Afternoon of a Nymph
{{Short description|1962 episode of British TV series Armchair Theatre}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
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| director = Philip Saville
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| teleplay = Robert Muller
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| airdate = {{Start date|1962|09|30}}
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Afternoon of a Nymph is an episode of the British Armchair Theatre series made by the ITV franchise holder ABC Weekend TV and first broadcast by the ITV network on 30 September 1962.{{cite web|last=Duguid|first=Mark|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/704329/|title= Afternoon of a Nymph (1962)|publisher=BFI Screenonline|date=2003–14|accessdate=20 November 2015}} It was written by Robert Muller and features Janet Munro and Ian Hendry in the lead roles. It was directed by Philip Saville and produced by Sydney Newman.{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=6 January 2024|access-date=6 January 2024|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/girl-next-door-or-girl-gone-bad-the-janet-munro-story/|title=Girl-next-door or girl-gone-bad: The Janet Munro Story}}
The production was precorded at a time when plays were typically broadcast live. The script was published.John Russell Taylor (ed.), Anatomy of a Television Play (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1962), 138-9 and 175-203.
Premise
A young woman, Elaine, wants to be an actress but struggles against the demands of the profession.
Cast
- Janet Munro as Elaine
- Ian Hendry as David Simpson
- Peter Butterworth as Ronnie Grimble
- Patrick Holt as Rogers
- Jackie Lane as Ginger
- Aubrey Morris as Joe, make-up man
- Jeremy Lloyd as Lord Tony Bright)
Production
Sydney Newman recalled that Muller, a showbiz columnist, "thought he would like to try his hand at a TV play about the grind of an unknown curvy actress trying to succeed in the cutthroat showbiz world of randy men. I sicced Peter Luke onto Robert and eventually we got a dandy script, which, again, Philip Saville directed most imaginatively. "{{cite book|first=Sydney|last=Newman|url=https://archive.org/details/headofdramamemoi0000newm/page/324/mode/2up?|year=2017|title=Head of drama : the memoir of Sydney Newman|page=324}} According to Shirley Bassey's biographer, "it’s not hard to imagine that some of the inspiration for the play may have come from this encounter with a clearly troubled young Shirley."{{cite book|page=194|url=https://archive.org/details/missshirleybasse0000will/page/194/mode/1up?|title= Miss Shirley Bassey
|last=Williams|first= John|year=2010}}
Reception
The second of Muller's seven plays for Armchair Theatre, Mark Duguid writes: "Although it lacks the cynical bite of, say, Alexander Mackendrick's The Sweet Smell of Success (US, 1957), Muller's script convincingly evokes the sordid shallows of showbiz."
A contemporary reviewer, Maurice Wiggins in The Sunday Times described the play negatively as being "a pretentious affair".{{cite book|last=White|first=Leonard|title=Armchair Theatre: The Lost Years|location=Tiverton, Devon|publisher=Kelly Publications|year=2003|page=69}}
Variety wrote the "trouble with the script was that Muller cleverly and sharply drew the background and witty dialog, but he couldn't win much sympathy for Elaine."{{cite magazine|title=Armchair Theatre|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety-1962-10/page/n190/mode/1up?|date=17 October 1962|page=37}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb episode|0302239}}
- [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/704329/index.html Afternoon of a Nymph] at BFI Screenonline
{{Armchair Theatre}}
Category:1962 television plays
Category:ITV television dramas
Category:Black-and-white British television shows