Jim Allen (playwright)
Encyclopedia
James "Jim" Allen was a socialist
playwright
from England
, best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach
.
area of Manchester
on 7 October 1926, the second child of Kitty and Jack Allen, Catholics of Irish descent. At the outbreak of war 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. He joined the Seaforth Highlanders
, and served with the British occupation forces in Germany. After leaving the army in 1947, he worked at a variety of jobs, including a builder's labourer, a fireman in the British Merchant Navy, and a miner at Bradford colliery in Manchester.
and refused to be associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain
. In 1958 Allen joined the Socialist Labour League (the forerunner of the Workers' Revolutionary Party
) led by Gerry Healy
and John Lawrence
, a group within the mainstream Labour Party
. The SLL objected to the close association between the CPGB and the National Union of Mineworkers, and Allen was a prominent campaigner for the League, attending rallies at coalmines throughout the UK. In 1962, the Labour Party declared the SLL to be a "proscribed organization", leading to Allen's expulsion from the party. He subsequently resigned his membership of the League, and was not associated with any recognized political party thereafter.
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-time profession. In 1964, he submitted a script to Granada TV, and was taken on as a scriptwriter for the soap opera Coronation Street
. He worked for Granada until 1967; his 1969 play, The Talking Head, tells the story of a talented writer driven to a nervous breakdown by the pressure of deadlines.
His first full-length play, The Hard Word, directed by Ridley Scott
, was broadcast by the BBC
in 1966 as part of their drama series The Wednesday Play
. It was followed by The Lump, directed by Jack Gold
, first broadcast in 1967. Both plays were based on his experiences in the building trade, and The Lump features an activist worker who frequently quotes Lenin and Jack London
, establishing the political nature of Allen's work which was to continue throughout his career.
Allen was introduced to Ken Loach
through Wednesday Play producer Tony Garnett
, beginning their long collaboration. The first of Allen's plays to be directed by Loach was The Big Flame, also for the Wednesday Play series, broadcast in 1969. 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.
In 1975, Allen wrote, Garnett produced, and Loach directed Days of Hope
, Allen's best-known work. A mini-series with four episodes, it tells the story of the British Labour movement between the end of the Great War in 1918 and the General Strike
of 1926. The series' depiction of the British Army was the subject of much hostile criticism in the press.
Allen also wrote five plays (The Rank and File (1971), A Choice of Evils (1977), The Spongers (1978), United Kingdom (1981) and Willie's Last Stand (1982)) for the BBC's Play for Today
drama series, and several episodes of the Granada series Crown Court
.
Allen and Loach's most controversial production was the stage play, Perdition
. Presented as a courtroom drama, the play dealt with an allegation of collaboration between Hungarian Zionists and the Nazis during the Holocaust. The play was due to open at the Royal Court Theatre
in January 1987, but was cancelled 36 hours before the opening night; the script was read in public at that year's Edinburgh Festival
. Lord Goodman
wrote in the Evening Standard
: "Mr Jim Allen's description of the Holocaust can claim a high place in the table of classic anti-Semitism." The work was not produced as a stage play until 1999.
With Loach as director, Allen wrote the screenplays for three feature-length films: Hidden Agenda
(1990), which portrays the murder of an American civil rights activist in Belfast, Raining Stones
(1993), a kitchen-sink tragicomedy set in Middleton, Greater Manchester
, and, Allen's final dramatic work, Land and Freedom
(1995), telling the story of an idealistic young Communist from Liverpool who joins the Government forces in the Spanish Civil War.
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
.
Early life
Allen was born in the Miles PlattingMiles Platting
Miles Platting is an inner city district of Manchester, England. It is east-northeast of Manchester city centre, along the course of the Rochdale Canal and A62 road...
area of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
on 7 October 1926, the second child of Kitty and Jack Allen, Catholics of Irish descent. At the outbreak of war 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. He joined the Seaforth Highlanders
Seaforth Highlanders
The Seaforth Highlanders was a historic regiment of the British Army associated with large areas of the northern Highlands of Scotland. The Seaforth Highlanders have varied in size from two battalions to seventeen battalions during the Great War...
