''The Chatterley Affair'' is a BBC television drama, produced by

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is ...

and broadcast 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

on 20 March 2006. It is a semi-fictitious account of the obscenity trial surrounding the publication of D. H. Lawrence's 1928 novel ''

Lady Chatterley's Lover ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, w ...

'' in 1960. Written by Andrew Davies and directed by James Hawes, it draws heavily, and accurately, on the court reporter's notes (published by Penguin as ''The Trial of Lady Chatterley'') for scenes that take place within the courtroom but also presents entirely fictitious scenes involving the deliberations of jury members. These were, like all jury deliberations under English law, unmonitored when they took place. ''The Chatterley Affair'' stars Louise Delamere and Rafe Spall as two fictional jurors who become lovers during the course of the trial; their brief relationship taking, and reflecting aspects of, the novel's own narrative and themes. The script chooses to invert the novel's central conceit by showing a relationship between a worldly woman and a naive man, rather than the other way around. Also portrayed are numerous real-life participants in the trial, such as judge Mr Justice Byrne (played here by Karl Johnson), prosecutor

Mervyn Griffith-Jones John Mervyn Guthrie Griffith-Jones (1 July 1909 – 13 July 1979) was a British judge and former barrister. He led the prosecution of Penguin Books in the obscenity trial in 1960 following the publication of D. H. Lawrence's ''Lady Chatterley' ...

( Pip Torrens), defence lawyer

Gerald Gardiner Gerald Austin Gardiner, Baron Gardiner, (30 May 1900 – 7 January 1990) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician, who served as Lord Chancellor, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1964 United Kingdom general election, 1964 to ...

(

Donald Sumpter Donald Sumpter (born 13 February 1943) is an English actor who has appeared in film and television since the mid-1960s. Career One of his early television appearances was the 1968 ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Wheel in Space'' with Patrick Troug ...

) and sociologist Richard Hoggart ( David Tennant).

Critical reception

Nancy Banks-Smith of The Guardian gave the film a positive review.

References

External links

''The Chatterley Affair''
at

bbc.co.uk BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...

''The Chatterley Affair''
– BBC programme page *
Article
from '' The Times'' Adultery in television BBC television dramas British television films British courtroom films Films scored by Nicholas Hooper Films about freedom of expression Films set in 1960 Films set in London Films directed by James Hawes {{BBC-tv-prog-stub