[fse-esf] Top Cymro/Welsh Anti-Colonial/Imperialist Film
Maker/Actor: Funeral Tenby 4th July 2006.
richard jenkins
waleseuropa at yahoo.co.uk
Thu Jul 6 19:28:03 CEST 2006
KENNETH GRIFFITH, Documentary film maker / Actor.
SOME of his FILMS:
A TOUCH OF CHURCHILL, A TOUCH OF HITLER.(A Life of Cecil Rhodes)
KEEP PRETORIA CLEAN!(In praise of South African rubbish collectors).
BUS TO BOSWORTH. (On Henry Tudor's march from Mill Bay to Bosworth Field)(The War of The Roses- C.E.Press).
SUDDENLY AN EAGLE. (Also called GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE
ME DEATH.(On the causes of the American (U.S.) War of Independence)
HANG OUT YOUR BRIGHTEST COLOURS. (The life and death of Irish patriot, Michael Collins).
THE PUBLIC'S RIGHT TO KNOW. (On the prevention of a film about Baden Powell and the suppression of the Michael Collins film).
THE SUN'S BRIGHT CHILD. (a life of Edmund Kean (Thespian))
THE MOST VALUABLE ENGLISHMAN EVER. (A life of Thomas Paine).
CLIVE OF INDIA. (A life of Robert Clive).
BUT I HAVE PROMISES TO KEEP. (A life of Jawarharlal Nehru).
THE HEART OF DARKNESS. (The life of Roger Casement(Irish Patriot)).
He Wrote a Script For a Film On:
THE LIFE OF DOCTOR AMBEDKAR ("THE SIGNIFICANT LEADER OF INDIA'S UNTOUCHABLES")Which was blocked.
Interview with Kenneth (by his friend ‘Mexican’ Wayne Jenkins (Merlin El Mago) – Activist/Journalist Cardiff Social Forum, Social Forum Cymru/Wales, European Social Forum.
Social Forum Cymru/Wales: News Line/Forum:
http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=206
From: www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/772297/
Griffith, Kenneth (1921-)( July 2006)
Actor, Director, Writer
A popular character actor and a passionate historian who transformed the possibilities of the television documentary, Kenneth Griffith (b. Tenby, Pembrokeshire, 1921) has aroused a good deal of anger and controversy with his outspoken views on the Boer War, British Empire builders and Northern Ireland.
Following stage experience in repertory and with the Old Vic, and after service with the RAF (1940-1945), he made his first notable film appearance in George King's The Shop at Sly Corner (1947) as blackmailer Archie Fellowes - repeating his role from the previous year's television presentation of the Percy Edward play (BBC, tx. 21/7/1946).
His film work, where he played largely unsympathetic, weaselly characters, ranged from the intense drama of The Prisoner (d. Peter Glenville, 1955), 1984 (d. Michael Anderson, 1955), A Night to Remember (d. Roy Baker, 1958) and Circus of Horrors (d. Sidney Hayers, 1960) to producer Euan Lloyd's action spectaculars The Wild Geese (d. Andrew V. McLaglen, 1978), The Sea Wolves (d. McLaglen, 1980) and Who Dares Wins (d. Ian Sharp, 1982). In more recent years he was the mad old man in Four Weddings and a Funeral (d. Mike Newell, 1994) and Reverend Jones in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (d. Chris Monger, 1995).
Griffith's comedy roles have been in the Boulting Brothers' Private's Progress (1956) and Lucky Jim (1957), as well as support to Peter Sellers in Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (d. Jeffery Dell/Roy Boulting, 1958), I'm All Right Jack (d. John Boulting, 1959), Only Two Can Play (d. Sidney Gilliat, 1961) and Heavens Above! (d. John Boulting, 1963).
As a television actor he made appearances in the crime series Fabian of the Yard (BBC, 1954-56) and Martin Kane, Private Investigator (ITV, 1958-59); Patrick McGoohan's Danger Man (ITV, 1960-61; 1964-67) and The Prisoner (ITV, 1967-68); and the French settings of the limited serials Paris 1900 (ITV, 1964) and Clochmerle (BBC, 1972).
In 1967, Griffith's long-time interest in the Boer War (a subject on which he is regarded as a world authority) prompted him to suggest an idea to David Attenborough, then Controller of BBC2, for an accurate film about the siege and relief of Ladysmith. Aware of Griffith's private fascination with history and the Boer War, Attenborough commissioned the work; a surprising decision given that Griffith had no experience of documentary filmmaking.
