{ "id": "ep0j814cq8", "slug": "a-kind-of-loving", "title": "A Kind of Loving", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "label": "Released 1960 to 1965", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "A Kind of Loving is a 1962 British kitchen-sink drama, John Schlesinger's feature debut, adapted from Stan Barstow's novel. Alan Bates and June Ritchie star as a couple married by pregnancy; it won the 1962 Berlin Golden Bear.", "snippet": "A Kind of Loving is a 1962 British kitchen-sink drama, John Schlesinger's feature debut, adapted from Stan Barstow's novel. Alan Bates and June Ritchie star as a couple married by pregnancy; it won the 1962 Berlin Golden Bear.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "markdown": "# A Kind of Loving\n\n*A Kind of Loving* is a 1962 British drama directed by [John Schlesinger](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-schlesinger), his feature film debut, adapted from Stan Barstow's 1960 novel of the same name. It stars [Alan Bates](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-bates) as Vic Brown, a Manchester draughtsman who enters a relationship with typist Ingrid Rothwell (June Ritchie, in her screen debut), marries her after she becomes pregnant although he does not love her, and must build a life with her while living under her mother's roof.[1](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-a-kind-of-loving-1962-online) • [2](https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/a-kind-of-loving/) The film won the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear) at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962 and received four BAFTA nominations.[2](https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/a-kind-of-loving/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / debut | John Schlesinger's first feature film, before *Billy Liar* (1963), *Darling* (1965), and *Midnight Cowboy* (1969)[1](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-a-kind-of-loving-1962-online) |\n| Source | Stan Barstow's novel, published 1960; screenplay by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse[3](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2022/07/a-kind-of-loving/) • [4](https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/documents/entertext012/Dave-Ellis-Swinging-Realism-The-Strange-Case-of-To-Sir-With-Love-and-Up-the-Junction.pdf) |\n| Principal cast | Alan Bates (Victor Arthur \"Vic\" Brown), June Ritchie (Ingrid Rothwell), Thora Hird (Mrs. Rothwell)[5](https://www.fandango.com/a-kind-of-loving-105226/movie-overview) |\n| Awards | Golden Bear, 12th Berlin International Film Festival (1962); four BAFTA nominations for 1963 (Best British Actor, Best British Film, Best British Screenplay, Best Film from any Source)[2](https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/a-kind-of-loving/) • [6](https://search.alexanderstreet.com/preview/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C3157925) |\n| Production | Producer Joseph Janni; Vic Films Productions; shot and set in Manchester[2](https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/a-kind-of-loving/) • [3](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2022/07/a-kind-of-loving/) |\n| Release | UK release date 12 April 1962; runtime about 112 minutes[5](https://www.fandango.com/a-kind-of-loving-105226/movie-overview) • [7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/36236/kind-of-loving) |\n| Reception | 93% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (14 reviews); one of the most popular films at the UK box office in 1962[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kind_of_loving) • [2](https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/a-kind-of-loving/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nVic Brown, the son of working-class parents, has secured a white-collar job as a draughtsman with a reputable firm and starts dating Ingrid Rothwell, a typist at the company.[9](https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/7346/a-kind-of-loving) After they sleep together, Ingrid becomes pregnant. Vic, feeling a sense of responsibility although he is not really in love with her, proposes marriage.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kind_of_loving) The couple is forced to live with Ingrid's mother, Mrs. Rothwell, who treats Vic with contempt because of his working-class background.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kind_of_loving)\n\nIngrid's miscarriage leaves Vic bitter that he married her; lashed by acid remarks from his mother-in-law, he runs away.[6](https://search.alexanderstreet.com/preview/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C3157925) The film ends with Vic deciding what his new wife means to him, in what one account calls a tentatively hopeful climax in which the operative word in the title is \"kind\".[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kind_of_loving) • [3](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2022/07/a-kind-of-loving/)\n\n## Production\n\nSchlesinger received Barstow's book from producer Joseph Janni while on a skiing holiday, read it on the mountain, and wrote from the resort asking for the chance to direct it. Janni, who had earlier considered the project for Jack Lee, required Schlesinger first to direct an eight-minute screen test of the then-unknown [Tom Courtenay](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-courtenay), shown to the Boulting Brothers to establish that the film could be entrusted to him.[10](https://historyproject.org.uk/interview/john-schlesinger)\n\nThe film was shot and set in Manchester, with location filming in the north west of England including atmospheric railway shots around Bolton and Oldham and a freight sequence in [Macclesfield](https://www.edgepedia.org/macclesfield).[2](https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/a-kind-of-loving/) • [11](https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/a-kind-of-loving/) The shooting script, amended in November 1961, survives in Schlesinger's papers at the National Archives.[12](https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/download/GB%201456%20SCHLESINGER)\n\n## Censorship and reception\n\nThe film's frank treatment of sex drew attention at release. *The Daily Cinema* highlighted its \"provocatively uninhibited sex scenes, salty humour\", and *Kinematograph Weekly* described it as \"devastatingly and entertainingly\" mirroring life in the so-called \"affluent state\".[13](https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/42539/1/2013AhmedMPhD.pdf) In the United States it was rated X for a precedent-setting condom-buying scene in which Bates's character, finding the pharmacist is a woman, comes away with a bottle of laxative instead.