Harold Pinter

Writing

Harold Pinter

Born — Died

1930-10-10 — 2008-12-24

Place of birth

Hackney, London, England, UK

Known for

Writing

Credits

80 titles

Harold Pinter CH CBE (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others' works. Pinter was born and ra…

Known for

The South Bank Show poster
5.6

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

The South Bank Show

1978

Tony Awards poster
NR

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre.

Tony Awards

1956

The Wednesday Play poster
5.2

An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.

The Wednesday Play

1964

Theatre 625 poster
7.2

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Theatre 625

1964

HARDtalk poster
8.7

In-depth interviews with hard-hitting questions and sensitive topics being covered as famous personalities from all walks of life talk about the highs and lows in their lives.

HARDtalk

1997

BBC2 Play of the Week poster
7.0

An anthology of plays and novels adapted into feature length TV movies, broadcast on BBC2 from September 1977 to April 1979.

BBC2 Play of the Week

1977

Film credits

2000s · 9 titles

The Tailor of Panama poster
6.0

A British spy is banished to Panama after having an affair with an ambassador's mistress. Once there he makes connection with a local tailor with a nefarious past and connections to all of the top political and gangster figures in Panama. The tailor also has a wife, who works for the Panamanian president and a huge debt. The mission is to learn what the President intends to do with the Canal.

The Tailor of Panama

2001

Wit poster
7.3

A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.

Wit

2001

Sleuth poster
6.3

Locked in a high-tech English manor, bound in a deadly duel of wits, Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle come together as English gentlemen to discuss the matter of Wyke's wife: the woman both are sleeping with.

Sleuth

2007

Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film poster
10.0

Follows the "Beckett on Film" project, which produced film adaptations of writer Samuel Beckett's nineteen stage plays. The documentary features excerpts from the "Beckett on Film" versions of "Not I", "Krapp's Last Tape", "Endgame", "What Where", and "Waiting for Godot".

Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film

2003

Catastrophe poster
6.4

An autocratic Director (Harold Pinter) and his Assistant (Rebecca Pidgeon) put the final touches to the last scene of some kind of dramatic presentation, which consists entirely of a man (John Gielgud) standing still onstage.

Catastrophe

2001

One for the Road poster
NR

2001 theatre production of Harold Pinter's one-act play considered his "statement about the human rights abuses of totalitarian governments."

One for the Road

2001

Art, Truth and Politics poster
NR

Nobel Lecture delivered on video by the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature Harold Pinter (1930–2008), who was at the time hospitalised and unable to travel to Stockholm to deliver it in person.

Art, Truth and Politics

2005

Krapp's Last Tape poster
NR

A 69 year old man sits alone on his last birthday and listens to the past. Krapp's Last Tape is an extraordinary study of mortality, creativity and memory. A television relay of the 2006 Royal Court Theatre production of Samuel Beckett's critically acclaimed play, starring Harold Pinter.

Krapp's Last Tape

2007

No artwork available
NR

A unique look into the creative process of playwright Harold Pinter, featuring unprecedented access to him rehearsing scenes with actors, giving masterclasses, and being interviewed by his friend Henry Woolf.

Working with Pinter

2007

1990s · 5 titles

1970s · 3 titles

1960s · 8 titles

The Servant poster
7.6

An indolent aristocrat gets more than he bargained for when he hires a competent but silently devious manservant.

The Servant

1963

Accident poster
6.4

Stephen is a professor at Oxford University who is caught in a rut and feels trapped by his life in both academia and marriage. One of his students, William, is engaged to the beautiful Anna, and Stephen becomes enamored of the younger woman. These three people become linked together by a horrible car crash, with flashbacks providing details into the lives of each person and their connection to the others in this brooding English drama.

Accident

1967

The Caretaker poster
7.4

Aston, a quiet, reserved man, lives alone in a top-floor cluttered room of a small abandoned house in a poor London district. He befriends and takes in Mac Davies, an old derelict who has been fired from a menial job in a café. In time Aston offers him a job as caretaker of the house. Aston's brother, Mick - a taunting, quasi-sadist - harasses the derelict when his brother is away, countermanding his orders...

