Kitchen sink realism
Encyclopedia
Kitchen sink realism is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement which developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre
, art
, novel
s, film
and television play
s, whose 'heroes' usually could be described as angry young men
. It used a style of social realism
, which often depicted the domestic situations of working-class
Britons living in rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs, to explore social issues and political controversies.
The films, plays and novels employing this style are set frequently in poorer industrial areas in the North of England, and use the rough-hewn speaking accents and slang heard in those regions. The film It Always Rains on Sunday
(1947) is a precursor of the genre, and the John Osborne
play Look Back in Anger
(1956) is thought of as the first of the idiom.
The gritty love-triangle plot of Look Back in Anger, for example, is centred on a cramped, one-room flat in the English Midlands
. The conventions of the genre have continued into the 2000s, finding expression in such television shows as Coronation Street
and Eastenders
.
, an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts
, which depicts working class
activities. Many artists who subscribed to social realism were painter
s with socialist
political views. While the movement has some commonalities with Socialist Realism
, the "official art" advocated by the governments of the Soviet Union
and other Eastern Bloc
countries, the two had several differences.
Unlike Socialist realism, social realism is not an official art produced by, or under the supervision of the government. The leading characters are often 'anti-heroes' rather than part of a class to be admired, as in Socialist realism. Typically, they are dissatisfied with their lives and the world—rather than being idealised workers who are part of a Socialist utopia (supposedly) in the process of creation. As such, social realism allows more space for the subjectivity
of the author to be displayed.
Partly, social realism developed as a reaction against Romanticism, which promoted lofty concepts such as the "ineffable" beauty and truth of art and music, and even turned them into spiritual ideals. As such, social realism focused on the "ugly realities of contemporary life and sympathized with working-class people, particularly the poor." (The quotation is from George Shi, of the University of Fine Arts, Valencia).
, which contained an image of a kitchen sink. The critic David Sylvester
wrote an article in 1954 about trends in recent English art, calling his article "The Kitchen Sink" in reference to Bratby's picture. Sylvester argued that there was a new interest among young painters in domestic scenes, with stress on the banality of life.
Bratby painted several kitchen subjects, often turning practical utensils such as sieves and spoons into semi-abstract shapes. He also painted bathrooms, and made three paintings of toilets. Other artists associated with the "kitchen sink" style include Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith
. The term was then applied to a then-emerging style of drama, which favoured a more realistic representation of working class life. The term was adopted in the United States to refer to the live television dramas of the 1950s by Paddy Chayefsky
and others. As Chayefsky put it, this "drama of introspection" explored "the marvelous world of the ordinary."
's working class were often depicted stereotypically in Noel Coward
's Drawing room comedies
and British films. It was also seen as being in opposition to the 'well-made play', the kind which theatre critic Kenneth Tynan
once denounced as being set in 'Loamshire', of dramatists like Terence Rattigan
. The works of the 'kitchen sink' were created with the intention of changing all this. Their political
views were initially labeled as radical
, sometimes even anarchic
.
John Osborne
's play Look Back In Anger (1956) showed Angry Young Men
not totally dissimilar to the film and theatre directors of the movement; the hero is a graduate, but working in a manual occupation. It dealt with social alienation
, the claustrophobia and frustrations of a provincial life on low incomes.
The impact of this work inspired Arnold Wesker
and Shelagh Delaney
, among numerous others, to write plays of their own. The English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre
, headed by George Devine
, and Theatre Workshop
organised by Joan Littlewood
were particularly prominent in bringing these plays to the public's attention. Critic John Heilpern
wrote that Look Back in Anger expressed such "immensity of feeling and class hatred" that it altered the course of English theater. The term "Angry theatre" was coined by critic John Russell Taylor
.
This was all part of the British New Wave
—a transposition of the concurrent Nouvelle Vague
film movement in France, some of whose works, such as The 400 Blows
of 1959, also emphasized the lives of the urban proletariat. British filmmakers such as Tony Richardson
and Lindsay Anderson
(see also Free Cinema
) channelled their vitriolic anger into film making. Confrontational films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
(1960) and A Taste of Honey
(1962) were noteworthy films in the genre.
