Double Dare (play)

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"Double Dare" is a television play in the British

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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 episode was first broadcast on 6 April 1976. "Double Dare" was written by

Dennis Potter Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Singing Detective'' (198 ...

, directed by John Mackenzie and produced by

Kenith Trodd Kenith Trodd (born 1936, in Southampton) is a British television producer best known for his professional association with television playwright Dennis Potter. Early life The son of a crane driver, Trodd was raised in the Christian fundamentalist ...

. The play explores the link between author and viewer, one of Potter's major themes, and is referenced several times in his later work. The play's title is taken from the 1938

Al Bowlly Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1898 – 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African–British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930s in Britain. He recorded more than 1,000 songs. His most popular songs include ...

song "I Double Dare You", which is featured in both the opening and closing credits.

Synopsis

Martin Ellis (Dobie) is a blocked screenwriter who invites Helen, an actress (Markham), to a hotel in central London to discuss an idea for a play he is writing with her in mind. As he waits for her to arrive he picks up the telephone in his room and considers calling an escort agency. Thinking better of it, he decides to call his wife instead. He goes to meet Helen at the hotel bar and they start discussing his project. He explains that the play he intends to write involves a meeting between a businessman and a

call girl A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who (unlike a street walker) does not display her profession to the general public, nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency.< ...

at a hotel; Martin's intention is to explore the tension this scenario would create by talking to Helen about how far she would go for the sake of her profession. As they discuss the play, Martin discovers that a businessman and an escort named Carol are sat at a nearby table and appear to be speaking lines from the as yet unwritten piece. Martin becomes anxious at what will eventually become of the girl, already knowing that the play will not have a happy resolution. As Helen becomes uncomfortable and is about to leave, Martin's

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

Ben (Melia) arrives to make sure that the meeting is going as planned. Angry at having been set up for Martin to seduce her, Helen calls Ben a pimp, which leads him to reveal that Martin is actually in love with her. After Ben leaves, Helen informs Martin that there is no possibility of a romantic attachment happening between them and asks to collect her belongings from his room; all the while Martin remains fixated on the businessman and the call girl on the other table. When they head up to Martin's room, so do the characters who appear to have escaped from Martin's play. As Helen bids Martin goodnight he claims to hear shouting from next door: the businessman is in there with the escort girl and has become violent at her sexual taunting. Martin stands against the wall and describes the businessman raping and murdering her. When it is over he turns to face Helen on the bed, only to find that she has been sexually assaulted and strangled — seemingly at his hand. There is a knock at the door. Martin answers it only to be confronted by the businessman, who it is revealed is actually a mild-mannered and married man concerned by the noise coming from Martin's room. Martin tells him to mind his own business and slams the door. He walks over to the bedside table, picks up the telephone and calls the escort agency. When there is no reply, he lies back on the bed next to Helen's body and weeps.

Principal cast

Alan Dobie Alan Russell Dobie (born 2 June 1932) is an English stage, television and film actor and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Early life and career Dobie was born in Wombwell, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, to George Russe ...

as Martin Ellis *

Kika Markham Erika S.L. "Kika" Markham (born 1940)''birth registered 4th quarter (Oct, Nov, Dec) 1940'' is an English actress. Early life Markham is a daughter of actor David Markham and writer Olive Dehn (1914–2007). She has three sisters: Petra, Sonia a ...

as Helen/Carol *

Malcolm Terris Malcolm Hope Terris (11 January 1941 – 6 June 2020) was an English actor. He acted in many television programmes, including possibly his best-known role as Matt Headley in ''When the Boat Comes In'', a popular 1970s series. His film career ...

as Businessman *

Joe Melia Joe Melia ( Giovanni Philip William Melia; 23 January 1935, Camden Town, Camden, London - 20 October 2012, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire) was a UK, British actor. Educated at the City of Leicester College, City of Leicester Boys' Grammar Sch ...

as Ben *

John Hamill John Hamill (born 3 May 1947) is an English actor. He had previously attended the Elliott School, Putney from 1958 to 1962 before becoming a bodybuilder and one of Britain's most popular "physique models" in the late 1960s before turning to ac ...

as Peter * Linda Beckett as the businessman's wife

Production

In 1974, Potter's father died, and this, coupled with a severe bout of

psoriatic arthropathy Psoriatic arthritis is a long-term inflammatory arthritis that occurs in people affected by the autoimmune disease psoriasis. The classic feature of psoriatic arthritis is swelling of entire fingers and toes with a sausage-like appearance. Thi ...