, and served with the British occupation forces in Germany. After leaving the army in 1947, he worked at a variety of jobs, including a builder's labourer, a fireman in the British Merchant Navy, and a miner at Bradford colliery in Manchester.
Politics
During his military service, Allen was imprisoned for assault, where a fellow inmate introduced him to the ideals of Socialism. He was a passionate socialist for the rest of his life, although he detested StalinismStalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
and refused to be associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
. In 1958 Allen joined the Socialist Labour League (the forerunner of the Workers' Revolutionary Party
Workers' Revolutionary Party (UK)
The Workers Revolutionary Party is a minute Trotskyist group in Britain. In the mid-1980s, it split several ways.-The Club:The WRP grew out of the faction Gerry Healy and John Lawrence led in the Revolutionary Communist Party which urged that the RCP enter the Labour Party. This policy was also...
) led by Gerry Healy
Gerry Healy
Thomas Gerard Healy, known as Gerry Healy , was a political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and, according to former prominent U.S. supporter David North, the leader of the Trotskyist movement in Great Britain between 1950 – 1985...
and John Lawrence
John Lawrence
John Lawrence may refer to:* John Lawrence , English illustrator and wood engraver* John Lawrence * John Lawrence , Irish landowner, owner of Ballymore Castle* John Lawrence a.k.a...
, a group within the mainstream Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. The SLL objected to the close association between the CPGB and the National Union of Mineworkers, and Allen was a prominent campaigner for the League, attending rallies at coalmines throughout the UK. In 1962, the Labour Party declared the SLL to be a "proscribed organization", leading to Allen's expulsion from the party. He subsequently resigned his membership of the League, and was not associated with any recognized political party thereafter.
Writing career
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 shopClosed shop
A closed shop is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times in order to remain employed....
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-time profession. In 1964, he submitted a script to Granada TV, and was taken on as a scriptwriter for the soap opera Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
. He worked for Granada until 1967; his 1969 play, The Talking Head, tells the story of a talented writer driven to a nervous breakdown by the pressure of deadlines.
His first full-length play, The Hard Word, directed by Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
, was broadcast by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1966 as part of their drama series The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
. It was followed by The Lump, directed by Jack Gold
Jack Gold
Jack Gold is a British film and television director. He was part of the British Realist Tradition that followed Free Cinema.-Career:...
, first broadcast in 1967. Both plays were based on his experiences in the building trade, and The Lump features an activist worker who frequently quotes Lenin and Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
, establishing the political nature of Allen's work which was to continue throughout his career.
Allen was introduced to Ken Loach
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
through Wednesday Play producer Tony Garnett
Tony Garnett
Tony Garnett is a film producer who has worked in feature films and on British television. He was born in Birmingham, England, and studied psychology at the University of London....
, beginning their long collaboration. The first of Allen's plays to be directed by Loach was The Big Flame, also for the Wednesday Play series, broadcast in 1969. 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.
In 1975, Allen wrote, Garnett produced, and Loach directed Days of Hope
Days of Hope
Days of Hope is a BBC television drama serial produced in 1975. The series dealt with the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926...
, Allen's best-known work. A mini-series with four episodes, it tells the story of the British Labour movement between the end of the Great War in 1918 and the General Strike
1926 United Kingdom general strike
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 May 1926 to 13 May 1926. It was called by the general council of the Trades Union Congress in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening...
of 1926. The series' depiction of the British Army was the subject of much hostile criticism in the press.
Allen also wrote five plays (The Rank and File (1971), A Choice of Evils (1977), The Spongers (1978), United Kingdom (1981) and Willie's Last Stand (1982)) for the BBC's Play for Today
Play for Today
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
drama series, and several episodes of the Granada series Crown Court
Crown Court (TV series)
Crown Court was an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984....
.
Allen and Loach's most controversial production was the stage play, Perdition
Perdition (play)
Perdition is a controversial play by Jim Allen.It deals with a libel action in Israel a few years after the Second World War, which looks into alleged collaboration during the War between the leadership of the Zionist movement in Hungary and the Nazis....
