235; Mad Jack; Biography: Siegfried Sassoon
- Episode Number
- 235
- Episode Number
- Mad Jack
- Episode
- Biography: Siegfried Sassoon
- Producing Organization
- British Broadcasting Corporation
- Contributing Organization
- Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/516-p26pz52n6n
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- Description
- Episode Description
- 90 minute piece produced by BBC and initially distributed by NET in 1971. It was originally shot in color.
- Episode Description
- NET Playhouse began a 15-week series of biographical dramas with this film portrait of anti-war poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967). Under a different title (?Mad Jack?), the program won the Grand Prize at the 1971 International Television Festival at Monte Carlo for its contribution to the ideal of international peace. The film, produced by the BBC and nationally transmitted by the Public Broadcasting Service, explores the thoughts of a young soldier in the First World War whose protest against that conflict met with virtually total public disapproval and misunderstanding. As a second lieutenant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Sassoon had seen action on the western front and was awarded the Military Cross by the time he returned to England on leave in 1917. While on leave he defied military authorities by writing a statement against the vested interests he considered responsible for the war. It was published in a periodical, and that was the beginning of a torturous episode in Sassoon?s life. Sassoon was summoned by authorities, who requested that he spend a week re-thinking his protest and its consequences for him. There was no mass peace movement to which he could attach himself, no element of public opinion to provide support. He was alone with his opinions; he would be thought insane, and ostracized. Finally a friend dissuaded him from standing aloud in Parliament, but dismissed due to Sassoon?s hospitalization in a clinic for shell-shocked officers. Some of Sassoon?s poetry is used in the program to dramatize the crucial week of self-examination which ended in his decision not to sacrifice himself further in an ineffectual gesture. British author and journalist Tom Clarke wrote the screenplay for ?Sassoon.? Starring as Sassoon is Michael Jayston, a veteran member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, currently seen in the film ?Cromwell.? ?NET Playhouse Biography: Siegfried Sassoon? is a presentation of NET Division, Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Producer: Graeme McDonald. Director: Jack Gold. Music by Carol Davis. NET playhouse executive producer: Jac Venza. The filler that accompanied this program was The Days of Wilfred Owen. In this color film selections from the works of English poet Wilfred Owen are read by Richard Burton and illustrated with watercolors by Robert Andrew Parker. The poems relate the heartbreaks of war as Owen witnessed and experienced them. The poet was killed in France during World War I, just one week before the Armistice was signed. He was 25. Owen gained posthumous recognition after his poem were edited and published in 1920 by Siegfried Sassoon, whom he met in an army hospital. Parker has been termed ?one of three or four great artists in America? by the renowned critic Dwight MacDonald. Whitney Museum, both in New York City, and in the Museum of Fine Art in Raleigh, North Carolina. This film was produced by Bob Bach and Richard Lewine. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Broadcast Date
- 1971-04-15
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Drama
- Topics
- Literature
- Biography
- War and Conflict
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Credits
-
-
Actor: Pennington, Michael
Actor: Boxer, John
Actor: Jayston, Michael
Actor: Cecil, Jonathan
Actor: Ostime, Roger
Actor: Sumpter, Donald
Actor: Cossins, James
Actor: Savage, Barry
Actor: Swift, Clive
Actor: Beach, Ann
Actor: Lewson, Charles
Actor: Barry, Anna
Actor: Wood, David
Composer: Davis, Carol
Director: Gold, Jack
Executive Producer: Venza, Jac
Producer: McDonald, Graeme
Producing Organization: British Broadcasting Corporation
Writer: Clarke, Tom, 1918-1993
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2431961-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 2 inch videotape
Generation: Master
Duration: 1:28:08
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- Citations
- Chicago: “235; Mad Jack; Biography: Siegfried Sassoon,” 1971-04-15, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 17, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-p26pz52n6n.
- MLA: “235; Mad Jack; Biography: Siegfried Sassoon.” 1971-04-15. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. June 17, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-p26pz52n6n>.
- APA: 235; Mad Jack; Biography: Siegfried Sassoon. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-p26pz52n6n