"Bar Mitzvah Boy" is the first episode of seventh season of the British BBC anthology TV series ''

Play for Today ''Play for Today'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage ...

''. The television play was originally broadcast on 14 September 1976. It was written by

Jack Rosenthal Jack Morris Rosenthal (8 September 1931 – 29 May 2004) was an English playwright. He wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' and over 150 screenplays, including original TV plays, feature films, and adaptations. ...

, directed by Michael Tuchner and produced by Graeme MacDonald. Starring Jeremy Steyn,

Kim Clifford Kim Clifford (27 January 1961 – 2019) was an English actress. Clifford was born on 27 January 1961. At the age of 13, she starred in the BAFTA TV Award winning television play ''Bar Mitzvah Boy''. She is possibly best known for her role as S ...

Mark Herman Mark Herman (born 1954) is an English film director and screenwriter, best known for writing and directing the 2008 film ''The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas''. Life and career Herman was born in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. H ...

Adrienne Posta Adrienne Posta (born Adrienne Luanne Poster, 24 March 1949) is an English actress and singer, prominent during the 1960s and 1970s. She adopted the surname 'Posta' in 1966.Adrienne Poster, page on "Ready Steady Girls" (readysteadygirls.eu). Retr ...

Maria Charles Maria Charles (born 22 September 1929) is an English film, television and stage actress, director and comedian. She is probably best known for her TV performance as the overbearing mother Bea Fisher in the ITV sitcom '' Agony''. Charles has als ...

Pamela Manson Pamela Manson (30 September 1928 – 19 March 1988) was a British actress who in her 30–year career on film, television and stage is best known for playing comedy roles. She was also a political activist who was a member of Equity, and the Int ...

Bernard Spear Bernard Spear (11 September 1919 – 9 May 2003) was an English actor. Early life Spear was born on 11 September 1919 in Croydon, Surrey, to a Polish-Jewish father and a Russian-Jewish mother. He was educated at Central Federation School in ...

and

Cyril Shaps Cyril Leonard Shaps (13 October 1923 – 1 January 2003) was an English actor of radio, television and film, with a career spanning over seven decades. Early radio Shaps was born in the East End of London to Polish-Jewish parents; his father ...

, the play tells the story of a young

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

boy, Eliott Green (Steyn), in a lower-middle class family living in suburban North East London of the 1970s, and the apprehensions the boy feels over his forthcoming Bar Mitzvah. Meanwhile, the family prepares for the celebration, preoccupied with their own preparations for the b'nai mitzvah.

Reception

Programme notes for a

Boston Jewish Film Festival The Boston Jewish Film Festival (BJFF) is an annual film festival that screens the best contemporary films on Jewish themes from around the world. The festival presents features, shorts, documentaries, and conversations with visiting artists in o ...

screening in 2004 hailed the play as "a BBC classic... this bittersweet comedy about a British boy’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah features a strong sense of time and place ndstellar acting", while the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

's website describes it as "a simple tale made memorable by genius writing and sympathetic performances." In 1977, "Bar Mitzvah Boy" won the

British Academy Television Award The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the BAFTA. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in 1955, consisted of six categories. Until ...

for 'Best Single Play', and in 2000 it was placed 56th in a BFI poll of the

100 Greatest British Television Programmes The BFI TV 100 is a list of 100 television programmes or series that was compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI), as chosen by a poll of industry professionals, with the aim to determine the best United Kingdom, British television pr ...

of the 20th century, voted on by industry professionals. The play is available on DVD with Rosenthal's other BBC work.

References

External links

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TV Cream review
1976 British television episodes 1976 television plays Play for Today Television episodes about Jews and Judaism {{UK-tv-film-stub

Reception

See also

References

External links