ITV Studios' Prick Up Your Ears will return to cinemas on 4 August as one of the key titles in the BFI's Gross Indecency season; a summer programme exploring the pioneering depictions of LGBT life in British film in the years immediately before and after the introduction of the Sexual Offences Act 1967.
50 years after the death of its subject, Stephen Frears' rollicking Joe Orton biopic returns to cinemas. Gary Oldman stars as the controversial playwright and provocateur who rose from working class Leicester lad to the toast of swinging 60s London - not forgetting a brief pitstop in prison - before his promising future was cut short. Supported by an all-star British cast, Oldman delivers outrageous one-liners and scandalous sexual barbs with a cheshire cat grin in a film that captures the giddy charm of a true English eccentric and the tragedy of an artist lost in their prime.
Prick Up Your Ears
Islington, London, 1967, a small flat - it's five o'clock, it's a quarter past five. An argument is brewing. Kenneth Halliwell is anxiously waiting the return of Joe Orton who strolls in late, in an outlandish new coat. Joe is riding high: his new play Loot is a sell-out, he's just sold the film rights and he's getting offers everywhere. Kenneth is deeply unhappy, struggling to sell collages to friends and bitterly identifying as his lover's "personal assistant.”
Kenneth's evening of indignity at his exhibition opening is another chapter in an increasingly dysfunctional relationship with Orton - a once loving union of partners in crime, now a sham marriage simmering with toxic jealousy and unhealthy dependency. As Halliwell's misery intensifies, Orton's successes multiply - their bond further distorts and Halliwell decides to take drastic action.
Reissued as one of the key titles in Gross Indecency, ITV Studios' Prick Up Your Ears returns to cinemas nationwide on 4 August.
