Editing John Osborne (section)

=== 1970s and later life ===
John Osborne's plays in the 1970s included ''West of Suez,'' starring [[Ralph Richardson]]; 1975's ''The End of Me Old Cigar''; and ''Watch It Come Down'', starring [[Frank Finlay]].<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=382-83}}.</ref> Theatre historian [[Phyllis Hartnoll]] wrote that Osborne's work of this period "failed to enhance his reputation": his fellow playwright [[Alan Bennett]] recalled "frozen embarrassment" at the premiere of ''Watch It Come Down'', though [[Richard Ellmann]], reviewing an early performance, noticed unintentional audience laughter.<ref name = "Hartnoll">{{cite book |last=Hartnoll |first=Phyllis |year=1993 |title=The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=363 |isbn=978-0-192-82574-2}}</ref><ref name = "BadJohn">{{cite news|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v03/n22/alan-bennett/bad-john|title=Bad John|date=3 December 1981|accessdate=23 March 2023|author=Bennett, Alan|newspaper=London Review of Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/21/archives/osbornes-latest-slang-bash-fizzle.html | work=The New York Times | title=Osborne's Latest — Slang, Bash, Fizzle | first=Richard | last=Ellmann | date=21 March 1976 | access-date=23 March 2023}}</ref>

Perhaps his most harshly received work from this era was ''A Sense of Detachment'' (1972), which has no plot and features a scene where an elderly lady recites at length from a [[hardcore pornography|hardcore porn]] catalogue. Part of the play involves actors planted in the audience pretending to protest, though after this began to trigger actual heckling, actress [[Rachel Kempson]] leapt into the stalls and assaulted some of the troublemakers in a much publicised incident. A representative review in the ''[[Financial Times]]'' declared, "This must surely be an end to his career in the theatre".<ref name = "Hartnoll" /><ref name = "BadJohn" /><ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|p=142}}.</ref><ref name="Heilpern Guardian">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2006/apr/29/theatre.biography |work=The Guardian |location=London |title=A sense of failure |date=29 April 2006 |access-date=7 May 2010 |author=John Heilpern}}</ref>

During that decade Osborne played the role of gangster Cyril Kinnear in ''[[Get Carter]]'' (1971).<ref name="wake" /><ref name="screenonline">{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/452881/credits.html|title=Osborne, John (1929-1994): Film and TV Credits {{!}} Screenonline|website=www.screenonline.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2023-04-19}}</ref> Later, he appeared in ''[[Tomorrow Never Comes]]'' (1978) and ''[[Flash Gordon (film)|Flash Gordon]]'' (1980).<ref name="screenonline" />

Osborne's later public image differed from his 'angry young man' persona of the 1950s. From 1986, Osbourne and his wife Helen lived at [[The Hurst]], near [[Clunton]] in rural [[Shropshire]].<ref name = "Schmidt">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/27/obituaries/john-osborne-british-playwright-dies-at-65.html | work=The New York Times | title=John Osborne, British Playwright, Dies at 65 | first=William E. | last=Schmidt | date=27 December 1994 | access-date=25 March 2023}}</ref> Increasingly his life resembled that of an old-fashioned country gentleman.<ref name=":6">Heilpern p.1</ref> He wrote a diary for conservative British magazine ''[[The Spectator]]'', a publication that when young he had been contemptuous of.<ref name=":7">''Times'' obituary, 27 December 1994</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1957|p=65}}.</ref> He raised money for the local church roof by opening his garden to the public, and threatened to withdraw funding for this unless the vicar restored the [[Book of Common Prayer]] (Osborne had returned to the [[Church of England]] in about 1974).<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|loc=Chapter 45}}</ref> [[Ferdinand Mount]] draws a contrast between this devotion to Anglican ritual and the opening of ''Look Back in Anger'', with Jimmy Porter railing against the sound of church bells.<ref name="mount">{{cite news| url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/looking-back-in-judgment/ | work=The Spectator | location=London | title=Looking back in judgment | first=Ferdinand | last=Mount | author-link=Ferdinand Mount | date=6 May 2006 | access-date=23 March 2023}}</ref> In 2003 the Osbourne's residence was opened as a residential retreat for writers by the [[Arvon Foundation]].<ref name=BBC03>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/culture/writestuff/2003/02/hurst.shtml|archive-url=|title=Poet laureate to visit new writing centre|date=February 2003|work=BBC News|accessdate=11 October 2024|archivedate=}}</ref>

In the last two decades of his life Osborne published two volumes of [[autobiography]], ''[[A Better Class of Person]]'' (1981) and ''Almost a Gentleman'' (1991). Reviewing the first of these books, Alan Bennett wrote, "It is immensely enjoyable, is written with great gusto and Osborne has had better notices for it than for any of his plays since ''Inadmissible Evidence''."<ref name = "BadJohn" /> ''A Better Class of Person'' was filmed by [[Thames Television]] in 1985, featuring [[Eileen Atkins]] and [[Alan Howard (actor)|Alan Howard]] as his parents, and Gary Capelin and [[Neil McPherson (artistic director)|Neil McPherson]] as Osborne.<ref name = "O'Connor">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/25/arts/tv-reviews-better-class-of-person-by-john-osborne-on-13.html | work=New York Times | title=TV Reviews; 'Better Class of Person by John Osborne, on 13 | first=John J. | last=O'Connor | date=25 March 1987 | access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref> It was nominated for the [[Prix Italia]]. 

Osborne's last play was ''[[Déjàvu]]'' (1992), a sequel to ''Look Back in Anger''. Various of his newspaper and magazine writings appeared in a collection entitled ''Damn You, England'' (1994),<ref name=":8">{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/book-review-betes-noires-in-steaming-herds-damn-you-england-collected-prose-john-osborne-faber-14-99-pounds-1372157.html | work=The Independent | title=Betes noires in steaming herds | first=Paul | last=Taylor | date=23 April 1994 | access-date=28 April 2023}}</ref> while his two autobiographical volumes were reissued as ''Looking Back – Never Explain, Never Apologise'' (1999).<ref name="mount" />