Bar Mitzvah Boy is a British television

British television

Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...

 play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

, written by Jack Rosenthal

Jack Rosenthal

Jack Morris Rosenthal CBE was an English playwright, who wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and over 150 screenplays, including original TV plays, feature films, and adaptations.-Biography:...

 and originally transmitted in the 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...

anthology series on BBC1

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

. Broadcast on 14 September 1976, the 75-minute production was directed by Michael Tuchner

Michael Tuchner

Michael Tuchner is a British film and theatre director.He directed the BAFTA TV Award winning television play Bar Mitzvah Boy.-External links:...

 and produced by Graeme MacDonald

Graeme MacDonald

Graeme MacDonald was a British television producer and executive....

.

Details

Starring Jeremy Steyn, Kim Clifford

Kim Clifford

Kim Clifford is a British actress.She starred in the BAFTA TV Award winning television play Bar Mitzvah Boy.She also made appearances in other television dramas, including London's Burning Juliet Bravo and the sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart.She is currently married to the artist Lee Galpin and has a...

, Mark Herman

Mark Herman

Mark Herman is an English film director and screenwriter best known for writing & directing the 2008 film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas....

, Adrienne Posta

Adrienne Posta

Adrienne Posta is an English film and television actress and singer, prominent during the 1960s and 1970s. She adopted the surname Posta in 1966. She recorded a number of singles. She is now semi-retired and works as a teacher in the Midlands and at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts...

, Maria Charles

Maria Charles

Maria Charles is an English actress who carved a niche for herself on television playing clingy Jewish mothers. She appeared in the memorable Play for Today entry, "Bar Mitzvah Boy", and played Maureen Lipman's character's mother in the sitcom Agony...

 and Bernard Spear

Bernard Spear

Bernard Spear was an English actor.He was born to a Polish father and Russian mother.Spears starred in the BAFTA TV Award-winning television play Bar Mitzvah Boy, and also appeared in the films Bedazzled and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...

, the play tells the story of a young Jewish boy, Eliott Green (Steyn), in a lower middle class

Lower middle class

In developed nations across the world, the lower middle class is a sub-division of the greater middle class. Universally the term refers to the group of middle class households or individuals who have not attained the status of the upper middle class associated with the higher realms of the middle...

 family living in Britain of the 1970s, and the apprehensions the boy feels over his forthcoming Bar Mitzvah

B'nai Mitzvah

Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah are Jewish coming of age rituals. According to Jewish law, when Jewish boys reach 13, they become responsible for their actions and become a Bar Mitzvah . The age for girls is 12...

. Meanwhile, the family prepares for the celebration, preoccupied with their own preparations for the b'nai mitzvah.

Programme notes for a Boston Jewish Film Festival

The Boston Jewish Film Festival

The Boston Jewish Film Festival is a non-competitive annual festival that screens the best contemporary films on Jewish themes from around the world...

 screening in 2004 hailed the play as "a BBC classic... this bittersweet comedy about a British boy’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah features a strong sense of time and place [and] stellar acting", while the British Film Institute

British Film Institute

The 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 website describes it as "a simple tale made memorable by genius writing and sympathetic performances."

In 1977 Bar Mitzvah Boy won the British Academy Television Award for 'Best Single Play', and in 2000 it was placed 56th in a BFI poll of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes

100 Greatest British Television Programmes

The BFI TV 100 is a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened....

 of the 20th century, voted on by industry professionals. The play is available on DVD with Rosenthal's other BBC work.

See also

• Bar Mitzvah Boy (musical)
  Bar Mitzvah Boy (musical)
  Bar Mitzvah Boy is a musical with a book by Jack Rosenthal, lyrics by Don Black, and music by Jule Styne.Based on Rosenthal's award-winning 1976 BBC1 teleplay of the same name, it focuses on young Eliot Green who, filled with apprehension, escapes from the synagogue where he is about to make his...
  
  
• 66 (film)

External links

• Bar Mitzvah Boy at the Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
  
  
• TV Cream review