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Saturday 8 November, 10.30am to 12.15pm at Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6ND and on ZoomNovember 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the Surrey author R C Sherriff (1896-1975). Join us to celebrate the versatile talent of the man most famous for his epic First World War play Journey’s End, and who went onto become the highest paid English scriptwriter in Hollywood, with films including Goodbye Mr Chips and The Dam Busters.
Dr David Cottis - R C Sherriff and the Well-Made Screenplay
In addition to his stage career, R C Sherriff was a highly successful screenwriter, with scripts including The Invisible Man, The Four Feathers, and The Dam Busters. This talk looks at how he brought the techniques of the well-made play into the cinema, as shown in the Surrey History Centre's archives.
Dr David Cottis is Senior Lecturer in Scriptwriting at Middlesex University, and a theatre writer, director, dramaturg, and critic. His book How Stage Playwrights Saved the British Cinema, 1930-1956 was published by Bloomsbury Academic earlier this year.
Roland Wales - Shirkers or Spies? R C Sherriff in Wartime Hollywood
Before R C Sherriff moved to Hollywood during the Second World War, he had already earned the wrath of the Nazis for his work on The Road Back. He found himself part of an expatriate community assailed by some in the UK as ‘shirkers’, and dismissed by Nazi supporters as ‘spies’ in congressional hearings. But still they managed to produce a range of patriotic movies that proved highly successful in the United States, just as the British government had hoped.
Roland Wales is the author of R C Sherriff’s biography: From Journey’s End to the Dam Busters. He is currently working on Unfit for Heroes, an account of the return of servicemen and women after the First World War.
Tickets: £6.
Please book a place online at https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/culture-and-leisure/history-centre/events
Please note that there are two booking forms: one for the in-person event at Surrey History Centre and one for the Zoom version.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, GU21 6ND Woking, United Kingdom, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6ND, United Kingdom
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