Bar Mitzvah Boy (BBC1, 1976)

Abstract

Written for Play for Today (1970–84), the anthology series that replaced The Wednesday Play in October 1970 when the series moved to Thursday nights, Jack Rosenthal’s Bar Mitzvah Boy (tx.14 September 1976) was a 75-minute play, shot on film and directed by Michael Tuchner. Filmed dramas are more expensive to make than studio dramas and film was usually reserved for a select number of single plays. During the course of the 1970s, the number of plays made on film for Play for Today increased from 6 out of 21 plays in the first series to 9 out of 24 plays in the sixth series, reaching a peak in 1979–80 when 14 of the 27 plays in series 10 were shot on film. During the 1980s studio-based television plays largely disappeared from British television screens, being replaced by TV films made for series such as Film on Four (C4, 1982–98),¹ Screen Two (BBC2, 1985–97) and Screen One (BBC1, 1989–97).