H.E.’s stories and novels adapt wonderfully well to the screen. His descriptive landscapes and intense, emotionally driven stories are a compelling combination for both filmmakers and audiences.
Explore The World of H.E. Bates: Film, TV & Radio
Explore the world of
Film, TV & Radio
A COMPELLING COMBINATION
FILM AND TV ADAPTATIONS
- The Larkins with Bradley Walsh, Joanna Scanlan and Sabrina Bartlett
- The Darling Buds of May with David Jason, Pam Ferris and Catherine Zeta-Jones
- The Purple Plain with Gregory Peck
- The Triple Echo with Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed
- A Month by the Lake with Vanessa Redgrave and Edward Fox
- Love for Lydia with Mel Martin and Jeremy Irons
- My Uncle Silas with Albert Finney
- The Feast of July with Embeth Davidtz and Ben Chaplin
- Fair Stood the Wind for France with Cecile Paoli and David Beames
- The Loves of Joanna Godden with Googie Withers and John McCallum
- Summertime with Kathryn Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi
BBC RADIO ADAPTATIONS
Home Service
- 1956: Joe Johnson
- 1957: Death of a Huntsman starring James Thomason
- 1961: The Little Farm; The Fallow Land available online
World Service
- 1982: A Moment in Time starring Daniel Day-Lewis
- 1985: Night Run to the West (as "Light Run to the West")
- 1986: Across the Bay; An Aspidistra in Babylon; Breeze Anstey; The Four Beauties; The Queen of Spain Fritillary; The Simple Life starring Nicholas Lyndhurst
Radio 4
- 1972: Night Run to the West starring Dennis Waterman
- 1973: The Day of the Tortoise; Death of a Huntsman
- 1974: The Poacher
- 1980: A Great Day for Bonzo available online
- 1985: My Uncle Silas available online, 1 & 2
- 1996: A Little of What You Fancy starring David Jason and Pam Ferris. Produced by Richard Bates
- 1998: A Crown of Wild Myrtle produced by Richard Bates
- 2004: Love for Lydia starring Tim Piggott Smith
- 1991: Fair Stood the Wind for France by Gregory Evans and 2009 by Maddy Fredericks
H.E. was a wonderful writer…I liked him enormously. A very charming, warm character; he was very quiet and knew a lot about secrets.
Did You Know?
- The actress, Joanna McCallum, was named in her honour of The Loves of Joanna Godden, after her parents, Googie Whithers and John McCallum, met and fell in love on set
- When John Irvin was shooting A Month by the Lake, the producer, Harvey Weinstein, wanted him to end the film by filling Lake Como with singing gondalierers. Fortunately Irvin refused
- The most famous scene in Summertime is the one in which Kathryn Hepburn falls into a Venetian canal. Although Hepburn claimed she’d contracted an eye infection after falling into the canal, she often swam in it at night, stopping her motor boat and ordering the driver not to watch as she jumped in, wearing very little