. Presented as a courtroom drama, the play dealt with an allegation of collaboration between Hungarian Zionists and the Nazis during the Holocaust. The play was due to open at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
in January 1987, but was cancelled 36 hours before the opening night; the script was read in public at that year's Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. Lord Goodman
Arnold Goodman, Baron Goodman
Arnold Abraham Goodman, Baron Goodman, CH, QC, was a British lawyer and political advisor.-Life:Lord Goodman was educated at University College London and Downing College, Cambridge. He became a leading London lawyer as Senior Partner in the law firm Goodman, Derrick & Co...
wrote in the Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
: "Mr Jim Allen's description of the Holocaust can claim a high place in the table of classic anti-Semitism." The work was not produced as a stage play until 1999.
With Loach as director, Allen wrote the screenplays for three feature-length films: Hidden Agenda
Hidden Agenda (1990 film)
Hidden Agenda , directed by Ken Loach, is a political thriller about British terrorism in Northern Ireland that includes the assassination of an American civil rights lawyer.-Plot and historical context:...
(1990), which portrays the murder of an American civil rights activist in Belfast, Raining Stones
Raining Stones
Raining Stones is a 1993 film directed by Ken Loach and starring Bruce Jones, Julie Brown, Ricky Tomlinson, Tom Hickey and Gemma Phoenix. It tells the story of a man who cannot afford to buy his daughter a First Communion dress, and makes disastrous choices in trying to raise the money...
(1993), a kitchen-sink tragicomedy set in Middleton, Greater Manchester
Middleton, Greater Manchester
Middleton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Irk, south-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester...
, and, Allen's final dramatic work, Land and Freedom
Land and Freedom
Land and Freedom is a 1995 film directed by Ken Loach and written by Jim Allen. The film narrates the story of David Carr, an unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who decides to fight for the republican side in the Spanish Civil War...
(1995), telling the story of an idealistic young Communist from Liverpool who joins the Government forces in the Spanish Civil War.
Television
- Coronation StreetCoronation StreetCoronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
(7 episodes, 22 March 1965 - 15 May 1967) - Thirty Minute Theatre (2 episodes; The Hard Word (1966), The Punchy and Fairy (1973))
- The Wednesday Play (2 episodes; The Lump (1967), The Big Flame (1969))
- The Gamblers (1 episode, The Man Beneath (1967))
- Half Hour Story (1 episode, The Pub Fighter (1968))
- ITV Sunday Night Theatre (1 episode, The Talking Head (1969))
- Play For TodayPlay for TodayPlay for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
(5 episodes; The Rank and File (1971), A Choice of Evils (1977), The Spongers (1978), United Kingdom (1981), Willie's Last Stand (1982)) - Days of HopeDays of HopeDays of Hope is a BBC television drama serial produced in 1975. The series dealt with the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926...
(1975 serial) - Crown Court (7 episodes; The Extremist (Parts 1-3) (1975), Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil (Part 1) (1975), Ends and Means (Part 1) (1975), Incorrigible Rogue (1976), Those in Peril (Part 1) (1976))
- The Gathering Seed (1 episode, 1983)
Film
- Hidden AgendaHidden AgendaHidden Agenda may refer to:* Hidden Agenda , a 1988 text-based game* Hidden Agenda , a political thriller directed by Ken Loach and written by Jim Allen...
(1990) - Raining StonesRaining StonesRaining Stones is a 1993 film directed by Ken Loach and starring Bruce Jones, Julie Brown, Ricky Tomlinson, Tom Hickey and Gemma Phoenix. It tells the story of a man who cannot afford to buy his daughter a First Communion dress, and makes disastrous choices in trying to raise the money...
(1993) - Land and FreedomLand and FreedomLand and Freedom is a 1995 film directed by Ken Loach and written by Jim Allen. The film narrates the story of David Carr, an unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who decides to fight for the republican side in the Spanish Civil War...
(1995)
External links
- Jim Allen. Obituary at The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. - Jim Allen biography at BFIBritish Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
's ScreenonlineScreenonlineScreenonline is a Web site devoted to the history of British film and television, and to social history as revealed by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund.Reviews...
. - An interview with Jim Allen conducted in 1995 by Barbara Slaughter and Vicky Short. World Socialist Web SiteWorld Socialist Web SiteThe World Socialist Web Site is the online news and information center of the International Committee of the Fourth International . The site publishes articles and analysis covering a wide range of topics and events all around the world. The daily 'Perspective' article presents the position of the...
, 11 August 1999.