The lover 1963 - Eroticism on early television

Vivien Merchant

Alan Badel

IMDB Link
IMDB Rating: 7,2

Director: Joan Kemp-Welch
Main Cast: Vivien Merchant, Alan Badel, Michael Forrest

"At the time his first play for television, 'A Night Out' was broadcast, Harold Pinter was just beginning to attract attention. By the time of The Lover, Pinter was already well-established as one of the most gifted and versatile writers of his generation, switching freely between stage, television, radio and, shortly, film - his first screenplay, The Servant (directed by Joseph Losey) was released later in 1963.
The Lover is a typically claustrophobic work, in which a suburban middle-class couple, played by Alan Badel and Pinter's then wife Vivien Merchant, become trapped in the sexual role-playing games they use to spice up their otherwise conventional marriage.
From its striking opening, in which two sets of silhouetted fingers tap upon a drum and entwine themselves like a pair of mating tarantulas, the play creates an atmosphere of eroticism unusual for television in 1963."

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