Alan Clarke

[jimw1]

Something I have been meaning to do for a while......A thread on one my favourite British Directors....Im surprised no one has posted a thread before.....

Alan Clarke....





Alan Clarke (28 October 1935 – 24 July 1990) was a television and film director, producer and writer, born in Wallasey, Cheshire, England.

Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, including work for the famous play strands The Wednesday Play and Play for Today.
His subject matter tended towards social realism, especially with respect to deprived or oppressed communities.

Some of his best known works are

Made in Britain...which gave Tim Roth his First Break on the screen



Scum



And a lesser known work perhaps..and My favourite

Contact

Contact follows a platoon of soldiers patrolling the "bandit country" of South Armagh, a hotbed of IRA activity running along the unmarked border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. It explores the trauma of fighting men who live under the constant shadow of terror as they edge ever closer to the play's inevitably tragic end. With little in the way of plot, Contact is as much an examination of the dynamics of fear as it is a comment on the specifics of the Irish situation it nevertheless re-opened the debate as to how television drama should address the Troubles.

[Nick Dando]

I saw Made in Britain many years ago, and still have Contact on a rather ropey VHS. A very good piece of work, and almost a silent film.

Nick

[jimw1]

I saw Made in Britain many years ago, and still have Contact on a rather ropey VHS. A very good piece of work, and almost a silent film.

Nick

Yes Contact was a unique piece of work' very little dialogue but very Atmospheric.......

[Toscana]

His 1972 BBC film, To Encourage The Others, about the Bentley and Craig case is far superior to the Peter Medak film, Let Him Have It. Don't just take my word for it, Iris Bentley thought so too.

[pelam123]

There is an excellent biography of Clarke and his career by Richard T. Kelly, definitely worth a read if a fan of his work.