Sir Ian McKellen as Ross: Lawrence on Screen and on Air

“BBC Choice to star as Lawrence”, Morning Star, 17 Oct 1970. Magdalen College Archives, Papers of Jeremy Wilson, P450/R/ORR/6/2.

Whilst looking through a new batch of boxes from the Wilson collection for unusual items, I noticed a bulky brown envelope which intrigued me. I opened it to find an unidentified reel of tape. I wondered what this could be before noticing that a newspaper clipping was pasted on the outside of the envelope, which featured a picture of Ian McKellen as T.E. Lawrence. Recognising this drama from our newspaper clipping files, I realised this could be a recording of a televised version of the play Ross by Terrence Rattigan from 1970.

I carried out some investigation of the BBC Archives, and it appeared that the BBC no longer have a copy of this “Play of the Month” from 1970. The plot thickened as it seemed that our copy could potentially be very rare or even unique. The drama also starred Edward Fox and Martin Jarvis and was one of McKellen’s early television appearances. We sent it off to be digitised, hoping that that the reel could be a video recording – however, it turned out to be an audio tape, probably recorded from the television. We are still excited to have this audio version, in which McKellen’s distinctive voice can be clearly heard as Lawrence. Now digitised, the reel will in time be available to enquirers on our digital repository, although you can listen to a sneaky clip of McKellen as Lawrence below in a scene where another recruit is attempting to blackmail him over his assumed identity as “Ross”. McKellen does bring a certain inscrutable gravitas to the role!

Lawrence on Screen

In celebration of this discovery, I thought I would give a potted history of some of the highlights of almost 90 years of Lawrence on screen and on air.

The Wilson collection contains an excellent range of scripts from film, radio and television about T.E. Lawrence, including dramas, documentaries and debates. Copies of documentary scripts were often obtained through friends of Lawrence who contributed interviews. Wilson also had a collection of tapes, videos and DVDs of broadcasts on Lawrence which we have converted to digital formats. These include interviews with Wilson for documentaries from all around the world, including France and Japan. It’s basically a Lawrence streaming platform!

So, without further ado, let’s begin the show…

“Revolt in the Desert” by John Monk Saunders, page one. Magdalen College Archives, Papers of Jeremy Wilson, P450/R/ORR/2/2/1

Early Days: Unfilmed Lawrence

Even during Lawrence’s lifetime, film companies were very keen to persuade him to agree to a film being made based on his life. Lawrence was approached by the director Alexander Korda in 1934 to discuss the possibility but turned it down. However, on his death in 1935, there seems to have been an amplified clamour to make a Lawrence film. The Wilson collection contains copies of two screenplays for this period – one is a 1935 film script by novelist and screenwriter John Monk Saunders titled “Revolt in the Desert”, the first script to be written for Alexander Korda, which was originally to star Walter Hudd, the actor who had already played a character based on Lawrence in George Bernard Shaw’s play “Too True to Be Good” (see photograph below).

Script showing opening of “Lawrence of Arabia” by Miles Malleson, Brian Desmond Hurst and Duncan Guthrie, 1938. Magdalen College Archives, Papers of Jeremy Wilson, P450/R/ORR/2/2/2

We also have several copies of a 1938 script by Miles Malleson, Brian Desmond Hurst and Duncan Guthrie, titled “Lawrence of Arabia”. This interesting early version differs from the 1962 film by beginning with Lawrence in Carchemish, digging up a Hittite sculpture as he is in informed of the outbreak of the First World War. Meanwhile, Arabs working on the archaeological site are being severely mistreated, setting up the scene for the Arab Revolt. This version was once rumoured to star the actor Leslie Howard.

Stage and Screen

However, Lawrence’s story was already being co-opted for various purposes, drawing on his international fame. The Wilson newspaper clippings collection contains an article on a German film directed by Gustav Ucicky and made under the Nazi regime in 1939, which focuses on a band of German soldiers in the Arab Revolt, and features a quotation from Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

“Brando Role as Lawrence of Arabia”, unknown newspaper c. 18 Oct 1960.
Magdalen College Archives, Papers of Jeremy Wilson, P450/R/ORR/6/2.

