[Commlist] Call For Papers: Bryan Forbes at 100: British Cinema’s‘RenaissanceMan’

Call For Papers: Bryan Forbes at 100: British Cinema’s ‘Renaissance Man’
4 September 2026, BFI Southbank, London

300-word Abstract and Brief Author Bio Submission Deadline: Friday 29 May
Submit to both (paul.moody /at/ brunel.ac.uk) and (josephine.botting /at/ bfi.org.uk)

The symposium will be followed by a ticketed public screening of a new 
print of Forbes’ debut film as a director, Whistle Down the Wind (1961) 
at BFI Southbank. If you are presenting a paper at the symposium you 
will be eligible for a discounted ticket price for this screening.

2026 marks the centenary of the birth of one of the most versatile and 
influential figures in postwar British cinema, Bryan Forbes (1926-2013). 
Forbes developed a successful and varied career as an actor, 
screenwriter, director, producer, photographer and novelist, winning a 
BAFTA for his screenplay for The Angry Silence (1960)—but is known 
primarily for his direction of films such as Whistle Down the Wind 
(1961) and The Stepford Wives (1975). His career generally has been 
neglected by academia, with the literature on his work consisting only 
of entries in encyclopaedias (McFarlane, 2003), broader studies of the 
British film company EMI Films (Moody, 2018) and a few isolated studies 
of individual Forbes productions (Lindop, 2022; Botting, 2026; Moody 2026).

Although a handful of other British filmmakers (such as Forbes’ regular 
collaborator, Sir Richard Attenborough) managed to work in a similar 
range of creative roles, Forbes stands out from his middle-class 
contemporaries by being born into a working-class household in 
Stratford, in the London Borough of Newham. His background assumes 
increased significance when placed within the context of the ‘sex, class 
and realism’ (Hill, 1986) of 1960s British cinema, for while Forbes’ 
childhood provided fertile material for similar stories, he would write 
and direct across a diverse range of styles, including the comedy The 
Wrong Box (1966) and dramas imbued with elements of the horror genre, 
like Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964). A consistent trend in his work is 
an interest in stories of vulnerable and marginalised groups, especially 
when they intersect with women’s lives, such as in The L-Shaped Room 
(1962), The Whisperers (1967) and The Raging Moon (1971). While this 
might suggest a left-leaning politics, Forbes became known for his 
right-of-centre views, developing a friendship with Conservative Prime 
Minister Edward Heath and becoming a regular contributor to The 
Spectator; in addition, some of his screenplays were controversial for 
being politically conservative, such as in the perceived negative 
portrayal of the trade union movement in The Angry Silence.

This one-day symposium will explore these contradictions, building on 
recent attempts to reinterpret British filmmaking in the 1960s (Farmer, 
Mayne, Petrie, & Williams, 2019; and Petrie, Williams, & Mayne, 2020). 
At a time when there is considerable debate about the diversity of the 
British film industry and the barriers to entry for working-class 
filmmakers, the critical neglect of Forbes’ work is a timely reminder of 
the prejudice towards his type of ‘portfolio’ career and a reticence to 
engage with some of the perceived ‘low-brow’, commercially successful 
aspects of his output.

We welcome proposals from scholars at any career stage for 15-20min 
papers. Topics might include:
- Authorship: Forbes as a ‘renaissance man’; Forbes as actor; Forbes as 
screenwriter; Forbes and his collaborators.
- Class and Taste: Forbes as a working-class filmmaker; the ‘low-brow’ 
and notions of ‘taste’ in Forbes’ work.
- Women and Feminism: Forbes as a ‘women’s director’; Women characters 
in Forbes’ films; Nanette Newman and her work in Forbes’ films.
- ‘Britishness’, ‘Englishness’ and Identity: What Forbes’ work says 
about British and English identities in cinema; national identity in 
Forbes’ American films.
- Production & Reception: Production, marketing and reception of 
individual films; Forbes’ unrealised projects.
- Politics & Society: Forbes and postwar British social realism; Forbes’ 
work on political campaign films; controversies and censorship of 
individual films.
- Non-Cinematic Work: Forbes’ television productions, novels, and 
photography; Forbes as biographer and essay writer.

Please send abstracts of 300 words and brief author bio to the symposium 
organisers by 29 May 2026: (paul.moody /at/ brunel.ac.uk) and 
(josephine.botting /at/ bfi.org),uk. Notifications of acceptance will be 
confirmed by early June.

It is intended that papers form the symposium will be submitted as part 
of a proposal for the first book-length edited collection on the work of 
Bryan Forbes. We have had initial interest from a publisher for the 
topic and will discuss plans for the proposal with contributors at the 
symposium.

Works Cited
Botting, J. (2026), Whistle Down the Wind (BFI Film Classics), London: 
Bloomsbury.
Farmer, R., Mayne, L., Petrie, D. and Williams, M. (2019), 
Transformation and Tradition in Sixties British Cinema, Edinburgh: 
Edinburgh University Press.
Hill, J. (1986), Sex, Class and Realism: British Cinema, 1956-1963, 
London: BFI.
Lindop, S. (2022), The Stepford Wives, Liverpool: University of 
Liverpool Press.
McFarlane, B. (2003), The Encyclopaedia of British Film, London: Methuen.
Moody, P. (2018), EMI Films and the Limits of British Cinema, London: 
Palgrave
Moody, P. (2026), The Stepford Wives (BFI Film Classics), London: 
Bloomsbury.
Petrie, D., Williams, M., & Mayne, L. (2020), Sixties British Cinema 
Reconsidered, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

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