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1899 - 1961

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, a wealthy suburb of Chicago. He became a reporter on the Kansas City Star at the age of 18, then went to Italy to serve for a few months in the war. His first novel was published in 1926 and he achieved tremendous popularity almost at once. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. The DVD covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.

Running time: approx 35 minutes

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1564 - 1616

Shakespeare was born in the country town of Stratford-upon-Avon.He was educated at the local grammar school. He went to London in 1588 to begin a life in the theatre. He was immensely successful and he is now recognised as the greatest dramatist of all time. The DVD covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.

Running time: approx 35 minutes

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1812 - 1870

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth. His father worked in the naval dockyard. The family later moved to Chatham and London but slowly slid into poverty. Dickens ended up working in a factory. He took up journalism, then at 24 had great success as a novelist. The DVD covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.

Running time: approx 35 minutes

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1809 - 1849

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston the son of actors David and Elizabeth Poe. His father disappeared when he was three and his mother died a year later. He was adopted by a Richmond, Virginia family called Allan. When he was 17 he was disowned by his foster parents. He was determined to be a writer and through many difficulties he succeeded in becoming one of the first great imaginative writers in the United States. The DVD covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.

Running time: approx 35 minutes

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1675 - 1788

Voltaire was born the son of a prominent lawyer and from his earliest days showed a precocious literary talent. He wrote plays and novels and historical and philosophical works his outspokeness constantly landed him in trouble with the authorities. He became the leading liberal voice of the French Enlightenment and he has had a worldwide influence ever since. The DVD traces his fascinating life and ends with an overview of his works.

Running time: approx 35 minutes

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£18.73 / $29.97

In this production of Ibsen's ghosts you will not see 'a new version specially prepared for modern audiences.' Ibsen is either digestible as he stands or he is not. It is fairly unlikely that he would enjoy his work being modified or tampered with by opinionated directors. Modern audiences are just as intelligent and probably better informed than audiences of Ibsen's day. There is nothing to equal a live performance, however not many people are able to see Ibsen's plays well acted in a theatre, because theatres are few and far between. We certainly hope that in giving a complete performance of this play Ghosts we are enabling a lot more people to see Ibsen's work more or less as he intended.

Shooting this play in video (film) format we have the benefit of using close-ups, we can isolate characters and run things together in a way impossible on the stage. Everyone gets a front seat view, actors do not need to project their voices and can act in a more subdued and less histrionic way. In fact working on this project revealed that Ibsen's approach to writing suits our newer medium very well.

Casting this film was an interesting experience. As we were not offering chauffeur-driven cars or personal hairdressers the agents of well established actors were not interested. However many fine actors did come forward keen to play the rewarding roles of an Ibsen work. Selection was difficult. I feel sure that Ibsen would not have been disappointed in the work of the cast we assembled.

Of course in a play for the stage there is not much action. There's a lot of talk. There are no car chases, violence is usually off stage; there are few changes of scene. But most of the time the interaction we have with people in our daily lives is verbal or emotional; few of us habitually resort to blows or jumping out of windows in a tantrum; we don't generally suddenly take off to exotic places in a helicopter.
In Ibsen's play Ghosts however, it is hard to argue that nothing happens, that the characters are not put through the mill of life, that we are not seeing a story unfold which we don't recognise or identify with. Indeed it can be argued that looking back a little in time we see things even more clearly than Ibsen's contemporaries might have.

In an age when millions of people in the 21st century apparently allow themselves to be governed by doubtful books of rules written hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago, the works of an imaginative writer of the stature of Ibsen who died little over a hundred years ago can hardly be considered out of date.

Ibsen had a fine sense of humour; he knew how to write, how to structure a play, how to draw characters - all these technical things. But he was also an artist, an entertainer; he meant people to leave the theatre changed a little, transported a little, amused, absorbed by what happens, sympathetic, appalled; at the end of it all you don't know what he really thought about it, just that life in all it's complexities and confusions fascinated him; for a while he holds it up to the light and in the couple of hours we journey with him, we too are able to make just a little more sense of it all than we usually do. That is the pleasure of the theatrical experience.

The translator was William Archer who almost single-handedly put Ibsen onto the English-speaking stage. He learned Norwegian and visited Ibsen in Oslo. His honest work has the flavour of the times which no "updating" can give.

The Director: Malcolm Hossick (a Scot now in his 70's) has been making films professionally for more than 40 years. He learned the trade producing and directing documentary and drama films in the BBC in the 60's and 70's. Since then he has worked independently making documentaries in literary and musical subjects with occasional forays into drama.
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George Orwell 1903 - 1950

Orwell was born in India. He was educated at Eton College and in 1922 went out to Burma as a police officer. He returned to England in 1927 and determined to be a writer. In 1936 he went to join the civil war in Spain. He later worked for the BBC and The Observer. Just as he was becoming successful he died of tuberculosis. The DVD covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.

Running time: approx 35 minutes

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1757 - 1827

William Blake was born the son of a hosier in the then respectable district of Soho in London. He had no formal education but was taught by his mother. He was a voracious reader and as a boy he drew
constantly. He studied at an art school and learned the trade of engraving by which he lived. His painting and poetry were valued by a few but he died in poverty. The programme covers his life and background and explores the relevant events of his times.

Running time: approx 30 minutes

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The three Brönte sisters Charlotte (b.1816), Emily (b.1818) and Anne (b.1810) were all born in the village of Thornton in Yorkshire. They spent most of their lives not far away at Haworth where their father was vicar. They were largely educated at home. All three achieved their goal of becoming successful novelists. The programme follows their lives and their development as writers and ends with an overview of their work.

Running time: approx 35 minutes

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1660 - 1731

Daniel Defoe was born in Cripplegate, London in 1660, the son of a tallow chandler. His father was a dissenter in religion with strong puritan views. Defoe was sent to a dissenters academy in Newington where he received a good education. He began working as a journalist as well as being a secret agent for the government. He travelled widely and in his later years successfully published many works of fiction. He died in poverty in London in 1731. The DVD covers his life and background.

Running time: approx 30 minutes

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