Role: Anne aka ‘Freak’ Director: Robert Knights Co-starring: Laurence Olivier, Greta Scacchi Production: Granada television film Release: 1984
Toyah starred as Mouse in the 1983 Granada television adaptation of The Ebony Tower alongside Laurence Olivier and Greta Scacchi
Featuring a formidable central performance by Laurence Olivier, one of Britain s most revered actors, this BAFTA-nominated television play was adapted by John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey) from the novel by John Fowles; a distinguished supporting cast includes Greta Scacchi, Toyah Willcox and Roger Rees.
Henry Breasley (Olivier) is an elderly painter whose secluded retirement is invaded by David Williams (Rees), a brash young artist commissioned to produce a biographical study of the great man. Breasley shares his home in the South of France with two young English girls, both former art students, Diana and Anne. In this strange ménage, David is left in no doubt about his host s views on modern abstract art. However, he is puzzled by the old man s relationship with the girls, especially when he also finds himself strongly attracted to Diana…
Olivier was recovering from pleurisy during filming. The play was filmed in Limoges, Haute-Vienne in France in 1983 but not broadcast until 1984. A study of changing human attitudes, to art, ambition, and sexuality. About a crusty old painter who lives in a French chateau with two young female companions. They are visited by a handsome young man, thereby initiating sexual tension and recognizably Fowlesian plot puzzles.
