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When originally produced in 1954, Nigel Kneale's dramatisation of Nineteen
Eighty-Four (tx. 12/12/1954) caused a storm of controversy for its politics and
scenes of torture. A revised version of the same script was produced in 1965 as
part of an Orwell season on BBC2. This version was long thought lost, but was
rediscovered in 2010, the most eye-catching of more than 60 previously missing
British television titles found at the Library of Congress.
Kneale's original script had been realised as a largely live transmission by
producer Rudolph Cartier. This time, director Christopher Morahan had all the
resources and flexibility of pre-recording to videotape. He makes the most of
this, with greater use of exteriors, an enhanced opening montage, and more
complex visual effects.
The most obvious contrasts come towards the end, as Winston is tortured. In
1954, these sequences took place on a nearly bare set, with the sole focus on
the two actors. Morahan includes additional personnel, a more elaborate set and
projected graphics. The effect is mixed. The use of a video extract of an
earlier scene, replayed as surveillance evidence against Winston, works well.
However, the lab-coated technicians are more comic than sinister in their white
baker's caps and dark glasses. But the 'Room 101' sequence, which caused most
upset in 1954, is arguably more horrific here, with the threat of the caged rats
given greater prominence.
The use of a near-psychedelic light effect during Winston's interrogation has
more in common with The Avengers (ITV, 1961-69) than the more primitive methods
of Orwell's novel. This is perhaps an example of the script's updating to take
into account developments since the novel's publication in 1949 and the original
production in 1954. On a practical level, Kneale had originally structured the
drama for the specific requirements of a live transmission. With this no longer
required, his revised script reorders some scenes and drops others, making room
for additional material, such as an entirely new scene that illustrates the
populace's keen complicity in Big Brother's bald deceits.
No protest followed the 1965 transmission, perhaps because the production
lacks both the novelty and some of the raw emotional impact of the 1954
broadcast. The intervening 11 years had seen television extend its range of
programming, with challenging and disturbing drama more readily accepted. While
still a horrific prediction of the future, '1984' had seemingly lost its power
to shock.
Oliver Wake
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1. Newspeak (1:40)
Production stills 
