''Single Spies'' is a 1988 double bill written by the English playwright

Alan Bennett Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. He has received numerous awards and honours including four BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. In 2005 he received the Socie ...

. It consists of '' An Englishman Abroad'' and '' A Question of Attribution'', the former an adaptation of a television play the author had written for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in 1983. Both plays depict members of the Cambridge spy ring and touch on their moral, political and aesthetic beliefs: the first shows

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection ...

in exile in Moscow in 1958, seven years after absconding from Britain. The second focuses on Sir Anthony Blunt while he still holds high office in the Royal Household although known to the security services as a former Soviet agent. The title comes from a speech in ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'': ‘When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.’ The double bill was presented at the National Theatre in December 1988, and transferred to the Queen's Theatre in the West End in February 1989.

''An Englishman Abroad''

The play is based on the true story of a chance meeting of the actress Coral Browne, with

, a member of the Cambridge spy ring, who worked for the Soviet Union while serving with

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

and fled to exile in Moscow to avoid arrest in 1951. Browne was in Moscow in 1958 as a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company playing Gertrude in ''

'' to Russian audiences. Her Hamlet,

Michael Redgrave Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English actor and filmmaker. Beginning his career in theatre, he first appeared in the West End in 1937. He made his film debut in Alfred Hitchcock's ''The Lady Vanishes'' ...

, had been at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

with Burgess, who came to see him. Burgess also met Browne, who undertook to visit his London tailor on her return to order new suits for him. Bennett took this incident and dramatised it for television. Browne played her 25-years-younger self, and

Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the Cinema of the United Kingdom#The 1960s, 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from ''Whistle Down the Wind (film), Whistle Down ...

played Burgess. All the other characters, including Redgrave, were anonymised by Bennett. The play was first broadcast on

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

on 29 November 1983 with the following cast: *Guy Burgess – Alan Bates *Coral – Coral Browne *Claudius – Charles Gray *Rosencrantz – Harold Innocent *Guildenstern – Vernon Dobtcheff *General – Czeslaw Grocholski *Boy – Matthew Sim *Hamlet – Mark Wing-Davey *Hotel receptionist – Faina Zinova *Toby – Douglas Reith *Giles – Peter Chelsom *Tessa – Judy Gridley *Scarfman – Bibs Ekkel *Tolya – Alexei Jawdokimov *Mrs Burgess – Molly Veness *Tailor – Denys Hawthorne *Shoe shop assistant – Roger Hammond *George –

Charles Lamb Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his '' Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book '' Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764� ...

*Pyjama shop manager – Trevor Baxter The film was directed by

John Schlesinger John Richard Schlesinger ( ; 16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film and stage director, and actor. He emerged in the early 1960s as a leading light of the British New Wave, before embarking on a successful career in Hollywood ...

:Source: BBC. For the stage version Bennett substantially rewrote the script, cutting out many minor characters. At the National Theatre premiere on 1 December 1988 the cast was: *Coral –

Prunella Scales Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English retired actress. She portrayed Sybil Fawlty, the bossy wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy ''Fawlty Towers'' and Queen Elizabeth ...

*Burgess –

Simon Callow Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFT ...

*Tolya –

Paul Brightwell Paul Brightwell is an English actor and director. He has acted in many different plays, films and TV shows since the late 1980s. Theatre direction includes the British premieres of Heiner Muller's '' Hamletmachine'' at the Gate Notting Hill, and W ...

*Tailor –

*Shop Assistant – Edward Halsted The play was directed by Bennett. :Source: Playscript.Bennett, p. 14

''A Question of Attribution''

The second play is based on

Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), (formerly styled Sir Anthony Blunt from 1956 until November 1979), was a leading British art historian and a Soviet spy. Blunt was a professor of art history at the University ...

's role in the Cambridge Spy Ring and, as

Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures The office of the Surveyor of the King's/Queen's Pictures, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of pictures owned by ...

, personal art adviser to Queen Elizabeth II. Bennett portrays his continuing interrogation by Chubb, an

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

officer; his work researching and restoring art; and an unexpected meeting with the Queen while he and an assistant are rehanging paintings at

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

. The Queen, though ostensibly discussing aesthetic matters with him, interrogates Blunt more probingly than the MI5 man has done. The play was lightly revised for a television version first shown on 20 October 1991. The casts of the stage and screen versions were: The stage play was directed by Simon Callow. The television version was directed by John Schlesinger. The plays were adapted for radio in 2006, with Brigit Forsyth as Coral and Simon Callow as Burgess in the first play, and Edward Petherbridge as Blunt and Prunella Scales as the Queen in the second."The Saturday Play: Betrayal"
BBC Genome. Retrieved 15 July 2020

Reception

In a televised documentary ''Caviar to the General'' broadcast on UK

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in 1990, shortly before her death, Coral Browne humorously described her reaction to seeing the stage version of ''An Englishman Abroad'', particularly expressing her irritation at the costumes. She recalled that when she made the film version, the costume designer went to great lengths to find out what she wore at the time the story is set, but when she saw the stage costumes she exclaimed: "I fainted. The prospect of my appearing in a fake fur whatever it was, and hats that wouldn't have come out of a grab bag after Christmas at the Salvation Army... I was incensed... and I mean... and if the play ever comes to New York I shall go there with three lawyers... because I consider it a defamation."

References and sources

References

Sources

External links

* * {{OlivierAward Comedy 1976–2000 1988 plays Plays by Alan Bennett Comedy plays Laurence Olivier Award–winning plays West End plays