Search results
The first of Allen's plays to be directed by Loach was The Big Flame (1969), again for The Wednesday Play series. The play depicts a strike among the dockers of Liverpool , led by a Trotskyite docker against the wishes of the established union; the strike is violently broken by the army and police.
Perdition (play) Perdition is a 1987 stage play by Jim Allen. Its premiere at London's Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, in a production directed by Ken Loach, was abandoned because of protests, and criticism by two historians, over its controversial and tendentious claims. [ 1 ]
- Early Life
- Politics
- Writing Career
- Filmography
- Awards
- Sources
- External Links
Allen was born in the Miles Platting area of Manchester, Lancashire, on 7 October 1926, the second child of Kitty and Jack Allen, Roman Catholics of Irish descent. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Allen left school at the age of 13 to work in a wire factory. He had various jobs during the war, before being called up into the Army in 1944. H...
During his military service, Allen was imprisoned for assault and a fellow inmate introduced him to the ideals of socialism. Allen was a passionate socialist for the rest of his life, although he detested Stalinism and refused to be associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1958, he joined the Socialist Labour League (SLL), the forer...
Allen began to write during his time as a miner. In 1958, he was involved in the launch and publication of The Miner, which actively recruited for the SLL. The proscription of the SLL, together with the closed shop system of the time, made it impossible for him to find work in the mining or building trades, and he decided to adopt writing as a full...
Television
1. Coronation Street(36 episodes, 2 episodes co-written with John Finch 22 March 1965 – 15 May 1967) 2. Thirty Minute Theatre(2 episodes; "The Hard Word" (1966), "The Punchy and Fairy" (1973)) 3. The Wednesday Play(2 episodes; "The Lump" (1967), "The Big Flame" (1969)) 4. The Gamblers(1 episode, "The Man Beneath" (1967)) 5. Half Hour Story(1 episode, "The Pub Fighter" (1968)) 6. ITV Sunday Night Theatre(1 episode, "The Talking Head" (1969)) 7. Play For Today (5 episodes; "The Rank and File" (...
Film
1. Hidden Agenda(1990) 2. Raining Stones(1993) 3. Land and Freedom(1995)
Stage
1. Perdition(1987)
1975 Broadcasting Press Guild - Days of Hope1978 Broadcasting Press Guild - The Spongers1978 Prix Italia, British Broadcasting Corporation - The Spongers1981 Broadcasting Press Guild - United KingdomSlaughter, Barbara (11 August 1999). "Jim Allen: A lifetime's commitment to historical truth (Obituary)". World Socialist Web Site. http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/aug1999/obit-a11.shtml.
Loach, Ken. (25 June 1999). Jim Allen. Obituary,The Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2021.The first of Allen's plays to be directed by Loach was The Big Flame (1969), again for The Wednesday Play series. The play depicts a strike among the dockers of Liverpool, led by a Trotskyite docker against the wishes of the established union; the strike is violently broken by the army and police.
Jim Allen's most controversial work was the play Perdition (1987), which was directed by Ken Loach. The play was about collaborations between Hungarian Zionists and the Nazis during the Holocaust. It was to have been performed at Royal Court London, but the management cancelled it after huge public controversy.
Days of Hope (1975) is a four-part drama for the BBC directed by Loach from scripts by dramatist Jim Allen. The first episode of the series caused considerable controversy in the British media owing to its critical depiction of the military in World War I, [19] and particularly over a scene where conscientious objectors were tied up to stakes ...
People also ask
What was Allen's first play directed by Loach?
When was Allen introduced to Ken Loach?
What was Allen & Loach's most controversial project?
When was Allen's first play based on a true story?
Does Ken Loach write real women?
Who was James Allen?
Collaborating with Jim Allen made his subsequent work more explicitly political. 'The Big Flame' (BBC, tx. 19/2/1969) depicted revolutionary occupation by Liverpool dockers, while Loach's first Play for Today (BBC, 1970-84), 'The Rank and File' (BBC, tx. 20/5/1971), fictionalised a recent strike; both were political interventions, articulating ...