For this first documentary, Soldiers of the Widow (BBC tx. 27/5/1967), Griffith researched and wrote the script, with the idea of having broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge present it. Fortunately for television history, he did it himself. Griffith's approach to television and re-creating the past is that of the enthusiastic storyteller who acts out all the parts himself. By doing so, he created a fascinating new way of making documentaries. His special contribution is that he is able to conjure up the emotional spirit of events in history; he treats the viewer in the manner of a confidant, dramatising his point of view.
Since Griffith is a Socialist and an internationalist, Soldiers of the Widow delivered something of a propaganda film for the humanity of the common man: savagely critical of Imperialism and sympathetic towards the Boers, as well as the British private soldiers who were slaughtered there in their hundreds.
Five years later he returned to the subject with the four-part Sons of the Blood (subtitled The Great Boer War, 1899-1902) (BBC, 1972) with the added ingredient of presenting a procession of surviving Boer War veterans whose recollections of the events provided the flesh to his narrative. His rage at British Imperialism, however, continued with the two-part The Boer War (BBC, 1999), marking the anniversary of the conflict (or, as Griffith saw it, "virtually the beginning of the end of the British Empire").
By extension of his love-hate interest in events relating to Africa, Griffith wrote, narrated and acted out A Touch of Churchill, A Touch of Hitler (BBC tx. 30/7/1971), the controversial story of Cecil Rhodes' influence in South Africa, Black as Hell and Thick as Grass (BBC tx. 27/1/1979), a bitter lament for the futility of the 1879 British-Zulu War, and Zola Budd - The Girl Who Didn't Run (BBC tx. 24/4/1989), in which he described the young Afrikaner athlete as the victim of liberal hypocrisy.
American history was also on Griffith's list of love-hate passions. In the build-up to the bicentennial celebrations in 1976, Griffith was commissioned by America's ABC News to prepare an hour-long documentary on the events leading up to the start of the Revolutionary War.
The American network, unsurprisingly, found Griffith's documentary take on the celebratory subject 'unacceptable' (he had pictured the great American revolutionary heroes as bloodthirsty, ranting demagogues), reworking the piece with their own people and creating a more diluted version of events in Suddenly An Eagle (ABC-TV, tx. 7/1/1976). The ABC version employed an interesting double-narrator format, with actor Lee J. Cobb representing the American colonists' viewpoint and Griffith essaying his English counterpart. Griffith's original version, however, was taken up by British producer-director Julia Cave and became an edition of the BBC's Omnibus arts documentary strand (tx. 1/7/1976), now retitled 'Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death'.
His last passionate polemic on a reading of American history was an assessment on the 18th century life of Thomas Paine, The Most Valuable Englishman Ever (BBC, tx. 16/1/1982). Griffith's tribute to the Norfolk-born Paine, the author of Rights of Man and a zealous pamphleteer who had helped stir up the American Revolution, was expressed with as much dynamism as the revolutionary writings of his subject.
Griffith's range of biographical subjects have included Napoleon: The Man on the Rock (ITV tx. 25/3/1975), in which he portrayed Bonaparte as a victim of British Imperialism; the 18th century Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean - The Sun's Bright Child (ITV tx. 16/12/1975); British soldier and statesman Clive of India (C4 tx. 20/8/1983); The Light - The Life of David Ben-Gurion (C4 tx. 3/9/1986), presenting the case for the state of Israel using the story of its first Prime Minister; the story of Dr Am Bedkar, The Untouchable (BBC tx. 12/10/1996), a member of the untouchable caste in India who wrote the Indian constitution; and The Legend of George Rex (C4 tx. 5/7/1997), in which he investigated claims that descendants of a wealthy 18th century man may be the legitimate heirs to the British throne.
But perhaps his most famous, and contentious, work was the 1972 ATV documentary profile of the Irish soldier and IRA leader who was assassinated in 1922, Hang Out Your Brightest Colours: The Life and Death of Michael Collins.
In presenting the life of Michael Collins as a catalyst to give viewers the truth about the setting up of the Border in Ireland, Griffith's film was banned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) on the grounds that it was 'an incitement to disorder' (during the current situation in Northern Ireland) .