The Caretaker

1964

The Basement poster
NR

An uneasy friendship between an introspective loner and a more gregarious man is renewed when the latter turns up at the former's basement flat one rainy night accompanied by an enigmatic, beautiful, mostly silent, girlfriend.

The Basement

1967

A Night Out poster
7.0

Against the wishes of his domineering mother, Albert Stokes attends a work party. But the evening is not the escape he was hoping for.

A Night Out

1960

Last to Go poster
6.0

The last of five animated shorts directed by Gerald Potterton for Pinter People, voiced by Harold Pinter and Donald Pleasence.

Last to Go

1969

In Camera poster
5.6

A 1964 BBC adaptation of Sartre's "No Exit."

In Camera

1964

No artwork available
NR

‘This week in Britain’ was one of a series of magazine films or Cinemagazines produced by the COI for consumption abroad to promote Britain and the Commonwealth. Produced between 1959 and 1979, and shown in cinemas as well as on television, each film in the series presented a cultural or topical item of interest. The 199th ‘This Week in Britain’ featured the making of Harold Pinter’s famous 1960 play ‘The Caretaker’. In 2005 Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

This Week in Britain #199: The Caretaker

1962

Series credits

The South Bank Show poster
5.6

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

The South Bank Show

1978

The South Bank Show poster
5.6

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

The South Bank Show

1978

Tony Awards poster
NR

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre.

Tony Awards

1956

The Wednesday Play poster
5.2

An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.

The Wednesday Play

1964

Theatre 625 poster
7.2

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Theatre 625

1964

HARDtalk poster
8.7

In-depth interviews with hard-hitting questions and sensitive topics being covered as famous personalities from all walks of life talk about the highs and lows in their lives.

HARDtalk

1997

BBC2 Play of the Week poster
7.0

An anthology of plays and novels adapted into feature length TV movies, broadcast on BBC2 from September 1977 to April 1979.

BBC2 Play of the Week

1977

The Culture Show poster
6.7

A weekly BBC Two magazine programme focusing on the best of the week's arts and culture news, covering books, art, film, architecture and more.

The Culture Show

2004

Theatre Night poster
NR

A series of dramas featuring staged theatre plays.

Theatre Night

1985

NBC Experiment in Television poster
NR

An attempt by NBC to emulate the success of the CBS hit The Twilight Zone, this hour-long anthology series showcased different actors, stories and creative talent each week.

NBC Experiment in Television

1967

Behind the camera

The French Lieutenant's Woman poster
6.5

In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.

The French Lieutenant's Woman

1981

The Handmaid's Tale poster
6.1

In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.

The Handmaid's Tale

1990

The Servant poster
7.6

An indolent aristocrat gets more than he bargained for when he hires a competent but silently devious manservant.

The Servant

1963

The Go-Between poster
6.8

British teenager Leo Colston spends a summer in the countryside, where he develops a crush on the beautiful young aristocrat Marian. Eager to impress her, Leo becomes the "go-between" for Marian, delivering secret romantic letters to Ted Burgess, a handsome neighboring farmer.

The Go-Between

1971

The Last Tycoon poster
6.3

Monroe Stahr, a successful movie producer, pursues a beautiful and elusive young woman — all the while working himself to death.

The Last Tycoon

1976

The Comfort of Strangers poster
5.9

An Italian diplomat's son follows and seduces English lovers in Venice.

The Comfort of Strangers

1990

The Quiller Memorandum poster
5.9

After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.

The Quiller Memorandum

1966

Sleuth poster
6.3

Locked in a high-tech English manor, bound in a deadly duel of wits, Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle come together as English gentlemen to discuss the matter of Wyke's wife: the woman both are sleeping with.

Sleuth

2007

The Pumpkin Eater poster
6.6

Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.

The Pumpkin Eater

1964

Accident poster
6.4

Stephen is a professor at Oxford University who is caught in a rut and feels trapped by his life in both academia and marriage. One of his students, William, is engaged to the beautiful Anna, and Stephen becomes enamored of the younger woman. These three people become linked together by a horrible car crash, with flashbacks providing details into the lives of each person and their connection to the others in this brooding English drama.

