A Passionate Woman (2010)
In 1950s Yorkshire, Betty Stevenson, a married mother of one, falls in love with her Polish neighbour, Alex Crazenovski aka “Craze.” The two begin an affair and Craze sends a letter to Betty asking her to run away with him. She responds in kind and her letter is found by Craze’s pregnant wife, who promptly seeks him out at the fairground where he works and shoots him dead. With her lover dead, Betty continues her life with husband Donald and baby Mark.
The story then moves forward to the 1980s as Mark gets married and her affair becomes public knowledge. Kay Mellor was inspired to write the story after her own mother confessed to having an affair with a Polish neighbour in the 1950s when living in a poorer area of Leeds. Just like the story, the unnamed Pole was killed which ended her mother’s affair which she had kept secret for 30 years before revealing all. Mellor explained that with her mother being dead for three years, it was a way of bringing her back to life. The work was originally a play that had first been performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1992 before moving on to the West End. Mellor admitted that the film rights had been mooted but she feared the production would end up with ‘…Cher on a roof-top in Detroit.’
Date of download: 2015-11-11T17:22:34+00:00
Cast:  Billie PiperBetty  Sue JohnstonBetty (Older)  Theo JamesCraze  Joe ArmstrongDonald  Alun ArmstrongDonald (Older)  Kelly HarrisonMoira  Frances BarberMargaret |
In 1950s Yorkshire, Betty Stevenson, a married mother of one, falls in love with her Polish neighbour, Alex Crazenovski aka “Craze.” The two begin an affair and Craze sends a letter to Betty asking her to run away with him. She responds in kind and her letter is found by Craze’s pregnant wife, who promptly seeks him out at the fairground where he works and shoots him dead. With her lover dead, Betty continues her life with husband Donald and baby Mark.
The story then moves forward to the 1980s as Mark gets married and her affair becomes public knowledge. Kay Mellor was inspired to write the story after her own mother confessed to having an affair with a Polish neighbour in the 1950s when living in a poorer area of Leeds. Just like the story, the unnamed Pole was killed which ended her mother’s affair which she had kept secret for 30 years before revealing all. Mellor explained that with her mother being dead for three years, it was a way of bringing her back to life. The work was originally a play that had first been performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1992 before moving on to the West End. Mellor admitted that the film rights had been mooted but she feared the production would end up with ‘…Cher on a roof-top in Detroit.’
