40 Fun Facts About Look Back in Anger

Which household chore, performed by Alison Porter, reportedly made audiences gasp at Look Back in Anger in 1956?

Ironing fills much of Alison's time in Act 1, and the board became an emblem of the play. In Act 3 her rival Helena stands at the same board in her place.

Which actor, already a Hollywood name, played Jimmy Porter in the 1959 film version of Look Back in Anger?

Richard Burton took the part for far less than his usual Hollywood fee. The actor who had created Jimmy on stage was passed over for the bigger name.

Which Manchester band topped the UK singles chart in 1996 with a song titled Don't Look Back in Anger?

Oasis scored their second UK number one with it. It was also the band's first single sung by its chief songwriter instead of his brother, the usual frontman.

Which label for a generation of 1950s British writers grew out of the publicity for John Osborne's 1956 play?

Angry Young Men came from a phrase the theatre's press officer used about the author. He privately disliked the play and feared it would be impossible to market.

Which Oscar-winning actress directed Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson in Look Back in Anger in 1989?

Judi Dench staged the play for Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company that summer. She then turned the same production into a television film shown in December.

Which pair of animals do Jimmy and Alison Porter pretend to be in the private game that ends Look Back in Anger?

Bears and squirrels is the couple's old refuge from their rows. Reviving the game in the final moments leaves the marriage in a fragile truce.

Which instrument does Jimmy Porter play loudly offstage in Look Back in Anger, driving Helena to distraction?

Trumpet playing is Jimmy's escape from the flat. He first exits to play after the horseplay that leaves Alison with a burned arm.

Which American playwright took a reluctant Laurence Olivier to see Look Back in Anger and loved it?

Arthur Miller was in London while his wife Marilyn Monroe filmed with Olivier. His enthusiasm so impressed Olivier that the actor asked the author for a part in his next play.

Look Back in Anger is regarded as one of the first examples of which gritty style of British realist theatre?

Kitchen sink drama put cramped rented rooms and everyday domestic struggles on stage. It broke with the escapist theatre that had characterised the previous generation.

For which film of a Henry Fielding novel did Look Back in Anger author John Osborne win an Oscar?

Tom Jones won him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It reunited him with the director of Look Back in Anger, and the film also took Best Picture.

What kind of market business do Jimmy Porter and Cliff Lewis run in Look Back in Anger, despite Jimmy's education?

A sweet stall in the local market gives Jimmy and Cliff a meagre living. Jimmy is a university graduate, which only feeds his anger at how little it has brought him.

In which country did Colonel Redfern of Look Back in Anger spend the army years he remembers fondly?

India was the Colonel's posting for many years. Osborne draws Alison's father as a sympathetic man who admits he is out of touch with the modern world.

Cliff Lewis, the good-natured lodger who keeps the peace in Look Back in Anger, comes from which country?

Wales is home for Cliff, who shares both the flat and the market stall with Jimmy. He is the one who calms the couple's rows and comforts Alison.

Which London playhouse on Sloane Square staged the first performance of Look Back in Anger?

The Royal Court had just become home to the English Stage Company. Osborne's script was only the new company's third production, after two that had disappointed.

Which Scottish actress created the role of Alison Porter in Look Back in Anger and married its author a year later?

Mary Ure repeated the part on Broadway and in the 1959 film. Osborne divorced his first wife to marry her, and she later married the actor Robert Shaw.

On which day of the week does Look Back in Anger open, with Jimmy and Cliff buried in the newspapers?

Sunday tedium sets Jimmy off while his wife works in the corner. The third act opens on the same day months later, as a deliberate replay of the first.

Where are Alison and Helena heading in Look Back in Anger when Jimmy Porter's sense of betrayal peaks?

Church is their destination once the two women have put on their hats. Jimmy answers with a furious attack on religion and on Alison's family.

In Look Back in Anger, Jimmy Porter describes watching his father die of wounds suffered in which conflict?

Spanish Civil War wounds sent his father home to England to die. Osborne built the speech on the death of his own father, Thomas.

John Osborne based the flat in Look Back in Anger on lodgings he shared with his first wife in which city?

Derby is where Osborne lived and argued with her in cramped rooms. The 1959 film went back to the city to shoot some of its establishing scenes.

Which critic of The Observer praised Look Back in Anger when most first-night reviewers thought it a failure?

Kenneth Tynan was one of the few critics to praise it, which helped to rescue the run. He later suggested the screenwriter who adapted the play for the cinema.

