Christopher Hampton

The Quiet American, released in 2002.

It's directed by Philip Noyce, screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Robert Schenken, and based on the novel by the aforementioned Graham Greene.

It stars Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Thai Ma, Do Thi Hai Yen, apologies for my pronunciation, and it is the second adaptation of Greene's novel, previously adapted in 1958.

As said, this was released in 2002. and Michael Caine did receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

But obviously within 24 hours, the feeling about the film had changed because it is critical of American foreign policy.

OK, in 1952.

But because the film goes out of its way to extend and the there are two credited screenwriters, Christopher Hampton gets first position credit, as they now refer to it, which I think means that he was the original screenwriter.

I don't know.

Eight years of French? Dangerous Liaisons.

Yeah, so the play Les Liaisons Dangeruses was a play from 1985 that Christopher Hampton wrote, which was adapted from the novel, which came out in 1782.

Whoa.

Yeah.

There was a pretty legendary incident a few years back when Aaron Sorkin was doing To Kill a Mockingbird, his adaptation for Broadway.

And they got very overzealous and shut down every production of To Kill a Mockingbird, any adaptation anywhere in the country, as if you know, a high school in Iowa doing the Christopher Hampton adaptation that's been around for decades was going to impinge on somebody going to see her in Sorkin's in

New York

six months later.

I can't remember.

Or maybe it's something that it's a wonderful screenwriter called Christopher Hampton.

And I remember having a chat with him once.

He wrote, for example, the screenplay of Dangerous Liaison.

And then he would get his secretary to type what he wrote in the morning.

He also wrote longhand up in the afternoon.

Obviously, I'm not Christopher Hampton, so I don't have secretaries.

So I'd be there in the afternoon typing up, you know.

Just wanted to write something for this man, and he came up with this idea.

And then it was translated by Christopher Hampton into English.

And it's one of the most award-winning scripts out there.

Won the Moliere Award, won the BAFTA Award, won the Tony Award, and then, of course, went on to win several Academy Awards.

The Arts Centre has got Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

That's going to be on in the evening with Aidan Turner, who is famous from Rivals, and Leslie Manville in Christopher Hampton's staging of the classic novel from 7 till half ten.

That's a National Theatre production.

Holiday Monday, Donhead St Andrews sees the summer out with its summer fate and live music from the Sunset Cafe Stompers, a barbecue and cream teas, beer and cider, many, many stalls, a huge bric-a-brac, rating money for the two air ambulances and Salisbury Hospice and Happy Gathering, Tisbus and St Andrews Church.