The Chatterley Affair

The Chatterley Affair by Guild member Andrew Davies is on BBC Four tonight, and in The Times, Paul Hoggart recalls his father's role in the famous indecency trial.

The introduction to the drama of the affair could easily have been naff, especially when the couple start to use the book as a rather preachy sort of Lovers’ Guide. In fact it is handled with great wit and sensitivity. Davies, then a teacher, recalls the era clearly — he was “a bit miffed” by the acquittal, having paid one of his sixth-formers about £5 to bring him an unexpurgated copy from Paris which he could now get for 3s 6d (about the price of two pints). He uses the jurors’ reactions to provide a subtle exploration of the ways in which attitudes to sex and authority were starting to shift.