''A Question of Attribution'' is a 1988 one-act

stage play A play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and intended for theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Reading (process), reading. The writer of a play is called a playwright. Pla ...

, written by

Alan Bennett Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. Over his distinguished entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and tw ...

. It focuses on the British art expert and former Soviet agent, Sir Anthony Blunt. It was premiered at the National Theatre, London, in December 1988, along with the stage version of ''

An Englishman Abroad ''An Englishman Abroad'' is a 1983 BBC television drama film based on the true story of a chance meeting of actress Coral Browne with Guy Burgess, a member of the Cambridge spy ring who spied for the Soviet Union while an officer at MI6. The pr ...

'', about Blunt's fellow agent

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection in 1951 ...

. The two plays are collectively called ''

Single Spies ''Single Spies'' is a 1988 double bill written by the English playwright Alan Bennett. It consists of ''An Englishman Abroad'' and '' A Question of Attribution'', the former an adaptation of a television play the author had written for the BBC i ...

''.Bennett, p. 14 The play was adapted as a 1991 television film of the same name broadcast as part of the BBC's ''

Screen One ''Screen One'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and distributed by BBC Worldwide, that was transmitted on BBC One from 1989 to 1998. A total of six series were broadcast, incorporating sixty individual films, ...

'' series. The film was produced by

Innes Lloyd George Innes Llewelyn Lloyd (24 December 1925 – 23 August 1991) was a Welsh television producer. He had a long career in BBC drama, which included producing series such as ''Doctor Who'' and ''Talking Heads''. Early life and career Fo ...

, a long-time collaborator of the author in his television work, and is dedicated to his memory."Screen One: A Question of Attribution"
BBC Genome. Retrieved 16 July 2020 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the film a "razor-sharp psychological melodrama" and it won the 1992 BAFTA TV award for Best Single Drama.

Plot

The play and subsequent film are based on Blunt's role in the

Cambridge Spy Ring The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s. None of the known members were ever prosecuted for ...

and, as

Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures The office of the Surveyor of the King's/Queen's Pictures, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Monarch, Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of pictures ...

, personal art adviser to Queen Elizabeth II. It portrays his interrogation by an MI5 officer, his work researching and conserving art works, his role as Director of the

Courtauld Institute The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

, and his acquaintance with the Queen. Bennett described the piece as an "inquiry in which the circumstances are imaginary but the pictures are real.A Question of Attribution
BFI Screenonline, retrieved 17 January 2006 While supervising the restoration of a dual portrait in which only partial attribution to

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

is thought credible, Blunt discovers a third figure that had been painted over by an unknown artist, and concludes by comparison with a better known triple portrait in London's

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

(''

Allegory of Prudence The ''Allegory of Prudence'' () is an oil-on-canvas painting attributed to the Italian artist Titian and his assistants. The painting portrays three human heads, each facing in a different direction, above three animal heads (from left to right, a ...

'') that the newly revealed third figure was Titian's son. As Blunt's public exposure as a spy in 1979 draws near, the play suggests that he has been made a scapegoat to protect others in the security service. At the end of the film, the time of Blunt's exposure, Blunt tells Chubb that X-rays had revealed the presence of a fourth and fifth man. One of the sub-texts in the scene with the Queen is whether or not Her Majesty knew that Blunt was a former Soviet spy. They briefly discuss the Dutch

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

forger

Han van Meegeren Henricus Antonius "Han" van Meegeren (; 10 October 1889 – 30 December 1947) was a Dutch painter and portraitist, considered one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century. Van Meegeren became a national hero after World War II when ...

, and how his paintings now look like fakes, but were accepted as genuine in the (early) 1940s, and touch on the nature of fakes and secrets. After she has left and an assistant asks what they were talking about, Blunt replies "I was talking about art. I'm not sure that she was."

Casts

:Source: Playscript and BBC.

Radio

The play was adapted for radio in 2006, with

Edward Petherbridge Edward Petherbridge (born 3 August 1936) is an English actor, writer and artist. Among his many roles, he portrayed Lord Peter Wimsey in the 1987 BBC television adaptations of Dorothy L. Sayers' novels, and Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's ''Ro ...

as Blunt and Prunella Scales as the Queen in the second."The Saturday Play: Betrayal"
BBC Genome. Retrieved 15 July 2020

References and sources

References

Sources

External links

*
BBC profile of John Schlesinger
retrieved 17 January 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Question of Attribution,A BBC television dramas Cold War spy films Films directed by John Schlesinger Plays by Alan Bennett Plays set in the United Kingdom Plays set in the 1960s British plays adapted into films Plays based on real people Cultural depictions of Elizabeth II Cultural depictions of the Cambridge Five Plays about British royalty