Accident

1967

Basements poster
6.6

Basements is the title for the omnibus film that brings together two plays by Harold Pinter – The Dumb Waiter and The Room – each, once again, set in a single location.

Basements

1987

The Trial poster
6.0

Joseph K. awakes one morning, to find two strange men in his room, telling him he has been arrested. Joseph is not told what he is charged with, and despite being "arrested," is allowed to remain free and go to work. But despite the strange nature of his arrest, Joseph soon learns that his trial, however odd, is very real, and tries desperately to spare himself from the court's judgement.

The Trial

1993

The Collection poster
4.4

Set in the rarefied world of West End boutique owners and fashion designers, The Collection takes as its departure point the moment when four elegant lives are suddenly shaken by the suggestion of infidelity. The sinister anonymous phone call that disturbs Harry Kane at four o'clock in the morning becomes increasingly hard to establish...

The Collection

1976

Tea Party poster
7.0

Mysteries abound. What is going on between the wife and her brother? Are they indeed brother and sister? Sisson has his doubts about that … . Why does Sisson feel that there must be something wrong with his eyes, although he knows that he can see clearly and his eye doctor has assured him that his vision is perfect? He forces his secretary to tie a chiffon scarf over his eyes, and then he is able to make a pass at her, in response to one of her many come-ons. Ordinary events assume a sinister tinge. Sisson's two sons, giving him the deadpan treatment that little boys have been inflicting on their elders from time immemorial, seem as eerie as characters out of a ghost story. Always the questions remain. Is there a conspiracy against Sisson. Wikipedia

Tea Party

1965

Reunion poster
6.7

Attorney Henry Strauss grew up in Germany, but left the country with his Jewish family during the rise of the Third Reich. Still wondering about what happened to his boyhood friend Konradin Von Lohenburg, Strauss travels back to Germany for the first time since he was a young man, bringing up some painful memories.

Reunion

1989

The Birthday Party poster
6.5

Based on Harold Pinter's enigmatic play about a boarder in a British seaside dwelling who is visited by two strangers. They torment him verbally, ask him idiotic unanswerable questions, force him to sit down and stand up, and give him a "party". Then, eventually, they take him away, a tongue-tied idiot. The trivial becomes the terrible, and with it a certain wonder, a certain pity.

The Birthday Party

1968

Turtle Diary poster
6.3

Two separate people, a man and a woman, find something very stirring about the sea turtles in their tank at the London Zoo. They meet and form an odd, but sympathetic camaraderie as they plan to steal two of the turtles and free them into the ocean.

Turtle Diary

1985

Harold Pinter:  A Celebration poster
8.0

In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harold Pinter at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. The team who made the acclaimed Harold Pinter documentaries for BBC's Arena was there to record this unique performance.

Harold Pinter: A Celebration

2010

The Caretaker poster
NR

The story of two brothers and a tramp. Harold Pinter's first major success as a dramatist.

The Caretaker

1981

The Caretaker poster
7.4

Aston, a quiet, reserved man, lives alone in a top-floor cluttered room of a small abandoned house in a poor London district. He befriends and takes in Mac Davies, an old derelict who has been fired from a menial job in a café. In time Aston offers him a job as caretaker of the house. Aston's brother, Mick - a taunting, quasi-sadist - harasses the derelict when his brother is away, countermanding his orders...

The Caretaker

1964

No Man's Land poster
7.0

'No Man's Land' is a play by Harold Pinter written in 1974 and first performed in 1975. In this 1978, TV adaptation, a seedy poet shows up at the home of a rich writer and they start reminiscing about the 'past,' in a menacing, Pinteresque fashion.

No Man's Land

1978

Betrayal poster
6.1

An affair between a literary agent and his best friend's wife, unfolding in reverse-chronological order.

Betrayal

1983

Victoria Station poster
9.0

A controller in a London cab office looks for a driver to pick up a fare from Victoria Station. The driver who answers has never heard of Victoria Station. And he already has a "passenger on board", albeit a very unusual one.

