Harold Pinter "Tea Party" sketch with John Bird and Eleanor Bron

Written by John Bird, Eleanor Bron and Peter Lewis. Introduced by Roy Hudd and David Frost. Transmitted live as part of Not So Much a Programme More a Way of Life, show #55, on BBC One, 28 March 1965.
The sketch is a play on Pinter's EBC contribution "Tea Party", which had aired on the BBC three days earlier and also in various other simultaneous productions across Europe. A viewing couple slip in and out of the roles of Disson (Leo McKern) and Wendy (Vivien Merchant).

[@anothertime1282]

Isn't it sad that British television could never do anything like this now. The dumbing down has been incredible and what's worse the audience is proud of it.

[@SuperSeriouSam]

Now we have so many channels to choose from, but hardly any quality choice.

[@lanehewitt7685]

R.I.P. John Bird.

[@kek23k]

RIP John Bird.

[@jasonhurd4379]

Good Lord, Eleanor Bron was gorgeous.

[@daffyduk77]

Yes, super-hot in her day, in a slightly affected upper-crust way (she wasn't quite so privileged but was well-educated, by all accounts). Slightly in the realms of Diana Rigg but more academia & less of a high-class action-woman. Almost a hint of Peter Cook's mischievous humour

[@jasonhurd4379]

@@daffyduk77 Eleanor Bron always seemed warmer, more approachable somehow than Diana Rigg. The latter always had that cool, cruel veneer that served her well in roles like Regan in Olivier's King Lear and Hedda Gabler, but not so well in roles requiring a warmer feeling, like Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

[@daffyduk77]

@@jasonhurd4379 True. If class totty is called for here's Mirren, in a nice little 70s TV drama (Pinter) with masterful Olivier, Bates - intense & considered as ever, plus McDowell as a rent boy. What I like best is, the outcome is left to the viewer's imagination. She was possibly at peak allure then, arguably kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z3e8oaavhbWtlcU

[@MorristheMinor]

As Victoria Wood once wrote in a sketch - 'You can make anything sound like Pinter, as long as you leave a big enough gap'

[@bobbydorou8438]

Eleanor Broyn, so very good 👍

[@cleanersvenus]

When I was in my teens Roy Hudd gave my little drama group a tour around the Victoria Palace Theatre where he and Christopher Timothy were performing in Underneath The Arches the Crazy Gang Musical. Lovely man.

[@daffyduk77]

Hudd was great, when he wasn't catering for mainstream or young-people's tastes, getting towards Benny Hill in subtlety of expression, body-language etc.

[@unclealand]

Elenor Bron walks on water!!

[@josephglover4256]

Eleanor was fit! 😘😘👌👌

[@jasont9294]

Hard to believe John Bird is 29ish here! Took me a minute to recognise Roy Hudd too.

[@daffyduk77]

have to admit he doesn't look 29 (a "hair" thing), not so with Bron at 27. Both capable of real subtlety. A lesser achievement of Bron is as the BT voice in ""The number you have dialled has not been recognised, please check and try again". She was great in "Bedazzled" (1967)