, led to him developing writer's block. Having the bare bones of an idea about a meeting between a businessman and a prostitute for his next piece, Potter contacted producer

to arrange a meeting with actress Kika Markham, hoping to cast her in one of his own television productions. The two met in a hotel at The Strand and began discussing their relative professions. Markham has said much of the dialogue featured in the play was a faithful transcript of their meeting. According to Markham, early rehearsals were spent trying to "wring the giggles" out of the material; Potter's very specific stage directions appearing overwrought compared to the 'clipped-down' style of other writers. Having broken this barrier, the performers were able to explore the darker context of the play through close reading of the text and various theatrical exercises. As the production would be shot on location, director John Mackenzie was granted the opportunity of using film stock rather than video.

Themes

"Double Dare" explores the relationship between fact and fiction, as well as the connection between author and viewer. The doubling up of Helen and the call girl, and to a lesser extent the comparisons between Martin and the businessman, are "Potteresque" tropes that serve to challenge the audience's perspective on what they are seeing. Dialogue between Martin and Helen is often repeated verbatim in the fictional world of the businessman and the call girl (most notably the exchange about the automatic shoe polisher in the hallway outside Martin's room, which bookends Helen's arrival at the hotel and the escort heading to her client's room). Although containing very few of the non-naturalistic flourishes of his other plays, "Double Dare" does, however, contain one sequence where Potter deliberately breaks the artificial naturalism of the drama by having Martin question Helen if she would sleep with him if they were characters in a play before turning direct to camera and indicating an audience "somewhere out there". This question, and others like it, forms the basis of one of Potter's other major themes – individual choice in the face of an omniscient author. While Martin assumes responsibility for the eventual fate of the call girl, even going so far as attempting to warn her of the danger she faces, he ultimately resigns himself to the view that the act of writing is nothing more than a form of

precognition Precognition (from the Latin 'before', and 'acquiring knowledge') is the purported psychic phenomenon of seeing, or otherwise becoming directly aware of, events in the future. There is no accepted scientific evidence that precognition is a ...

. Martin recites

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

's poem "Sudden Light" (c.1853-4) to Helen in an attempt to woo her, but emphasises the subtext that all things, even human relationships, are mapped out in advance by unseen forces.

Broadcast and reception

The play was originally intended to be part of a trilogy exploring an individual's choices (or rather, lack of them) in the face of an

omniscient narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

; "Double Dare" was to form the first part, followed by '' Brimstone and Treacle'', also produced for the ''Play for Today'' slot, and ''

Where Adam Stood ''Where Adam Stood'' is a television play by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on BBC 2 in 1976. It is a free adaptation, wholly shot on film, of Edmund Gosse's autobiographical book ''Father and Son'' (1907). Synopsis Philip Gosse, naturalist ...

'' — a free adaptation of

Edmund Gosse Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhoo ...

's autobiographical book ''

Father and Son Father and Son or Fathers and Sons may refer to: Literature * ''Father and Son'' (book), a 1907 memoir by Edmund Gosse *Father and Son (comics), cartoon characters created by E. O. Plauen * ''Fathers and Sons'' (novel), an 1862 novel by Ivan Tur ...

'' (1907). The BBC's decision not to broadcast ''Brimstone'' caused some surprise from both Potter and Trodd, the latter assuming that if any of the trilogy would cause offence it would be "Double Dare", citing its "ferocious" attitude towards women as a potential problem. When the play went out on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

on 6 April 1976, it attracted very positive reviews stating that Potter was maturing as a playwright. Reviewing the play for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'',

Martin Amis Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir '' ...

praised the drama's build-up of tension, its

Russian doll Matryoshka dolls ( ; rus, матрёшка, p=mɐˈtrʲɵʂkə, a=Ru-матрёшка.ogg), also known as stacking dolls, nesting dolls, Russian tea dolls, or Russian dolls, are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside ano ...

effect and commented that it forced him to "increase ynicotene intake." The sex scenes between Markham and

, included as a flashback from another play, intended to show the lengths to which Helen will go in the pursuit of her craft, were considered to be among the strongest shown on British television up to that point. The play would not be repeated until 2005, when it was shown on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

amongst a season of programming intended to mark the tenth anniversary of Potter's death.