Later, as many of these writers and directors diversified, kitchen sink realism was taken up by television. The singe play was then a staple of the medium, and Armchair Theatre
(1956-68), produced by the ITV contractor ABC
, The Wednesday Play
(1964-70) and Play for Today
(1970-84), both BBC series, contained many works of this kind. Jeremy Sandford
's television play Cathy Come Home
(1966, directed by Ken Loach
for The Wednesday Play slot) for instance, addressed the then-stigmatized issue of homelessness.
Kitchen sink realism was also seen as apparent in the novels of Stan Barstow
, John Braine
, Alan Sillitoe
and others.
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and television play
Television play
From the 1950s until the early 1980s, the television play was a popular television programming genre in the United Kingdom, with a shorter span in the United States. The genre was often associated with the social realist-influenced British drama style known as "kitchen sink realism", which depicted...
s, whose 'heroes' usually could be described as angry young men
Angry young men
The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John...
. It used a style of social realism
Social realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
, which often depicted the domestic situations of working-class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
Britons living in rented accommodation and spending their off-hours drinking in grimy pubs, to explore social issues and political controversies.
The films, plays and novels employing this style are set frequently in poorer industrial areas in the North of England, and use the rough-hewn speaking accents and slang heard in those regions. The film It Always Rains on Sunday
It Always Rains on Sunday
It Always Rains on Sunday is a film adaptation of the novel by Arthur La Bern, adapted and directed by Robert Hamer. In its gritty, unsentimental depiction of everyday life in post-war Britain, and in its exploration of the tedium, frustration and desperation wrought by grinding poverty, the film...
(1947) is a precursor of the genre, and the John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
play Look Back in Anger
Look Back in Anger
Look Back in Anger is a John Osborne play—made into films in 1959, 1980, and 1989 -- about a love triangle involving an intelligent but disaffected young man , his upper-middle-class, impassive wife , and her haughty best friend . Cliff, an amiable Welsh lodger, attempts to keep the peace...
(1956) is thought of as the first of the idiom.
The gritty love-triangle plot of Look Back in Anger, for example, is centred on a cramped, one-room flat in the English Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
. The conventions of the genre have continued into the 2000s, finding expression in such television shows as 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...
and Eastenders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
.
Antecedents and influences
The cultural movement was rooted in the ideals of social realismSocial realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
, an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
, which depicts working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
activities. Many artists who subscribed to social realism were painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s with socialist
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,...
political views. While the movement has some commonalities with Socialist Realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
, the "official art" advocated by the governments of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and other Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
countries, the two had several differences.
Unlike Socialist realism, social realism is not an official art produced by, or under the supervision of the government. The leading characters are often 'anti-heroes' rather than part of a class to be admired, as in Socialist realism. Typically, they are dissatisfied with their lives and the world—rather than being idealised workers who are part of a Socialist utopia (supposedly) in the process of creation. As such, social realism allows more space for the subjectivity
Subject (philosophy)
In philosophy, a subject is a being that has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness or a relationship with another entity . A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed...
of the author to be displayed.
Partly, social realism developed as a reaction against Romanticism, which promoted lofty concepts such as the "ineffable" beauty and truth of art and music, and even turned them into spiritual ideals. As such, social realism focused on the "ugly realities of contemporary life and sympathized with working-class people, particularly the poor." (The quotation is from George Shi, of the University of Fine Arts, Valencia).
Origins of term
In the UK, the term "kitchen sink" derived from an expressionist painting by John BratbyJohn Bratby
John Randall Bratby was an English painter who founded the kitchen sink realism style of art that was influential in the late 1950s....
, which contained an image of a kitchen sink. The critic David Sylvester
David Sylvester
Anthony David Bernard Sylvester CBE, was a British art critic and curator. Although he received no formal education in the arts, during his long career he was influential in promoting modern artists, in particular the work of Joan Miró, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.Born into a well connected...
wrote an article in 1954 about trends in recent English art, calling his article "The Kitchen Sink" in reference to Bratby's picture. Sylvester argued that there was a new interest among young painters in domestic scenes, with stress on the banality of life.
Bratby painted several kitchen subjects, often turning practical utensils such as sieves and spoons into semi-abstract shapes. He also painted bathrooms, and made three paintings of toilets. Other artists associated with the "kitchen sink" style include Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith
Jack Smith (artist)
Jack Smith was a British realist and, later, abstract artist.- Life :Jack Smith was born in 1928 in Sheffield, Yorkshire....
