Fifty years ago, Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop premiered the first play by a nineteen-year-old writer, A Taste of Honey. The story of Jo, who finds herself pregnant by her black sailor boyfriend and abandoned by her prostitute mother, the play confronted social taboos of the 1950s in ways that shocked and enthralled audiences. A success at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, it soon transferred to the West End and was later adapted into a film starring Rita Tushingham and Dora Bryan.
On Radio 4 this Thursday, TV writer Kay Mellor explores the legacy of such an iconic play, featuring interviews with the original cast and archive material. A Taste of Honey was one of the first so-called ‘kitchen sink’ dramas, introducing a style which would be popularised through television’s Wednesday Play and, later, Play for Today.
- A Taste of Honey, BBC Radio 4, Thursday May 22, 11:30am
Turn off the TV is an occasional feature highlighting radio programmes on topics the TV Today team think will be of interest to our readers.
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