"Fable" is a British television play, shown on 27 January 1965 as an episode of The Wednesday Play series on BBC 1. Written by John Hopkins, the play is set in a parallel totalitarian Britain where those in authority are black people, and white people are their social underdogs - a reversal of the situation in contemporary apartheid South Africa. It was directed by Christopher Morahan and produced by James MacTaggart. Cast Eileen Atkins - Joan Ronald Lacey - Len Thomas Baptiste - Mark Barbara Assoon - Francesca Carmen Munroe - Lala Keith Barron - Narrator Rudolph Walker - Policeman Leo Carera - Editor Bari Johnson - Deputy Editor Dan Jackson - Overseer Sally Lahee - Lilian George Roderick - Laughton Trevor D. Rhone - Assistant Editor John Rapley - Michael André Dakar - Head Of State Frank Singuineau - Minister Charles Hyatt - Newsreader Thor Pierres - Secretary Kenneth Gardnier - Interrogator Commentary Hopkins had anti-racist intentions in writing the play. Carmen Munroe has said that for the actors the production was a frightening experience "because suddenly you were being asked to perform the sorts of acts that were performed against you in real life". The programme's original screening, scheduled for 20 January 1965, was postponed by the BBC for one week "to avoid accentuating the colour issue" during the Leyton by-election to be held on 21 January. In an era when negative responses to immigration were very high, Audience Research at the time of the original broadcast suggested that some whites in the audience saw the role reversal as threatening and reinforced their racist views.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“I believed then – and I believe still – that fiction driven by purely ideological goals is likely to be very poor fiction indeed.”
— Dale Bailey, Story Notes to Death and Suffrage (2003); in The Resurrection Man’s Legacy, , p. 323
“The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.”
— Raymond Chandler, The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler.
“The story had no proper end, but reality rarely does. It is the province of fiction to tie up loose ends, to punish the guilty and reward the good, to join the lovers together and answer all questions.”
— Rosemary Edghill, A Winter’s Tale, in Denise Little (ed.) The Magic Shop (2004), , p. 317
“It doesn’t have to be New York; it could have been Kokomo. I think the point is that having a fictional character come from a real place makes the character seem more real. When I was young, I loved to read Sherlock Holmes. And the fact that he lived on Baker Street in London, a real place, made me enjoy the stories more, with a greater feeling of authenticity.”
— Stan Lee "STAN LEE Talks Big Screen SPIDER-MAN Depiction" Jim McLauchlin, Newsarama, June 22, 2015
“For if the proper study of mankind is man, it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent, substantial and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life.”
— William Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale (1930) (p. 192 in the 1950 Modern Library edition).
“Novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand.”
— Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929), ch. 5.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Notable quotes

“I believed then – and I believe still – that fiction driven by purely ideological goals is likely to be very poor fiction indeed.”
— Dale Bailey, Story Notes to Death and Suffrage (2003); in The Resurrection Man’s Legacy, , p. 323
“The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.”
— Raymond Chandler, The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler.
“The story had no proper end, but reality rarely does. It is the province of fiction to tie up loose ends, to punish the guilty and reward the good, to join the lovers together and answer all questions.”
— Rosemary Edghill, A Winter’s Tale, in Denise Little (ed.) The Magic Shop (2004), , p. 317
“It doesn’t have to be New York; it could have been Kokomo. I think the point is that having a fictional character come from a real place makes the character seem more real. When I was young, I loved to read Sherlock Holmes. And the fact that he lived on Baker Street in London, a real place, made me enjoy the stories more, with a greater feeling of authenticity.”
— Stan Lee "STAN LEE Talks Big Screen SPIDER-MAN Depiction" Jim McLauchlin, Newsarama, June 22, 2015
“For if the proper study of mankind is man, it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent, substantial and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life.”
— William Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale (1930) (p. 192 in the 1950 Modern Library edition).
“Novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand.”
— Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929), ch. 5.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Not who you're looking for? Others named Fable: short fictional story that anthropomorphises non-humans to i · 2004 video game · British singer and songwriter · 2027 video game developed by Playground Games

Overview

"Fable" is a British television play, shown on 27 January 1965 as an episode of The Wednesday Play series on BBC 1. Written by John Hopkins, the play is set in a parallel totalitarian Britain where those in authority are black people, and white people are their social underdogs - a reversal of the situation in contemporary apartheid South Africa. It was directed by Christopher Morahan and produced by James MacTaggart. Cast Eileen Atkins - Joan Ronald Lacey - Len Thomas Baptiste - Mark Barbara Assoon - Francesca Carmen Munroe - Lala Keith Barron - Narrator Rudolph Walker - Policeman Leo Carera - Editor Bari Johnson - Deputy Editor Dan Jackson - Overseer Sally Lahee - Lilian George Roderick - Laughton Trevor D. Rhone - Assistant Editor John Rapley - Michael André Dakar - Head Of State Frank Singuineau - Minister Charles Hyatt - Newsreader Thor Pierres - Secretary Kenneth Gardnier - Interrogator Commentary Hopkins had anti-racist intentions in writing the play. Carmen Munroe has said that for the actors the production was a frightening experience "because suddenly you were being asked to perform the sorts of acts that were performed against you in real life". The programme's original screening, scheduled for 20 January 1965, was postponed by the BBC for one week "to avoid accentuating the colour issue" during the Leyton by-election to be held on 21 January. In an era when negative responses to immigration were very high, Audience Research at the time of the original broadcast suggested that some whites in the audience saw the role reversal as threatening and reinforced their racist views.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

"Fable" is a British television play, shown on 27 January 1965 as an episode of The Wednesday Play series on BBC 1. Written by John Hopkins, the play is set in a parallel totalitarian Britain where those in authority are black people, and white people are their social underdogs - a reversal of the situation in contemporary apartheid South Africa.

Fable across IJR

On Watch

Fable - Official Quest Gameplay | gamescom 2026IGN

Fable ABANDONS the MoDeRn AuDiEnCe & comes crawling back to the CHUDS. Ugliness REMOVED?!Doctor Disaster

Studio characters

Guillermo Dela Vega AfableThe late-night sketch version — live in your chat.Sean Michael AfableThe Screen figure with nowhere else to be today.FableAll the charm, none of the schedule.

Ask Genius by OpenServe about Fable Create in Studio Build a game Watch videos