On 20 May, 1974, Alan Ayckbourn's screenplay Service Not Included was shown on BBC2, a 30 minute drama written specifically for television - and his only screenplay to have been filmed.
Alan has always remain specifically committed to theatre and unlike many of his contemporaries has chosen not to work in other medium such as film and television. So what is the story behind Service Not Included?
By 1973, Alan Ayckbourn was already a substantial figure in British theatre and hugely successful. Although it was a year away from the West End premiere of The Norman Conquests, which would cement his fame, he had already had major West End hits with Relatively Speaking, How The Other Half Loves and Absurd Person Singular.
That year he was contacted by the television director Herbert Wise about a new BBC drama series entitled Masquerade. Alan knew Wise, as he had previously been responsible for directing the first television production of an Ayckbourn play with a 50 minute adaptation of Relatively Speaking, starring Celia Johnson and Donald Sinden in 1969; he would later go on to film The Norman Conquests for television in 1977.
Wise wrote to Alan asking if he would consider writing a 30 minute piece for the series, which would consist of six plays all united by the theme of "a masked fancy dress party, taking place now in a large 19th century country house."
There were several caveats, notably the screenplay should have no more than four main speaking parts and not more than four sets. Intrigued by the possibility, Alan agreed - largely as "a personal favour" to the director - and responded in July 1973 that he had already had an idea about "an end-of-convention party for a group of Rentokil representatives and their wives."
Once the summer season at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, had finished in September, Alan set about writing his first screenplay in November 1973, delivering it to his agent Margaret Ramsay on 1 December.
"Since I had no clear brief aside from a fancy dress party, I wrote multiple locations with a huge cast; consequently it cost more than a low budget film to produce. I didn't observe the limitations of theatre in any way but chose a theme where the camera followed on character (a waiter) from location to location - overhearing snippets of conversation from various groups of people involved in an office party. The waiter made no comment at any stage leaving the viewer free to connect the dots and put together themselves the web of machinations, betrayals and love affairs."
Alan believed the resulting screenplay, entitled Now Being Served, was "very downbeat for me" but it was sent that day to the BBC for assessment, although Alan was not entirely happy with the experience.
"It has taken me more time than any full length play ever took me [to write] - and I'm far less sure of the result."
Wise received a final draft of the screenplay on 4 February 1974 and approval was given for filming. The first read-through for the script took place on 18 March 1974 with filming scheduled for 25 - 29 March following a week of rehearsals.
Filming took place entirely on location at the Berystede Hotel, Ascot, with the final cast coming at at a still rather substantial 16 actors; which included amongst its number, the actress Heather Stoney - now Alan Ayckbourn's wife - in a mermaid fancy dress!
With the title now altered to Service Not Included, the programme was broadcast on BBC2 at 11pm on 20 May 1974. It has never been repeated and never had a commercial release. Largely ignored, The Stage newspaper did review it and described it as an "enjoyable half-hour."
Service Not Included has no plot as such, but offers a waiter's eye view of an end of conference party at a hotel. All the events of the night are seen through the eyes of the waiter Jace, offering snippets of conversation between the party-goers.
If this idea sounds vaguely familiar, it's because Alan reworked that same year as the basis for the one act play Between Mouthfuls, which is part of his popular Confusions. Within the play, a waiter moves between two tables and the audience hears only what the waiter hears as he moves back and forth between the diners.
Service Not Included is a genuine Ayckbourn rarity, rarely seen or read. Having never been repeated on television or made commercially available, its only other outing was an exclusive reading of the screenplay by participants at the 2011 Ayckbourn Weekend event in Scarborough.
Service Not Included has also never been published, although an original copy of the screenplay is held in the Ayckbourn Archive at the University of York.
It remains unique in the Ayckbourn canon as being his only venture into screenplays (see note below). The experience, however, was not one Alan was keen to ever repeat...
"I wrote a half-hour original TV play back in 1974. It was shown on BBC2 at 11 o'clock at night to an audience of five people. Hardly worth it."
Copyright: Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission from the copyright holder.
* With regard to screenplays, Alan Ayckbourn did write one for a movie version of Relatively Speaking during the 1970s, although this was never filmed. Alan also did a number of swift rewrites over an afternoon to Michael Winner's screenplay adaptation of the film A Chorus Of Disapproval, although Alan believes the vast majority of these were rejected by Winner and were not used in the final film.
For a number of years there was also confusion regarding A Cut In The Rates, a short play written for a BBC educational series exploring the process of staging plays. Occasionally inaccurately described as a screenplay, A Cut In The Rates was written as a short play, whose first live production was filmed and subsequently broadcast as part of the programme; A Cut In The Rates was later published and is quite a popular one act play.
