The Playwrights Database
FRANCIS BECKETT
Nationality: British
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Literary Agent: n/a
Francis Beckett is the editor of Third Age Matters, a national magazine published by the University of the Third Age and writes for national newspapers and magazine. He graduated in history and philosophy from the University of Keele in 1969 and was one member of that year's-two-man debating team sent to tour the USA. He has been president of the National Union of Journalists and worked on two national newspapers; was head of press and publications at the National Union of Students, a trade union head of communications, and a Labour Party press officer; ran his own PR consultancy; and has edited about a dozen magazines and written for many more. He was an organiser for the housing charity Shelter and has taught in schools, adult education, further education and a university (teaching the Journalism MA at the University of Westminster.)
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below is a list of Francis Beckett's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Claim And Shame Hide the Front Page! London Spring, The Modest Little Man, A Money Makes You Happy Right Honourable Lady, The Sons of Catholic Gentlemen, TheClaim And Shame
Synopsis:
a new comedy based on the recent MP's expenses scandal Newly elected Labour MP Meg Jones finds herself in the front line of the expenses scandal, while her husband falls for a classic newspaper honey trap. their lives and their marriage disintegrate before the relentlessly cruel headlines. But was it their fault - or are they convenient scapegoats for much bigger fraudsters? the financiers who surround them were having their own troubles, and the journalists who exposed them were not so clean as the liked to sound. This is the third play written and directed as a collaboration between director Joanna Turner and playwright Francis Beckett.
Notes:
written by Francis Beckett And Joanna Turner
1st Produced:
Theatre 503 (Latchmere theatre), London, Eur >>>
13 Dec 2009
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHide the Front Page!
Synopsis:
In a world where we need a new and different sensation every day, and when we have had philandering male cabinet ministers and gay male cabinet ministers, we must soon have a philandering female cabinet minister. the public demands it. Hide the Front Page! is about what will happen when she emerges, and the level of sisterly solidarity she can expect from other women in politics and journalism. Nicola McDonald PC MP looks like a success story: a young Cabinet minister, able, attractive, superficial, fluent, faultlessly Blairite and tipped for the top. and she thinks no-one knows about Stephen Harling. . .
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
First Draft (now blank pages)
1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageLondon Spring, The
Synopsis:
the Prague Spring in 1968, the arab Spring in 2010 - but what will it take before London has had enough? Michael, a prosperous American doctor, is in London for the first time. On Waterloo Station, a pretty girl steals his wallet, a tramp sells him a square of toilet paper for five dollars, and precious and dangerous drugs are stolen from him. Trying to get them back, hes plunged into the darkness and despair that is London in the 2020s.
Notes:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
dystopian satire
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageModest Little Man, A
Synopsis:
"An empty taxi drew up and Clement Atlee got out"
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Upstairs At The Gatehouse
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Historical Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMoney Makes You Happy
Jeremy, the once-fashionable author of Trekking to Paradise, has spent 10 years buried in the countryside, failing to write his second book. His only connection with the big city was the smart & sexy corporate lawyer Ruth, who came down at weekends to share his grubby garret. When Ruth stops coming, Jeremy comes to London to find her. There's a small child, of which he may or may not be the father, and if he wants to stay with Ruth, he's going to have to learn to live among the frenzied collection of urban shysters, bigots & egomaniacs who make up her world.
Notes:
written by Francis Beckett And Joanna Turner
1st Produced:
Bridewell Theatre, London, Eur >>>
17 Jul 2007
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 2008
Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
lunchtime show Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageRight Honourable Lady, The
Flavia has been poached from the BBC by a tabloid newspaper. Her brief, to dig up the dirt on her old friend, now Secretary of State. Mission accomplished, she hopes to investigage more serious corruption; but the editor and chief whip have other ideas
Notes:
version As published by Player Playwrights, 2008
1st Produced:
Organisations:
First Draft Theatre Company
1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 2009
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSons of Catholic Gentlemen, The
Synopsis:
It is 1958, two years after Suez. 15-year-old Peter Jackson is abruptly plucked from his working class northern community and sent to a very splendid and expensive Jesuit-run boarding school. He sets himself the task of getting expelled, an aim he finally achieves by blasphemously mocking the transubstantiated host in the chapel. But the people he met aty Stanislaus Hall, and the hatreds he developed there, stay with him as he goes out into the world and climbs the greasy pole.
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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