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Johnny Speight

13 of 308 portraits by Lewis Morley

© Lewis Morley Archive/ The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London

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Johnny Speight

by Lewis Morley
bromide print, 1962
15 1/4 in. x 11 1/4 in. (385 mm x 286 mm)
Given by the photographer, Lewis Morley, 1992
Primary Collection
NPG P512(20)

Sitterback to top

  • Johnny Speight (1920-1998), Writer for television. Sitter in 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

  • Lewis Morley (1925-2013), Photographer. Artist or producer of 308 portraits, Sitter in 5 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Pepper, Terence, Lewis Morley: Photographer of the Sixties, 1989 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 15 September 1989 - 7 January 1990), p. 46
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 578

Events of 1962back to top

Current affairs

After a series of by-election defeats, the prime minister, Harold MacMillan organises a drastic cabinet reshuffle, dismissing one third of his cabinet. Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe's wry comment summed up the desperate action: 'greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down his friends for his life.'
Britain suffers the 'Big Freeze' with no frost-free nights between 22nd December 1962 and 5th March 1963.

Art and science

The Beatles have their first hit with Love Me Do and release their first album Please Please Me.
The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated and creates a showcase for British artistic talent with the first performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, a wall hanging by Graham Sutherland, stained glass by John Piper, and sculptures by Jacob Epstein and Elizabeth Frink.

International

The world comes to the brink of nuclear war with the Cuban Missile Crisis. In response to the USA's nuclear advantage, the USSR sent missiles to Cuba. The crisis lasted for 12 days before a deal was finally stuck between Khrushchev and Kennedy in which the Cuban missile bases were dismantled in return for the secret removal of US missiles from Turkey.

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