Proposed film adaptation

When director

Herbert Ross Herbert David Ross (May 13, 1927 – October 9, 2001) was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in theater and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and a Tony Award. He is known for directing ...

was preparing a

film version A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

of '' Pennies from Heaven'' for

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

, producer

Rick McCallum Richard McCallum (born August 22, 1954) is an American film producer. He is mostly known for his work on ''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'' as well as the '' Star Wars'' Special Editions and prequel trilogy. He is best known for his frequent ...

drew his attention to "Double Dare" as a potential project to adapt for the cinema. Potter told editor Graham Fuller in ''Potter on Potter'' that he had written a movie adaptation that transferred the action to Los Angeles, and featured an English screenwriter whose experiences in Hollywood are 'doubled up' with those back home in England. Potter described this new version of the play as "more sexually disturbing" than the original, but after the box office failure of the movie version of ''Pennies from Heaven'' the project was shelved. Ross claimed, however, that he held a read-through with

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...

and

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...

Intertextuality

The central premise of "Double Dare" would be revisited in the serial ''

Karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...

'' (1996), the first part of Potter's two last television works. ''Karaoke'' features a writer called Daniel Feeld (

Albert Finney Albert Finney (9 May 1936 – 7 February 2019) was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s, debuting with '' The Entertainer'' (1960) ...

) who starts to hear lines from his latest screenplay coming from the mouths of total strangers and those closest to him. The centrepiece of the serial involves a sequence in a

brasserie In France, Flanders, and the Francophone world, a brasserie () is a type of French restaurant with a relaxed setting, which serves single dishes and other meals. The word ''brasserie'' is also French for "brewery" and, by extension, "the brew ...

where Feeld, meeting with his producer (

Anna Chancellor Anna Theodora Chancellor (born 27 April 1965) is a British actress who has received nominations for BAFTA and Olivier Awards. Background and early life Chancellor was born in Richmond, England to barrister John Paget Chancellor, eldest son of ...

), overhears a young woman on the next table arguing with her boyfriend. Their conversation appears to consist of Daniel's dialogue and the young girl ("Sandra", played by

Saffron Burrows Saffron Domini Burrows (born 22 October 1972) is an English actress and model who has appeared in films such as '' Circle of Friends,'' ''Wing Commander,'' '' Deep Blue Sea,'' ''Gangster No. 1,'' ''Enigma,'' ''Troy,'' ''Reign Over Me'' and ''The ...

) is being asked to have sex with one of her gangster boyfriend's business associates to broker a favour. The intercutting of the scene between Daniel and the girl's perspectives is largely identical to "Double Dare", as is the suggestion that the girl will meet a horrible fate if Daniel does not intervene. A minor reference to "Double Dare" is the fact that Daniel's literary agent (

Roy Hudd Roy Hudd, OBE (16 May 1936 – 15 March 2020) was an English comedian, actor, presenter, radio host, author and authority on the history of music hall entertainment. Early life Hudd was born in Croydon on 16 May 1936 to Evalina "Evie" (née ...

) is also called Ben. "Double Dare" is also a follow-on from an earlier Potter play, '' Follow the Yellow Brick Road'' (1972), which features an embittered, cuckolded actor ('Jack Black', played by

Denholm Elliott Denholm Mitchell Elliott, (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English actor, with more than 125 film and television credits. His well-known roles include the abortionist in ''Alfie'' (1966), Marcus Brody in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981 ...

) who believes himself to be an actor trapped in a television play. Unlike "Double Dare", however, the central protagonist is able to subvert the narrative by challenging its anonymous author.

Sources

* Humphrey Carpenter, ''Dennis Potter: A Biography''; 1998 * Graham Fuller (ed.), ''Potter on Potter''; 1993 * W. Stephen Gilbert, ''Fight and Kick and Bite: The Life and Work of Dennis Potter''; 1995 * Nigel Williams (ed.) ''

Arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

: Painting the Clouds''; 2005

External links

* * {{Play for Today 1976 British television episodes 1976 television plays Play for Today