Which director staged the first production of Look Back in Anger and then made the 1959 film as his feature debut?

Tony Richardson had no track record in feature films, and the original backer pulled out over the choice. Osborne insisted on him against the producer's resistance.

Which actor, later Brutus in the epic film Cleopatra, created the role of Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger?

Kenneth Haigh led the first London cast and took the part to Broadway the following year. When the play was filmed, the role went to a bigger box-office name.

Which future star of Zorba the Greek and Women in Love first played Cliff Lewis in Look Back in Anger?

Alan Bates made his West End debut in the role, which turned him into a star. He played Cliff again for ITV later in 1956.

Which actress, Charlie Chaplin's co-star in Limelight, played Helena Charles in the 1959 film of Look Back in Anger?

Claire Bloom was billed second in the film, ahead of the actress who had created Alison on stage. Helena is the friend who drives the couple apart and then takes Alison's place.

Which Dame played Ma Tanner, a character only spoken about in the stage play, in the 1959 film Look Back in Anger?

Edith Evans, famous as Lady Bracknell, gave a face to the woman who lent Jimmy the money to set up his market pitch. The film uses her to sharpen the gulf between Jimmy and Alison.

Which producer of the 1959 film Look Back in Anger later co-produced the first nine James Bond films?

Harry Saltzman, a Canadian fan of the play, had urged its author and director to set up their own film company. Its first production was Look Back in Anger.

Which singer included an unrelated song called Look Back in Anger on his 1979 album Lodger?

David Bowie wrote the song with Brian Eno about a shabby angel of death. It shares nothing with Osborne's play except the title.

John Osborne wrote Look Back in Anger in a deckchair on the pier of which English seaside resort?

Morecambe pier served as his desk for just 17 days. He was acting at the resort in a repertory production at the time.

Which actress, John Osborne's first wife, was the real-life model for Alison Porter in Look Back in Anger?

Pamela Lane married him in 1951, and their failing marriage gave him the play. He divorced her to wed the actress who first played Alison.

Which John Osborne play, written for Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice, followed Look Back in Anger in 1957?

The Entertainer cast Olivier as a fading music-hall comic. Osborne used the dying music hall as a picture of Britain's decline at the time of Suez.

Which British divide, separating Jimmy Porter from his wife's family, runs through Look Back in Anger?

The class system divides working-class Jimmy from Alison's upper-middle-class military family. He had to fight hard against their disapproval to marry her.

What secret does Alison Porter confide to Cliff in Act 1 of Look Back in Anger?

She is pregnant, and Cliff urges her to tell Jimmy. He hears the news only from Helena, after Alison has already left him.

Beyond the West End and Broadway, Look Back in Anger even toured to which Cold War capital?

Moscow hosted the play as its fame spread abroad. The success turned its struggling author into a wealthy and famous man.

Which actor reunited with director Lindsay Anderson to play Jimmy Porter in a 1980 TV film of Look Back in Anger?

Malcolm McDowell had made his name in Anderson's film if.... and was playing Jimmy off-Broadway. That production was taped for the screen in just three days.

Which former Doctor Who star played Jimmy Porter in a 2016 BBC radio Look Back in Anger opposite Ian McKellen?

David Tennant had already played Jimmy on stage in 2005. In the radio version, McKellen took the part of Alison's father.

Which future Star Wars sequel star played Cliff in a 2012 off-Broadway revival of Look Back in Anger?

Adam Driver won a Lucille Lortel Award for the role. It came three years before he first appeared on screen as Kylo Ren.

Which creator of Professor Quatermass expanded Look Back in Anger into the screenplay of the 1959 film?

Nigel Kneale took the job at a critic's suggestion. Osborne, relieved not to have to do it himself, handed over the story rights for only £2,000.

Which 1992 sequel to Look Back in Anger, John Osborne's last play, revisits Jimmy Porter in middle age?

Déjàvu finds him, now known as J.P., living with his daughter and still ranting to his old friend Cliff. It closed after only seven weeks.

Which British jazz bandleader appears with his band in the opening club scenes of the 1959 film Look Back in Anger?

Chris Barber also supplied the film's music. In the same year his band had a UK top twenty hit with Petite Fleur.

Which English Stage Company director rowed out to John Osborne's Thames houseboat to accept Look Back in Anger?

George Devine gambled on the script after the company's first two productions had disappointed. The 1959 film created a doctor's part especially for him.