‘What we are up against’: Lindsay Anderson and The Old Crowd

Drawing on the invaluable experience of watching Lindsay Anderson at work and on lengthy interviews with the director, this article traces the production history and critical reception of The Old Crowd, an Alan Bennett play which Anderson directed for London Weekend Television in 1979. In so doing it paints a picture of an ITV environment very different from that of today, one in which there was far more scope for formal experimentation and innovation, but it also demonstrates all too clearly the critical hostility and incomprehension which greeted directors like Anderson who were determined to take advantage of this relatively liberal climate in order to stretch the medium to its limits.