Later on of course, Korda sold the film rights to Columbia pictures, and the epic Oscar-winning film was made by David Lean. The collection contains a variety of material relating to the film, including scripts, a reel-by-reel description of the film and a collection of film stills and negatives. The film was originally intended to star Marlon Brando or Albert Finney before Peter O’Toole eventually got the role. Meanwhile, in 1960, Sir Alec Guinness played Lawrence in the original stage production of Ross.

See below for a slide show of various Lawrences!

Early documentaries

One of the most surprising scripts I found is for an early television documentary on Lawrence from 1939! The BBC had only begun television broadcasting in 1936, and, three years later, producers were already keen to make a programme on Lawrence, one of the most famous men of the age. This script features a selection of static and spinning images interspersed with a text in the manner of a silent movie, and the voices of various interviewees, including Eric Kennington, Pierce Joyce and Clare Sydney Smith (see below). We have a photocopy of a script owned by Lawrence’s friend Jock Chambers, who was the source of many of the copies in the collection.

The collection also includes video and script versions of the 1962 documentary by David Lytton, “T.E. Lawrence 1888-1935”, which features many of Lawrence’s friends giving interviews.

Lawrence on Air

“Lawrence of Clouds Hill”, BBC Third Programme documentary by Francis Watson, 1958, page one. Magdalen College Archives, Papers of Jeremy Wilson P450/R/ORR/2/2/6

Lawrence has been the subject of many radio documentaries over the years, and the Wilson collection contains both audio recordings and scripts, some of which feature contributions by Jeremy Wilson. A couple of notable examples are the script for a programme made in collaboration with Sir Ronald Storrs, dating from the 1940s, which features both interviews and dramatisation, and a documentary called “Lawrence of Clouds Hill” made by Francis Watson for the Third Programme in 1958, featuring interviews with many of Lawrence’s friends, including David Garnett, A.E. “Jock” Chambers, Basil Liddell Hart, Robert Graves and Ernest Altounyan. A copy of this script was acquired through Jock Chambers.

“T.E. Lawrence – Myth and Reality. A New Look at England’s 20th Century Folk Hero” script by Barry Sullivan as BBC German Feature, page one, 1967. Magdalen College Oxford, Papers of Jeremy Wilson P450/R/ORR/2/2/15

As was the case on screen, there seems to have been an international interest in Lawrence on the airwaves, as the collection includes two scripts for BBC German Features by Barry Sullivan. These scripts were acquired through Sullivan himself after Jeremy Wilson’s Austrian research assistant, Lilith Friedman, assisted Sullivan with research for the documentary.

Jeremy Wilson himself features on a recording of a 1988 radio documentary for BBC Wales called “Across the Sky in Stars”, which contains discussion of Lawrence’s Welsh connections. Intriguingly, the collection also includes research tapes that were made privately featuring interviews by researcher Arabella Rivington with men who knew Lawrence at R.A.F. Mount Batten.

Lawrence goes international!

Moving into the 1980s to 2000s, Lawrence was the frequent subject of television documentaries and dramas from all over the world. These documentaries often featured expert talking heads, including Edward Said, Suleiman Mousa and Jeremy Wilson as Lawrence’s authorised biographer. As well as copies of a significant 1985 Omnibus documentary in which Wilson appears, the collection includes recordings of both French and Japanese documentaries, including “100 Figures of the 20th Century”, a Japanese biographical history series from 2001 (see below).

Scene shot at Magdalen College Cloisters for “T.E. Lawrence: The Master Illusionist”, 1983.
Magdalen College Archives, Papers of Jeremy Wilson, P450/R/IAV/3/2.

International dramas are also present in the collection, with a vivid Australian docudrama from 1983 “T.E. Lawrence: The Master Illusionist” featuring dramatised scenes from Magdalen’s own Addison’s walk! Steven Vidler as T.E. Lawrence appears to be in deep conversation with Janet Hallsmith, a friend of the family who Lawrence proposed to before the First World War – according to some stories. There are also shots filmed in the Cloisters.