Victoria Station

2003

No artwork available
10.0

A middle aged couple, housekeeper and chauffeur sit in the huge bare kitchen of a country house pursuing their own thoughts aloud in a ghastly semblance of conversation. Doollee.com

Landscape

1995

No artwork available
10.0

A middle aged couple, housekeeper and chauffeur sit in the huge bare kitchen of a country house pursuing their own thoughts aloud in a ghastly semblance of conversation. Doollee.com

Landscape

1995

The Heat of the Day poster
8.0

In World War II England, a woman is approached by a man claiming to work as an intelligence agent who has found out her lover is a spy. He promises to not arrest him if she'll have a relationship with him.

The Heat of the Day

1989

The Lover poster
6.0

A sophisticated suburban couple try to enliven their marriage with erotic role-playing, but find their new games even more repressive than before.

The Lover

1963

Butley poster
6.7

Butley is set in Queen Mary’s College, London and focuses on two English instructors, Ben Butley, a middle-aged former T. S. Eliot expert whose life is now in a shambles, and his protégé, Joey, a homosexual. With both Joey and his wife leaving, Butley faces a life alone, fighting back with wit, obscenity and booze.

Butley

1974

The Homecoming poster
6.0

In a dreary North London flat, the site of perpetual psychological warfare, a philosophy professor visits his family after a nine-year absence and introduces the four men - father, uncle and two brothers - to his wife.

The Homecoming

1973

The Basement poster
NR

An uneasy friendship between an introspective loner and a more gregarious man is renewed when the latter turns up at the former's basement flat one rainy night accompanied by an enigmatic, beautiful, mostly silent, girlfriend.

The Basement

1967

The Rear Column poster
NR

Set in the jungle of the Congo Free State in 1887–88, the story begins after explorer Henry Morton Stanley, has gone to relieve Emin Pasha, governor of Equatoria, from a siege by Mahdist forces. He leaves behind him a 'rear column' with supplies at the Yambuya camp on the Aruwimi River and instructs them to wait until the Arab slave trader, Tippu Tib, has brought 600 more porters before following on to Equatoria. The play follows the story of the men left waiting in the camp. The officers depicted in the play are based on historical figures.

The Rear Column

1980

The Dumb Waiter poster
9.0

Two hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. As the play begins, Ben, the senior member of the team, is reading a newspaper, and Gus, the junior member, is tying his shoes. Gus asks Ben many questions as he gets ready for their job and tries to make tea.

The Dumb Waiter

1999

The Dwarfs poster
4.7

A young actor and an angst-ridden city worker fight over a girl watched over by a disturbed chum. The play is concerned with three young men, Len, Pete and Mark, and the scene of action shifts back and forth between Len's house and Mark's. Sometimes all three come together, sometimes only two, and often Len is on stage alone. There are conversations and soliloquies filled with the brilliant convolutions of thought, the sudden flashes of truth which distinguish Pinter's unique style, with the mood ranging from calm introspection to explosive outpouring. Much of what is said hints at deeper thoughts left unspoken, and the sense of horror and alienation which often emerges is a searing indictment of our life and times. We meet, we talk, we tear at each other, but our insularity is seldom penetrated. We are together but alone, as though life were a mirror which reflects only our own image.

The Dwarfs

2002

Landscape poster
5.0

A dysfunctional couple remember a better time.

Landscape

1983

Party Time poster
6.5

At a posh cocktail party, various plans are made, and a missing guest turns up late.

Party Time

1992

Party Time poster
6.5

At a posh cocktail party, various plans are made, and a missing guest turns up late.

Party Time

1992

No artwork available
NR

An elderly homosexual and a married woman are both intrigued by the same man.

The Collection

—

Art, Truth and Politics poster
NR

Nobel Lecture delivered on video by the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature Harold Pinter (1930–2008), who was at the time hospitalised and unable to travel to Stockholm to deliver it in person.

Art, Truth and Politics

2005

Monologue poster
7.0

A man sits alone remembering his love affair with the girl his best friend won.

Monologue

1973

The Birthday Party poster
6.8

It is Stanley's birthday, but the party he is given is not quite what he expects. [A BBC production broadcast on the Theatre Night series.]

The Birthday Party

1987