. The term was then applied to a then-emerging style of drama, which favoured a more realistic representation of working class life. The term was adopted in the United States to refer to the live television dramas of the 1950s by Paddy Chayefsky
Paddy Chayefsky
Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky , was an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for Best Screenplay....
and others. As Chayefsky put it, this "drama of introspection" explored "the marvelous world of the ordinary."
1950s and 1960s
Before the 1950s, the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's working class were often depicted stereotypically in Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Drawing room comedies
Drawing room play
A drawing room play is a type of play, developed during the Victorian period, in which the actions take place in a drawing room or which is designed to be reenacted in the drawing room of a home...
and British films. It was also seen as being in opposition to the 'well-made play', the kind which theatre critic Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
once denounced as being set in 'Loamshire', of dramatists like Terence Rattigan
Terence Rattigan
Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan CBE was one of England's most popular 20th-century dramatists. His plays are generally set in an upper-middle-class background...
. The works of the 'kitchen sink' were created with the intention of changing all this. Their political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
views were initially labeled as radical
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
, sometimes even anarchic
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
.
John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
's play Look Back In Anger (1956) showed Angry Young Men
Angry young men
The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John...
not totally dissimilar to the film and theatre directors of the movement; the hero is a graduate, but working in a manual occupation. It dealt with social alienation
Social alienation
The term social alienation has many discipline-specific uses; Roberts notes how even within the social sciences, it “is used to refer both to a personal psychological state and to a type of social relationship”...
, the claustrophobia and frustrations of a provincial life on low incomes.
The impact of this work inspired Arnold Wesker
Arnold Wesker
Sir Arnold Wesker is a prolific British dramatist known for his contributions to kitchen sink drama. He is the author of 42 plays, 4 volumes of short stories, 2 volumes of essays, a book on journalism, a children's book, extensive journalism, poetry and other assorted writings...
and Shelagh Delaney
Shelagh Delaney
Shelagh Delaney, FRSL was an English dramatist and screenwriter, best-known for her debut work, A Taste of Honey ....
, among numerous others, to write plays of their own. The English Stage Company 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...
, headed by George Devine
George Devine
George Alexander Cassady Devine CBE was an extremely influential theatrical manager, director, teacher and actor in London from the late 1940s until his death. He also worked in the media of TV and film.-Biography:...
, and Theatre Workshop
Theatre Workshop
Theatre Workshop is a theatre group noted for their director, Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company...
organised by Joan Littlewood
Joan Littlewood
Joan Maud Littlewood was a British theatre director, noted for her work in developing the left-wing Theatre Workshop...
were particularly prominent in bringing these plays to the public's attention. Critic John Heilpern
John Heilpern
John Heilpern, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and longtime drama critic for the New York Observer,Heilpern, the son of a bookmaker, was born in Manchester, England, and educated at Oxford University...
wrote that Look Back in Anger expressed such "immensity of feeling and class hatred" that it altered the course of English theater. The term "Angry theatre" was coined by critic John Russell Taylor
John Russell Taylor
John Russell Taylor is an English critic and author. He is the author of critical studies of British theatre; of critical biographies of such important figures in Anglo-American film as Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, Vivien Leigh, and Ingrid Bergman; of Strangers in Paradise: The...
.
This was all part of the British New Wave
British New Wave
The British New Wave is the name given to a trend in filmmaking among directors in Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The label is a translation of Nouvelle Vague, the French term first applied to the films of François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard among others.There is considerable overlap...
—a transposition of the concurrent Nouvelle Vague
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
film movement in France, some of whose works, such as The 400 Blows
The 400 Blows
The 400 Blows is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut. One of the defining films of the French New Wave, it displays many of the characteristic traits of the movement. The story revolves around Antoine Doinel, an ordinary adolescent in Paris, who is thought by his parents and teachers...
of 1959, also emphasized the lives of the urban proletariat. British filmmakers such as Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
and Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...
(see also Free Cinema
Free Cinema
Free Cinema was a documentary film movement that emerged in England in the mid-1950s. The term referred to an absence of propagandised intent or deliberate box office appeal. Co-founded by Lindsay Anderson, though he later disdained the 'movement' tag, with Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lorenza...
) channelled their vitriolic anger into film making. Confrontational films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is the first novel by British author Alan Sillitoe and won the Author's Club First Novel Award.It was adapted by Sillitoe into a 1960 film starring Albert Finney, directed by Karel Reisz, and in 1964 was adapted by David Brett as a play for the Nottingham...
