The British television director Alan Clarke is primarily associated with the visceral social realism of such works as his banned borstal play "Scum," and his study of football hooliganism, "The Firm." This book uncovers the full range of his work from the mythic fantasy of "Penda's Fen," to the radical short film on terrorism, "Elephant." Dave Rolinson uses original research to examine the development of Clarke's career from the theatre and the "studio system" of provocative television play strands of the 1960s and 1970s, to the increasingly personal work of the 1980s, which established him...

The British television director Alan Clarke is associated primarily with the visceral social realism of his banned borstal play 'Scum' and his football hooligan study 'The Firm', but this book uncovers the poetic and wide-ranging career beneath his violent stereotype, for instance the mythic fantasy 'Penda's Fen' and the radical terrorist short 'Elephant'. Using much original research, this book details Clarke's early theatre career, his development within the 'studio system' of provocative television play strands of the 1960s and 1970s, and his increasingly personal work in the 1980s, which...