'She Stoops To Conquer’ next week

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34046, 9 January 1976, Page 4

'She Stoops To Conquer’ next week

A two-hour version of. the Oliver Goldsmith! play “She Stoops to Con-, quer” will be screened by TV 2 on Friday next! week.

Written in 1773, Gold-i smith’s play has retained its! popularity for more than 200 years, thanks to an ingenious story and richly char-; acterised parts in which gen-

erations of actors have ex celled.

This BBC television pro-, duction has an exceptionally! strong cast, led by Sir Ralph; Richardson as Mr Hard- i castle, Tom Courtenay as’ young Marlow, Juliet Mills i as the heroine Kate, and' Thora Hird as Mrs Hardcastle. The play tells the story of young Marlow, a bashful! youth, who feels at ease only with barmaids and serving girls. So when his ’ father decides that he should! marry Kate, daughter of his old friend, Mr Hardcastle, it is with great reluctance that the young man sets out with his friend, Hastings, to woo the girl. When the pair arrive at the Hardcastles’ house, they are tricked by Tony Lumpkin. Mrs Hardcastle’s son by her first marriage, into believing that it is an inn.; ;The irate owner is enraged, by Marlow’s bold manner; I but Kate takes advantage of 'the situation. Tom Courtenay was’ i trained at the Royal Aca-| demy of Dramatic Art and! made his first stage appearance with the Old Vic Company at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival in “The Seagull.” Since then he has appeared in "Billy Liar,” “The Cherry Orchard,” “Charley’s Aunt,” “She Stoops to Conquer.” “Peer Gynt” and many other productions, including* spells with the Old Vic and the' National Theatre. He entered films in 1962,; making an immediate success in “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.” His other notable films include “King and Country,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and “Catch Me A Spy.”