence. Terence Rattigan was born in 1911 in South Kensington , London, of Irish extraction. He had an elder brother, Brian. They were the grandsons of Sir William Henry Rattigan , a notable India-based jurist and later a Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament for North-East Lanarkshire . His father was Frank Rattigan CMG , a diplomat whose exploits included an affair with Princess Elisabeth of Romania (future consort of King George II of Greece ) which resulted in her having an abortion. The Royal House of Romania

429-457: Is considered to be the inspiration of Rattigan's play The Sleeping Prince . Rattigan's birth certificate and his birth announcement in The Times indicate he was born on 9 June 1911. However, most reference books state that he was born the following day; Rattigan himself never publicly disputed this date. There is evidence suggesting that the date on the birth certificate is incorrect. He

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468-454: The BBC presented The Rattigan Enigma by Benedict Cumberbatch , a documentary on Rattigan's life and career presented by actor Benedict Cumberbatch , who, like Rattigan, attended Harrow . A new screen version of The Deep Blue Sea , directed by Terence Davies , was released in 2011, starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston . Many of Rattigan's stage plays have been produced for radio by

507-577: The BBC Play of the Month anthology series by Hugh Whitemore . It starred Geraldine McEwan as Sibyl Railton Bell and Anne Shankland, Eric Porter as Major Pollock and John Malcolm and Annette Crosbie as Pat Cooper. Cathleen Nesbitt , who played the role of Lady Matheson in the 1958 film adaptation, resumed the role in this adaptation as well. Terence Rattigan Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan CBE (10 June 1911 – 30 November 1977)

546-779: The Order of the British Empire (CBE), in June 1958. He moved back to Britain, where he experienced a minor revival in his reputation before his death. Rattigan died in Hamilton, Bermuda , from bone cancer on 30 November 1977, aged 66. His cremated remains were deposited in the family vault at Kensal Green Cemetery . In 1990, the British Library acquired Rattigan's papers consisting of 300 volumes of correspondence and papers relating to his prose and dramatic works. There

585-522: The Rank Organisation withdrew its support, not wishing to offend David Lean and Sam Spiegel , who had started to film Lawrence of Arabia . Bogarde called Rank's decision "my bitterest disappointment". Also in 1960, a musical version of French Without Tears was staged as Joie de Vivre , with music by Robert Stolz of White Horse Inn fame. It starred Donald Sinden , lasted only four performances, and has never been revived. Rattigan

624-516: The Royal Exchange, Manchester , in 2006. His play on the last days of Lord Nelson , A Bequest to the Nation , was revived on Radio 3 for Trafalgar 200 , starring Janet McTeer as Lady Hamilton, Kenneth Branagh as Nelson, and Amanda Root as Lady Nelson. Thea Sharrock directed his rarely seen After the Dance in the summer of 2010 at London's Royal National Theatre . She directed

663-448: The BBC. The first play he wrote directly for radio was Cause Célèbre , broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 27 October 1975, based on the 1935 murder of Francis Rattenbury . A number of Rattigan's plays have been filmed (he was the screenwriter or co-writer for all those made in his lifetime): Terence Rattigan also wrote or co-wrote the following original screenplays: Rattigan wrote or co-wrote

702-788: The English code of sexual discretion with his homosexuality , for which he was charged with gross indecency . A television adaptation was broadcast in the UK in 1996. The Best of Friends (1987), about the friendship Dame Laurentia McLachlan , the Abbess of Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire , shared with George Bernard Shaw and Sydney Cockerell , director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge . An adaptation by Whitemore of

741-461: The Major approached for sex were men rather than young women. However, Rattigan changed his mind about staging it, and the original version proceeded. Rattigan was fascinated with the life and character of T. E. Lawrence . In 1960, he wrote a play called Ross , based on Lawrence's exploits. Preparations were made to film it, and Dirk Bogarde accepted the role. However, it did not proceed because

780-470: The Major's lapse as a homosexual one. The 1958 film, with a few extra parts, was adapted for the screen by Rattigan. It starred Rita Hayworth , Deborah Kerr , David Niven , Burt Lancaster and Wendy Hiller . John Schlesinger directed a television film version in 1983, with Julie Christie and Alan Bates as the two couples, with Claire Bloom as Miss Cooper and Irene Worth as Mrs Railton-Bell. The plays were adapted for television in 1970 as part of

819-703: The Opera House in Manchester, Separate Tables then moved to the St James's Theatre in London on 22 September 1954, with the following cast: The play was directed by Peter Glenville , with sets by Michael Weight. It opened to good reviews; Harold Hobson called the second play in the double-bill, "one of Rattigan's masterpieces, in which he shows in superlative degree his pathos, his humour and his astounding mastery over [the] English language...". The production

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858-498: The era of kitchen sink dramas by the writers known as the Angry Young Men . Rattigan responded to this critical disfavour with some bitterness. His later plays— Ross , Man and Boy , In Praise of Love , and Cause Célèbre —although showing no sign of any decline in his talent, are less well-known than his earlier works. Rattigan explained that he wrote his plays to please a symbolic playgoer, "Aunt Edna", someone from

897-461: The following screenplays from existing material by other writers: Wolfe, Peter. Terence Rattigan: The Playwright as Battlefield . Lexington, 2019. Other works including discussions on Rattigan's theatre: Hugh Whitemore Born at Tunbridge Wells , Kent, son of Samuel George Whitemore (1907-1987), a clerk at an oil company, and Kathleen Alma, née Fletcher, Whitemore studied for the stage at London 's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , where he

936-507: The formerly married couple. In Table Number Seven , Major Pollock tries to conceal from his fellow guests a report in the local newspaper of his sexual harassment of women at a local cinema. A repressed and hysterical young woman, under the thumb of her formidable mother, takes his side and falls in love with him. Again Miss Cooper encourages her guests to examine their feelings honestly and face their futures bravely. In an early draft of