[14](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1996/05/26/john-schlesinger-up-on-the-farm/18bf7586-fc14-477b-a942-4f69f2cc30b2/)\n\nCritics have placed the film within the British New Wave and the \"kitchen sink\" tradition of social realism, alongside *Saturday Night and Sunday Morning* (1960) and *This Sporting Life* (1963).[15](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-kitchen-sink-drama) The Watershed cinema program argued that a tenderness sets it apart from many of the \"grim up North\" films of the late 1950s and early 1960s: Vic is not an angry young man rebelling against anything, and the film follows both characters' attempt to find happiness.[9](https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/7346/a-kind-of-loving) Schlesinger himself described the film as being about \"the emotional story of lives and compromise and the illusion of being in love\".[10](https://historyproject.org.uk/interview/john-schlesinger)\n\nThe film has also attracted formal criticism. The film scholar Victor Perkins objected to a particular camera movement in the film, arguing it destroyed the relationship between the décor and the action, and Andrew Higson raised concerns over narrative interruption; B. F. Taylor's study of the British New Wave devotes a chapter to these criticisms.[16](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/british-new-wave/critical-forest/1E14E8DF4AC5A724C132F0DB3F00A521)\n\n## Adaptation differences and later versions\n\nThe film operates through exclusion relative to Barstow's novel. In the book, Vic's growing disdain for popular culture, exemplified by commercial television, is accompanied by a growing taste for classical music, and he leaves his job as a draughtsman to work in Van Huyten's music shop; the film removes this aspect and concentrates on the storyline of unwanted pregnancy, forced marriage, and the mother-in-law character.[4](https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/documents/entertext012/Dave-Ellis-Swinging-Realism-The-Strange-Case-of-To-Sir-With-Love-and-Up-the-Junction.pdf)\n\nBarstow's story continued on television. An ITV series, also titled *A Kind of Loving*, ran on Sundays in 1982 for ten episodes, with [Clive Wood](https://www.edgepedia.org/clive-wood) as Vic Brown, Joanne Whalley as Ingrid, and [Susan Penhaligon](https://www.edgepedia.org/susan-penhaligon) as Donna Pennyman; its episodes carried dates running from 1957 to October 1973.[17](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/42897/a-kind-of-loving)\n\nA new digital restoration, funded by [StudioCanal](https://www.edgepedia.org/studiocanal) in collaboration with the BFI's Unlocking Film Heritage program (awarding funds from the National Lottery), was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and EST on 1 August 2016 with documentary extras, and screened in the Cinema Rediscovered season that year.[3](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2022/07/a-kind-of-loving/) • [9](https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/7346/a-kind-of-loving) The film returned to theaters in a further restoration, with a US rerelease on 7 April 2017.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kind_of_loving)\n\n## References\n\n1. [A Kind of Loving, BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-a-kind-of-loving-1962-online)\n2. [A Kind Of Loving, Vintage Classics (StudioCanal)](https://vintageclassicsfilm.co.uk/movies/a-kind-of-loving/)\n3. [A Kind of Loving – Studiocanal: Review, Blueprint: Review](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2022/07/a-kind-of-loving/)\n4. [Dave Ellis, 'Swinging Realism: The Strange Case of To Sir, With Love and Up the Junction', EnterText 1.2](https://www.brunel.ac.uk/creative-writing/research/entertext/documents/entertext012/Dave-Ellis-Swinging-Realism-The-Strange-Case-of-To-Sir-With-Love-and-Up-the-Junction.pdf)\n5. [A Kind of Loving Tickets & Showtimes, Fandango](https://www.fandango.com/a-kind-of-loving-105226/movie-overview)\n6. [A Kind Of Loving (1962): Continuity script, Alexander Street](https://search.alexanderstreet.com/preview/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C3157925)\n7. [A Kind Of Loving, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/36236/kind-of-loving)\n8. [A Kind of Loving, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kind_of_loving)\n9. [A Kind of Loving, Watershed, Bristol](https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/7346/a-kind-of-loving)\n10. [Interview with John Schlesinger, British Entertainment History Project](https://historyproject.org.uk/interview/john-schlesinger)\n11. [A KIND OF LOVING, British Railway Movie Database](https://railwaymoviedatabase.com/a-kind-of-loving/)\n12. [John Schlesinger papers, The National Archives](https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/download/GB%201456%20SCHLESINGER)\n13. [Corrupted, Tormented and Damned: Robert Hartford-Davis and British Exploitation Cinema of the 1960s, UEA](https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/42539/1/2013AhmedMPhD.pdf)\n14. [John Schlesinger, Up on the Farm, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1996/05/26/john-schlesinger-up-on-the-farm/18bf7586-fc14-477b-a942-4f69f2cc30b2/)\n15. [Where to begin with kitchen sink drama, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-kitchen-sink-drama)\n16. [B. F. Taylor, 'The critical forest', The British New Wave, Manchester University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/british-new-wave/critical-forest/1E14E8DF4AC5A724C132F0DB3F00A521)\n17. [A Kind of Loving, TVmaze](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/42897/a-kind-of-loving)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1960 to 1965*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/a-kind-of-loving", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/a-kind-of-loving.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"A Kind of Loving\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/a-kind-of-loving. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[A Kind of Loving](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-kind-of-loving)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/a-kind-of-loving](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-kind-of-loving). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"A Kind of Loving\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/a-kind-of-loving. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "A Kind of Loving is a 1962 British kitchen-sink drama, John Schlesinger's feature debut, adapted from Stan Barstow's novel." }