Akenfield is a film made by Peter Hall in 1974, based loosely upon the book Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe (1969). Blythe himself has a cameo role as the vicar and all other parts are played by real-life villagers who improvised their own dialogue. There are no professional actors in the piece. Blythe's book is the distillation of interviews with local people. The film is a work of fiction, based on an 18-page story synopsis by Blythe.
Peter Hall's film Akenfield made use of a scene depicted in Thomas Bewick's 1797 A History of British Birds: a reaper finds he has just killed a partridge sitting on her nest.
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognising achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
Hall at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards, 2011
