Licking Hitler

Overview

Licking Hitler is a television play about a black propaganda unit operating in England during World War II, broadcast by the BBC on 10 January 1978 as part of the Play for Today series. Written and directed by David Hare, it featured performances by Kate Nelligan and Bill Paterson. Photography was by Ken Morgan and John Kenway while the producer was David Rose for BBC Birmingham. It won the best single television play BAFTA award for 1978. Hare intended the work as a companion piece to his stage play Plenty and he wrote Plenty as he was editing Licking Hitler, scene and scene about. Its theme is similar to that of Plenty: the effect of war on individuals' private lives and treating their experiences as a metaphor for the England of the present.