IWC is producing an 80-minute documentary exploring the work of Oscar Wilde for BBC Two.
Airing next year, The Importance of Being Oscar will bring together a “stellar” cast to explore the writer’s career, controversial personal life and concluding fall from grace. Franny Moyle (pictured) will exec produce.
The film charts Wilde’s success before his fall and will be made up of “revelatory” accounts and performance. The cast includes Freddie Fox, Claire Skinner, Anna Chancellor and James Fleet, who will perform excerpts from his greatest works, including The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Canterville Ghost.
Joining the actors are experts and enthusiasts, Stephen Fry, Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland, and his latest biographer Matthew Sturgis, who will uncover Wilde’s glittering and at times, scandalous career, which would inform his work, and his subsequent disgraced exit from high society.
Executive Producer Franny Moyle said: “The time is really ripe for a re-evaluation of Oscar Wilde’s life and work on television. We felt that the story of Oscar’s trial, imprisonment and the final years have been well covered. But the story of his fuller life, and the importance and brilliance of the work he created before his fall deserved fuller attention alongside an account of his tragic demise. There have been new biographies recently that have revealed much about the man, and looking again at his plays it is clear they have a modernity and relevance that is startling. We are delighted to have secured such a stellar cast of actors and commentators to bring this to life for BBC Two’s viewers”.
Mark Bell, Commissioner, BBC Arts said: “I am very happy to bring this stylish documentary to BBC Two. Following Wilde’s brilliant rise and using the work itself, the film gives viewers a new perspective and shines a light on both the man and his inspiration. It is easy to for Wilde’s genius to be eclipsed by the scandal of his fall. The film reminds us of the delight of his prose and the plays that made him famous before his infamous end.”
The series has been commissioned by Mark Bell, Commissioning Editor, BBC Arts with Richard Curson Smith directing for IWC. The Importance of Oscar will be distributed globally by Banijay Rights.
Staff Reporter
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