Spoiled is a television and stage play by Simon Gray, first broadcast by the BBC in 1968 as part of The Wednesday Play series and later adapted for the stage.[1] It is set over a single weekend in the house of a schoolmaster, Howarth, who invites one of his O-Level French students to his home to do some last-minute cramming before an exam. Howarth has an almost unnatural enthusiasm, while his student, Donald, is painfully shy. Meanwhile, Howarth's pregnant wife is far from happy about having someone to stay in the midst of her fears about parenting.[2][3]
Characters
Howarth
Donald
Joanna
Les
Mrs Clenham
Television production
Spoiled was originally a play written for the BBC's The Wednesday Play series, broadcast first on 28 August 1968, and again on 9 July 1969.[4] It was directed by Waris Hussein and produced by Graeme MacDonald.[5] Believed to be lost,[6] it had the following cast:[5] The production was wiped after broadcast and no copies are known to exist.
Spoiled was adapted by the author for the stage and first performed at the Close Theatre Club, Glasgow, in 1970, directed by Stephen Hollis.[2] It had the following cast:[3]
The film was adapted for Australian TV in 1974. It was one of a number of stage productions filmed by the ABC in the early 1970s. For Spoiled the ABC filmed an adaptation of a production of the play at the Independent Theatre. Others that year included Hamlet, The Misanthrope and A Hard God.[9]
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