(1960) and A Taste of Honey
A Taste of Honey (film)
A Taste of Honey is a 1961 British film adaptation of the play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney. Delaney adapted the screenplay herself, aided by director Tony Richardson, who had previously directed the first production of the play...
(1962) were noteworthy films in the genre.
Later, as many of these writers and directors diversified, kitchen sink realism was taken up by television. The singe play was then a staple of the medium, and Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....
(1956-68), produced by the ITV contractor ABC
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
, 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...
(1964-70) and 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...
(1970-84), both BBC series, contained many works of this kind. Jeremy Sandford
Jeremy Sandford
Jeremy Sandford was an English television screenwriter who came to prominence in 1966 with Cathy Come Home, his controversial entry in BBC1's The Wednesday Play anthology strand which was directed by Ken Loach...
's television play Cathy Come Home
Cathy Come Home
Cathy Come Home is a 1966 BBC television play by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach, about homelessness. An industry poll rated it as the best British television drama ever made. Filmed in a gritty, realistic drama documentary style, it was first broadcast on 16...
(1966, directed by 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...
for The Wednesday Play slot) for instance, addressed the then-stigmatized issue of homelessness.
Kitchen sink realism was also seen as apparent in the novels of Stan Barstow
Stan Barstow
Stanley "Stan" Barstow FRSL was an English novelist.-Biography:Barstow was born in Horbury, near Wakefield, Yorkshire. His father was a coal miner and he attended Ossett Grammar School, he then worked as a draftsman and salesman for an engineering firm...
, John Braine
John Braine
John Gerard Braine was an English novelist. Braine is usually associated with the Angry Young Men movement.-Biography:...
, Alan Sillitoe
Alan Sillitoe
Alan Sillitoe was an English writer and one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s.. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied.- Biography :...
and others.
List of films associated with kitchen sink realism
- Look Back in AngerLook Back in Anger (film)Look Back in Anger is a 1959 British film starring Richard Burton, Claire Bloom and Mary Ure and directed by Tony Richardson.It is based on John Osborne's play of the same name about a love triangle involving an intelligent but disaffected young man , his upper-middle-class, impassive wife , and...
(1959) - Room at the Top (1959)
- Saturday Night and Sunday MorningSaturday Night and Sunday Morning (film)Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a 1960 British film. It is an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same name by Alan Sillitoe. Sillitoe wrote the screenplay adaptation and the film was directed by Karel Reisz.-Synopsis:...
(1960) - A Taste of HoneyA Taste of Honey (film)A Taste of Honey is a 1961 British film adaptation of the play of the same name by Shelagh Delaney. Delaney adapted the screenplay herself, aided by director Tony Richardson, who had previously directed the first production of the play...
(1961) - A Kind of LovingA Kind of Loving (film)A Kind of Loving is a 1962 British drama film directed by John Schlesinger, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Stan Barstow. It stars Alan Bates and June Ritchie as two lovers in 1960s West Yorkshire. The photography was by Denys Coop, and the music by Ron Grainer...
(1962) - The L-Shaped RoomThe L-Shaped RoomThe L-Shaped Room is a 1962 British drama film, directed by Bryan Forbes, which tells the story of a young French woman, unmarried and pregnant, who moves into a London boarding house, befriending a young man in the building...
(1962) - The Loneliness of the Long Distance RunnerThe Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (film)The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a 1962 film, based on the short story of the same name.The screenplay, like the short story, was written by Alan Sillitoe....
(1962) - A Place to GoA Place to GoA Place to Go is a 1963 British crime drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Bernard Lee, Rita Tushingham and Michael Sarne. Set in contemporary Bethnal Green in east London it charted the dramatic changes that were happening in the lives of the British working-class at the time, fitting...
(1963) - This Sporting LifeThis Sporting LifeThis Sporting Life is a 1963 British film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It tells the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting...
(1963) - Billy LiarBilly Liar (film)Billy Liar is a 1963 film based on the novel by Keith Waterhouse. It was directed by John Schlesinger and stars Tom Courtenay as Billy and Julie Christie as Liz, one of his three girlfriends. Mona Washbourne plays Mrs. Fisher, and Wilfred Pickles played Mr. Fisher...