Incensed by what he saw as an act of television censorship, he made a documentary about the banning of the Collins film, The Public's Right to Know (ITV tx. 5/3/1974), which dealt also with the prevention of his 1973 documentary about Baden-Powell when the ACTT (now BECTU), in line with their South Africa boycott policy of the time, blacked Griffith's plan to shoot on the crucial Boer War sites in South Africa.
Baden-Powell in the Siege of Mafeking was never completed, while Hang Out Your Brightest Colours was shown finally on 13 August 1994 (as part of ITV's 25 Bloody Years season). Having made one documentary film that had been suppressed by the Right and then, having started his next film, having that banned by the Left, left Griffith a frustrated and bemused figure.
Curious Journey was produced for television in 1976, but became the second Griffith documentary on Ireland not to receive a public showing (until its presentation at the 24th London Film Festival in November 1980). The documentary, showing Griffith interviewing old, highly respectable Irish people who had fought in the uprising of Easter 1916, was withdrawn by the commissioning company, Harlech Television, until Griffith bought back the rights from the company (on the condition that he did not reveal HTV's involvement) .
Griffith's third documentary about modern Irish history, 'Roger Casement - Heart of Darkness' (for Timewatch, BBC tx. 28/10/1992), was transmitted. It told of the rise and fall of the Irish Protestant and British consul who espoused the Irish Republican movement and was tried and executed for treason in 1916.
A world-class documentary filmmaker for the last 30 years, Griffith is aware that his refusing to compromise his views has damaged his career.
Commissioned by Thames TV to produce a film on the story of the Three Wise Men of the New Testament, A Famous Journey (ITV tx. 20/12/1979), he was ordered out of Iran by the country's Foreign Minister.
His 1988 documentary (called But I Have Promises) on the first prime minister of independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, to mark the centenary of his birth, was shelved by the Indian state broadcaster Doordarshan.
His most recent documentary project, the life of the 18th century Irish revolutionary Theobald Wolfe Tone, although offered to BBC TV, has yet to find a producer.
In 1993 BBC Wales presented a retrospective season of five of his documentaries, including the suppressed Michael Collins work, opening the season with a biographical study of Griffith called The Tenby Poisoner (BBC Wales, tx. 1/3/1993) in which talents as diverse as Peter O'Toole, Martin McGuinness and Jeremy Isaacs paid tribute to the quixotic documentarist.
Tise Vahimagi
More information
FILM & TV CREDITS
Griffith, Kenneth (1921-)
Film & TV credits
Film Credits
CHANNEL INCIDENT
1940
Johnny
LOVE ON THE DOLE
1941
Tom Hare (uncredited)
THE BLACK SHEEP OF WHITEHALL
1941
butcher's delivery boy (uncredited)
THE FARMER'S WIFE
1941
George Smerdon
HARD STEEL
1942
Dixon
The SHOP AT SLY CORNER
1947
Archie Fellowes
BOND STREET
1948
Len Phipps
FORBIDDEN
1949
Johnny
BLUE SCAR
1949
Thomas Williams
WATERFRONT
1950
Maurice Bruno
HIGH TREASON
1951
Jimmy Ellis
THE STARFISH
1952
Jack Trevennick
THIRTY-SIX HOURS
1954
Henry
THE GREEN BUDDHA
1954
Nobby
TRACK THE MAN DOWN
1955
Ken Orwell
THE PRISONER
1955
The Secretary
1984
1955
Prisoner
PRIVATE'S PROGRESS
1956
Private Dai Jones
TIGER IN THE SMOKE
1956
Crutches
The BABY AND THE BATTLESHIP
1956
sub-lieutenant
BROTHERS IN LAW
1956
hearse driver
LUCKY JIM
1957
Cyril Johns
BLUE MURDER AT ST. TRINIAN'S
1957
Charlie Bull
CHAIN OF EVENTS
1957
Clarke
THE NAKED TRUTH
1957
porter
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
1958
John Phillips
THE MAN UPSTAIRS
1958
Pollen
THE TWO-HEADED SPY
1958
Adolph Hitler
CARLTON-BROWNE OF THE F.O.
