The recent death of Shelagh Delaney (A TASTE OF HONEY, A LION IN LOVE) reminded us of the role kitchen sink dramas began to play in raising, exploring and confronting social and political issues in Britain in the late 1950s.

John Osborne’s LOOK BACK IN ANGER (1956) with its cramped setting and tirade against the mediocrity of middle-class English life was, if not the first, certainly the one that established the importance of the genre in popular culture. It is said that the audience gasped when, for the first time, they actually saw an ironing board on the stage!!

How times have changed now that the genre is so widely used across theatre, television and film. Take a look at a range of ‘kitchen sink’ and ‘angry young men’ images from first runs, original film stills and more contemporary productions.

Click Here to take a look at ArenaPAL's our Kitchen Sink Realism archive

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