90% of don west’s character is just: *looks a little unhinged* *gestures extravagantly* *conveniently knows how to solve the problem* *is holding a chicken*
TV guide: 28 of the best shows to watch this week, beginning tonight
Toby Stephens as Oscar Wilde in Prisoner C33, Sunday on BBC Four
Prisoner C33
Sunday, BBC Four, 9pm
It is the year 1895 and Reading Gaol has a famous inmate, known simply as Prisoner C33. Starved, placed into solitary confinement and denied even basic sanitation, this wretched creature is unrecognisable as his former self: renowned playwright, wit and dandy socialite Oscar Wilde. Jailed for the crime of conducting a homosexual relationship, Wilde is in the depths of despair and, in a bid to stave off insanity, begins to converse with his younger self, in this hard-hitting drama written by Stuart Patterson and directed by Trevor Nunn. Toby Stephens plays both versions of Wilde, one in his flamboyant pomp, the other looking back at his lost life and love.
A new one-man play starring Toby Stephens, directed by Trevor Nunn and written by Stuart Patterson, which finds Oscar Wilde in Reading Gaol in 1896, condemned to solitary confinement because of his sexual identity.
He begins a conversation with himself, sometime as torturer, sometimes as comforter. Together the pair wrestle with the humiliation of his fall from celebrity to convict, because he loved another man.
Prisoner C33 was commissioned by Emma Cahusac for BBC Arts and BBC Four. It was directed by Trevor Nunn and written by Stuart Paterson. The executive producer is Sally Angel and the producer is Andrew Fettis.
In 1895, in cell 3, on floor 3, in Reading Gaol, we find Prisoner C33.
Starved, thin and with his hair crudely hacked short, he is confined, alone, in this dark cell, denied water to wash himself with and allowed no access to a toilet.
Prisoner C33 is only ever referred to as Prisoner C33. His real name is Oscar Wilde (played by Toby Stephens: Lost in Space, Summer of Rockets, Jane Eyre), dramatist of genius, poet, wit, novelist, husband, father of two children, and until recently, the darling of London society. He has been imprisoned for the crime of having participated in a homosexual relationship. He is struggling to reconcile his identity as a creative genius with the trauma of his treatment as a despised criminal.
In despair, and fearing the onset of insanity, he fantasises being in conversation with his former self – his elegant, debonair, famous, popular, longhaired, flamboyant self, before this nightmare began. Their talk, Oscar with Oscar, is full of Wildean wit, mischievous humour, nostalgia, philosophical insight, and sardonic wisdom. But as he contemplates his fall from grace, he agonises over the loss of his wife and sons, and over the conflict between love and hate, aroused in him by the memory of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas.
We live now at a time of ‘cancel culture’. Prisoner C33 vividly reminds us that only a century ago, a great artist, a genius of the theatre was cancelled for being gay, in unutterably humiliating national condemnation.
DURATION
1 x one hour (1 x 68-minute version also available)