1958
Griffiths, Sir John's assistant (uncredited)
I'M ALL RIGHT JACK
1959
Dai
EXPRESSO BONGO
1959
Charlie
TIGER BAY
1959
choirmaster
LIBEL
1959
Fitch
CIRCUS OF HORRORS
1960
Martin
SNOWBALL
1960
Phil Hart
A FRENCH MISTRESS
1960
Mr Meade
SUSPECT
1960
Dr. Frederick Shole
THE AIRY TOMB
1960
Narrator
RAG DOLL
1961
Mort Wilson
PAYROLL
1961
Monty
THE FRIGHTENED CITY
1961
Wally Smith
ONLY TWO CAN PLAY
1961
Ieuan Jenkins
THE PAINTED SMILE
1961
Kleinie
WE JOINED THE NAVY
1962
Orator
HEAVENS ABOVE!
1963
Reverend Owen Smith
ROTTEN TO THE CORE
1965
Lenny the Dip, gang member
THE WHISPERERS
1966
Mr. Weaver
THE BOBO
1967
Pepe Gamazo
GREAT CATHERINE
1967
Naryshkin
DECLINE AND FALL
1968
Mr. Church
THE LION IN WINTER
1968
strolling player
THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU LIMITED
1968
Popescu
THE GAMBLERS
US, 1969
Broadfoot
JANE EYRE
1970
Richard Mason (Thornfield)
REVENGE
1971
Seely
THE HOUSE IN NIGHTMARE PARK
1973
Ernest Henderson
CALLAN
1974
Waterman
SPYS
US, 1974
Lippet
SKY RIDERS
US. 1976
Wasserman
WHY SHOOT THE TEACHER
Canada, 1976
inspector Woods
THE WILD GEESE
UK / Switzerland, 1978
Witty
THE PANTHER LZ
1979
commentator
THE SEA WOLVES
UK / US / Switzerland, 1980
Wilton
WHO DARES WINS
1982
Bishop Crick
FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL
1994
Mad old man
THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN
US / UK, 1995
Reverend Jones
VERY ANNIE-MARY
France / UK, 2001
minister
Television Credits
The SHOP AT SLY CORNER
BBC tx 21/7/1946
Archie Fellowes
FABIAN OF THE YARD: The Sixth Dagger
BBC tx 26/11/1955
Heywood
ONE
ITV tx 16/4/1956
Lark
THEATRE ROYAL: The Ends of Justice
ITV tx 27/4/1956
Jim
MARTIN KANE, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: The Boxer
US tx 5/1957
Hollis
MARTIN KANE, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: The Absconder
US tx 28/5/1957
Hollis
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF MARTIN KANE: The Kidnap Story
US tx 1957
Hollis
ARMCHAIR THEATRE: The Pier
ITV tx 6/10/1957
cast member
PLAY OF THE WEEK: School for Wives
ITV tx 28/4/1958
Alain
ARMCHAIR THEATRE: The Web of Lace
ITV tx 21/9/1958
cast member
SUNDAY-NIGHT THEATRE: Treason
BBC tx 12/4/1959
General Karl Albrecht
YOU'RE A LONG TIME DEAD
BBC tx 17/7/1960
cast member
PLAY OF THE WEEK: A Doll's House
BBC tx 31/10/1961
cast member
WAR AND PEACE
ITV tx 26/3/1963
cast member
TO BURY CAESAR
ITV tx 12/9/1963
Lambke
PARIS 1900
ITV tx 2/10 - 6/11/1964 (6 eps)
Thommereux / Moulineaux / Saint-Florimund / Livergin / Massenay
BUDDENBROOKS
BBC tx 30/10/1965 - 11/12/1965 (7 pts)
Christian
THIRTY MINUTE THEATRE: Mr Ponge
BBC tx 9/12/1965
Mr Rounds
THE WEDNESDAY PLAY: A Walk in the Sea
BBC tx 9/3/1966
Mr Jones
DANGER MAN: Shinda Shima
ITV tx 26/2/1967
Richards
SOLDIERS OF THE WIDOW
BBC tx 27/5/19670
script / presenter
THE PRISONER: The Girl Who Was Death
ITV tx 21/1/1968
Schnipps
THE PRISONER: Fall Out
ITV tx 4/2/1968
Schnipps
STRANGE REPORT: Report 4407: Heart - No Choice for the Donor
ITV tx 5/12/1969
Segaris
A TOUCH OF CHURCHILL, A TOUCH OF HITLER : THE LIFE OF CECIL RHODES
BBC tx 30/7/1971
script / narration
SPYDER'S WEB: Emergency Exit
ITV tx 25/2/1972
Ratznik
CLOCHEMERLE
BBC tx 18/2 - 14/4/1972 (9 pts)
Ernest Tafardel, the schoolmaster
SONS OF THE BLOOD: THE GREAT BOER WAR, 1899-1902