(1963) - Girl with Green EyesGirl with Green EyesGirl with Green Eyes is a 1964 British drama film, which Edna O'Brien adapted from her novel The Lonely Girl. It was directed by Desmond Davis, and stars Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave and Julian Glover.- Plot :...
(1964) - The Leather BoysThe Leather BoysThe Leather Boys is a 1964 British drama film about the rocker subculture in London featuring a gay motorcyclist. This film is notable as an early example of a film that violated the Hollywood production code, yet was still shown in the United States, as well as an important film in the genre of...
(1964) - The Pumpkin EaterThe Pumpkin EaterThe Pumpkin Eater is a 1964 British drama film starring Anne Bancroft as an unusually fertile woman and Peter Finch as her philandering husband....
(1964) - Alfie (1966)
- Georgy GirlGeorgy GirlGeorgy Girl is a 1966 British film based on a novel by Margaret Forster. The film was directed by Silvio Narizzano and starred Lynn Redgrave as Georgy, Alan Bates, James Mason, Charlotte Rampling and Bill Owen....
(1966) - Poor CowPoor CowPoor Cow is a 1967 British drama film directed by Ken Loach, based on Nell Dunn's novel of the same name.Although Malcolm McDowell is listed in the credits on the commercial release of the film, the scenes in which he appeared were deleted....
(1967) - Up The JunctionUp the Junction (1968 film)Up the Junction is a 1968 British film directed by Peter Collinson and starring Dennis Waterman, Suzy Kendall, Adrienne Posta, Maureen Lipman and Liz Fraser. It is based on the book of the same name by Nell Dunn and was adapted by Roger Smith...
(1968) - KesKes (film)Kes is a 1969 British film from director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett. The film is based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave, written by the Barnsley-born author Barry Hines in 1968...
(1969) - Spring and Port WineSpring and Port WineSpring and Port Wine is a stage play by Bill Naughton which was turned into a film .It began life under the title My Flesh, My Blood as a BBC Radio play, broadcast on 17 August 1957 in the Saturday Night Theatre strand...
(1970) - That'll Be the DayThat'll Be The Day (film)That'll Be the Day is a 1973 British film starring David Essex and Ringo Starr, written by Ray Connolly and directed by Claude Whatham. It is set in the late '50s/early '60s and was partially filmed on the Isle of Wight. A sequel, Stardust, was released in 1974.-Plot summary:Jim MacLaine's mother...
(1973)
Pop culture references
- MorrisseyMorrisseySteven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
, a singer and lyricist from ManchesterManchesterManchester 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...
, EnglandEnglandEngland 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...
included several references to the working class issues of kitchen sink realism in his 1980s-era songs for The SmithsThe SmithsThe Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
and during his solo career in the 1990s and 2000s. As a teen, Morrissey was fascinated by such kitchen sink dramas as 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...
.
- Irish singer/songwriter Gavin FridayGavin FridayGavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter.-Career:Gavin was born in Dublin and grew up in Finglas, a neighbourhood located on Dublin's Northside...
's song "Kitchen Sink Drama" on the 1995 album Shag TobaccoShag TobaccoShag Tobacco is the third solo album from Gavin Friday. Once again, Friday teamed up with musician Maurice "The Man" Seezer. Bono and The Edge contribute backing vocals on "Little Black Dress."This album features a cover of T.Rex's "The Slider"....
reflects the challenges of working class life: "I woke up this morning / Dreading the thought of another / Dull and boring day / Hey woe is me."
- The 1989 made-for-TV film Norbert Smith - a LifeNorbert Smith - a LifeNorbert Smith – a Life is a spoof TV documentary film charting the life and career of the fictitious British actor Sir Norbert Smith. It stars Harry Enfield in the title role. It was written by Harry Enfield and Geoffrey Perkins and directed by Geoff Posner...
featured Harry EnfieldHarry EnfieldHenry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...
(as the fictional actor Sir Norbert Smith) in a film entitled It's Grim Up North, which parodied several of the situations and cliches of the kitchen sink dramas.
See also
- Ashcan SchoolAshcan SchoolThe Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century, best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York's poorer neighborhoods. The movement grew out of a group...
- one equivalent American art movement - NaturalismNaturalism (theatre)Naturalism is a movement in European drama and theatre that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies: detailed, three-dimensional settings Naturalism is a...
External links
- BFI: British New Wave
- Tucker, David. (ed.) British Social Realism in the Arts since 1940, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.