975-665: The life of English poet and novelist Stevie Smith and Pack of Lies (1983) covered events leading up to the arrest of the Krogers, two Americans spying for the Russians in London in 1961. Whitemore's best known work taking the form of a staged biography was Breaking the Code (1986) which was centered on Alan Turing , who was responsible for cracking the German Enigma code during World War II and resisted an adherence to

1014-415: The play, Rattigan had Major Pollock's misdemeanour not as harassment of women but homosexual importuning; the critic Kenneth Tynan commented at the time of the premiere that the version used then was "as good a handling of sexual abnormality as English playgoers will tolerate." Tynan also wrote that both plays are about people who are driven by loneliness into a state of desperation. The play premiered at

1053-508: The playwright Joe Orton congratulating the latter on his very dark comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane , to which Rattigan had escorted Vivien Leigh in its first week. He had invested £3,000 in getting the play transferred to the West End. Although an unlikely champion of the risqué Orton, Rattigan recognised the younger man's talent and approved of what he considered a well-written piece of theatre. He also acknowledged in retrospect that, "in

1092-413: The previous play, and deals with the touching friendship between a repressed spinster and Major Pollock, a kindly but bogus man posing as an upper-class retired army officer. The two main roles in both plays are written to be played by the same performers. The secondary characters – permanent residents, the hotel's manager, and members of the staff – appear in both plays. In Table by the Window , Martin --

1131-491: The repeated claim that Rattigan originally wrote The Deep Blue Sea as a play about male lovers, turned at the last minute into a heterosexual play, may be unfounded, though Rattigan said otherwise. On the other hand, for the Broadway staging of Separate Tables , he wrote an alternative version of the newspaper article in which Major Pollock's indiscretions are revealed to his fellow hotel guests; in this version, those whom

1170-501: The war, Rattigan alternated between comedies and dramas, establishing himself as a major playwright: the most successful of which were The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952), and Separate Tables (1954). Rattigan's belief in understated emotions and craftsmanship was deemed old fashioned and "pre-war" after the overnight success in 1956 of John Osborne 's play Look Back in Anger began

1209-475: The well-off middle-class who had conventional tastes; his critics frequently used this character as the basis for belittling him. "Aunt Edna" inspired Joe Orton to create "Edna Welthorpe", a mischievous alter ego stirring up controversy about his own plays. Rattigan was homosexual, with numerous lovers but no long-term partners, a possible exception being his "congenial companion ... and occasional friend" Michael Franklin. From 1944 to January 1947 he enjoyed

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1248-687: Was My House in Umbria (2003), an adaptation of the novella by William Trevor starring Maggie Smith . He also wrote the episode, "Horrible Conspiracies", for the BBC series Elizabeth R (1971). Whitemore's film credits include: Man at the Top (1973), All Creatures Great and Small (1975), The Blue Bird (1976), The Return of the Soldier (1982), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) and Utz (1992). The plots of Whitemore's plays frequently focus on historical figures. Stevie (1977) centred on

1287-487: Was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background. He wrote The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others. A troubled homosexual who saw himself as an outsider, Rattigan wrote a number of plays which centred on issues of sexual frustration, failed relationships, or

1326-629: Was a commercial success, running for 726 performances. Separate Tables was presented at the Music Box Theatre in New York on 25 October 1956. It was a transfer of the London production with the same principal players and many of the supporting cast. In The New York Times , Brooks Atkinson wrote "Since Terence Rattigan has written a particularly fine play, it is only fair that it should be wonderfully well acted." The production won one Tony award (for Leighton as best dramatic actress) and

1365-698: Was a revival of The Deep Blue Sea in 1993, at the Almeida Theatre , London, directed by Karel Reisz and starring Penelope Wilton . A string of successful revivals followed, including The Winslow Boy at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2001 (with David Rintoul , and subsequently on tour in 2002 with Edward Fox ), Man and Boy at the Duchess Theatre , London, in 2005, with David Suchet as Gregor Antonescu, and In Praise of Love at Chichester, and Separate Tables at

1404-467: Was diagnosed with leukaemia in 1962 but seemingly recovered two years later. He fell ill again in 1968. He disliked the so-called " Swinging London " of the 1960s and moved abroad, living in Bermuda , where he lived off the proceeds from lucrative screenplays including The V.I.P.s and The Yellow Rolls-Royce . For a time he was the highest-paid screenwriter in the world. In 1964, Rattigan wrote to

1443-687: Was given no middle name, but he adopted the middle name "Mervyn" in early adulthood. Rattigan was educated at Sandroyd School from 1920 to 1925, at the time based in Cobham, Surrey (and now the home of Reed's School ), and Harrow School . Rattigan played cricket for the Harrow First XI and scored 29 in the Eton–Harrow match in 1929. He was a member of the Harrow School Officer Training Corps and organised

1482-554: Was nominated for five more: for the play, the direction, and for three of the supporting cast, Neilson-Terry, Measor and William Podmore (as Fowler). Among stage revivals of the piece are Peter Hall 's production at the Albery in London in 1993 with Patricia Hodge and Peter Bowles in the principal roles, and one by the Royal Exchange Theatre , Manchester in 2006 using the text of Rattigan's alternative draft, with

1521-474: Was taught by Peter Barkworth , then on the staff at RADA, who recognised he had the potential to make a significant contribution to the theatre, "though perhaps not as an actor." He began his writing career in British television with both original television plays and adaptations of classic works by Charles Dickens , W. Somerset Maugham , Daphne du Maurier , and Charlotte Brontë , among others, and had won

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