BBC tx 3 - 24/08/1972 (4 pts)
script / narration
COLDITZ: Court Martial
BBC tx 28/12/1972
Dr Starb
OOH LA LA!: Kept on a String
BBC tx 16/6/1973
Bouzin
MILLIGAN IN...: Milligan in Summer
BBC tx 27/8/1973
cast member
THE PRISON
ITV tx 1974
cast member
THE PUBLIC'S RIGHT TO KNOW
ITV tx 5/3/1974
writer / deviser / on-screen participant
THE ENCHANTED LOOM
ITV tx 4/6/1974
commentator
NAPOLEON: THE MAN ON THE ROCK
ITV tx 25/3/1975
script / presenter
EDMUND KEAN - THE SUN'S BRIGHT CHILD
ITV tx 16/12/1975
script / presenter
SUDDENLY AN EAGLE
US tx 1976
cast member
OMNIBUS: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
BBC tx 1/7/1976
presenter
BUS TO BOSWORTH
BBC tx 29/2/1976
Mr Huw Meredith BA
NETWORK: Birthplace
BBC tx 2/9/1976
Presenter
CURIOUS JOURNEY
ITV tx 1979
producer / script / commentator
BLACK AS HELL AND THICK AS GRASS
BBC tx 27/1/1979
script / presenter
THE REFERENDUM RESULTS
BBC tx 2/3/1979
on-screen participant
MINDER: A Tethered Goat
ITV tx 19/11/1979
Dai Llewellyn
A FAMOUS JOURNEY
ITV tx 20/12/1979
presenter
BERLIN TUNNEL 21
US tx 25/3/1981
cast member
THE MOST VALUABLE ENGLISHMAN EVER
BBC tx 16/1/1982
script / presenter
THE TUESDAY DOCUMENTARY: There's Something Wrong With Our Bloody Ships
BBC tx 24/8/1982
Presenter
REMEMBRANCE
Channel 4 tx 10/11/1982
Joe
CLIVE OF INDIA
Channel 4 tx 20/8/1983
script / narration
THE ZANY ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
US tx 22/5/1984
Isaac of York
THE LIGHT - THE LIFE OF DAVID BEN-GURION
Channel 4 tx 3/9/1986
producer / script / presenter
ZOLA BUDD - THE GIRL WHO DIDN'T RUN
BBC tx 24/4/1989
producer / director
BUT I HAVE PROMISES TO KEEP
India, 1989 (not shown)
producer / script / presenter
SHAKA ZULU
ITV tx 22/6 - 13/7/1991 (4 pts)
Zacharias Abrahams
LOVEJOY: Eric of Arabia
BBC tx 16/2/1992
Sir Desmond Clark
TIMEWATCH: Roger Casement - Heart of Darkness
BBC tx 28/10/1992
script / presenter
FIRST TAKE: The Window
ITV tx 7/10/1993
cast member
HANG UP YOUR BRIGHTEST COLOURS... THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MICHAEL COLLINS
BBC tx 13/8/1994
director
SLICE OF LIFE: From Bridgend to the Basilica
ITV tx 6/9/1994
producer
SLICE OF LIFE: Baize Boys
ITV tx 13/9/1994
producer
PICTURES FROM THE ATTIC
ITV tx 24/3/1996
Archive interview
THE UNTOUCHABLE
BBC tx 12/10/1996
Presenter
THE LEGEND OF GEORGE REX
Channel 4 tx 5/7/1997
producer / director
THE BOER WAR
BBC tx 18 & 25/9/1999
director / presenter
HOLBY CITY: One Of Our Own
BBC tx 11/3/2003
Charlie Peters
2003-06 © bfi screenonline | credits
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
From the bfi's filmographic database
Related media
Selected credits
Blue Scar (1949)
Welsh coalmining drama dealing with ambition, class and gender
Expresso Bongo (1959)
Cliff Richard comedy about the discovery of a new musical star
I'm All Right Jack (1959)
Peter Sellers is a militant trade unionist in this peerless workplace satire
Lucky Jim (1957)
Adaptation of the satirical Kingsley Amis novel about a disaffected lecturer
Danger Man (1960-67)
TV spy thriller series with Patrick McGoohan as agent John Drake
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954)
Highly controversial - in its day - Orwell adaptation by Nigel Kneale
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