The Photographer

The Photographer

1968 - United Kingdom

In Kenneth Jupp's play, Robert Stephens plays fictional top fashion photographer Bryan Baker, whose pictures influence thousands of women, just as he could also influence, mould and make famous a model whose looks might capture his imagination. One model in particular, until her suicide three weeks earlier, was Joanne, the girl currently on nearly every hoarding and magazine cover and, in Baker's studio, in a huge portrait he comes across as he finishes work for the day. Clearly the portrait disturbs him. 

Baker's assistant Gerry (Derek Jacobi) and secretary, Anne (Mary Miller), are anxious on his behalf. For already his life of nervous tension is telling. The work may have an aura of glamour but, contrary to popular belief it's a world of hard grind. It is an alien world to Grace (Susannah York), Joanne's sister, a shy country school teacher who arrives to see Baker. Grace is fascinated by the influence Baker had on her sister's life and wants to see for herself this strange, highly charged environment that had been her sister's making-and undoing. 

The Photographer - 1968 TV drama

Authenticity was given to the play by having the then current top London fashion model, (and later 'Vogue' cover girl) Paulene Stone appear in the opening scene (being photographed by Baker) and the play's author, Kenneth Jupp, knew the fashion scene well as his own wife, American Debbie Condon, the daughter of Richard Condon, who wrote 'The Manchurian Candidate,' was a top fashion model at the time. She too was seen in the play, though not in person. 

The portrait of Joanne was Debbie, photographed by world-renowned photographer Norman Eales. Similarities were drawn to the 1966 Antonioni movie Blow-Up but Jupp was quick to point out that he wrote The Photographer before Blow-Up was made. 

Produced by Anglia Television The Photographer also starred Cyril Luckham, Veronica Carlson, David Nettheim and Hoima MacDonald (the first Cadbury's Flake girl). Broadcast on Thursday 29th January 1968 at 8.30pm as part of ITV's Playhouse strand.   

Published on April 4th, 2020. Based on original TV Times article and adapted.

Read Next...

Mr. Pye 1986 C4

A retired bank manager has embarked on a private crusade: a mission to bring peace and love to a tired and cynical world. Unfortunately, he unwittingly unleashes the forces of good and evil!

Also starring Derek Jacobi

Tales of the Unexpected

Introduced by Roald Dahl, Tales of the Unexpected was a weekly, dark suspense filled anthology series with a different cast every week. Each story, with an unexpected and quirky twist in its tail had a moralistic message

Also starring Derek Jacobi

Dumb Martian

Earthman Duncan Weaver on a solo tour of duty on one of Jupiter's moons buys a Martian woman as a companion. He mistreats her, assuming her to be just a "dumb Martian." He learns, to his cost, that she has more intelligence than he gives her credit for.

Also tagged Single Play

Devil in the Fog

"In the beginning this tale tells how I, George, eldest born son of Master Salathiel Treet, strolling player and man of genius, came to have greatness thrust upon me."

Also released in 1968

The Gathering Storm

It's the mid-1930s and MP Winston Churchill (Albert Finney), once the most dynamic Member of Parliament, finds both his public and private life in turmoil in this award winning co-produced UK & US drama.

Also starring Derek Jacobi

The Close Prisoner

"We are all conceived in close prison: in our mother's wombs, we are close prisoners all...and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death..." John Donne.

Also tagged Single Play

Freedom in September

A Soviet musician is missing from his hotel. He wanders through 1962 London trying to contact people he has met and known in Russia. Who are these people? What lies behind his desperate search?

Also tagged Single Play

Last Tango in Halifax

Alan and Celia, both widowed and in their seventies, rekindle a passionate relationship that fate stole from them over sixty years ago

Also starring Derek Jacobi