Up against it - Joe Orton

Up Against It was originally commissioned for the Beatles as the film to follow Help. But they reckoned without Joe Orton’s predilection for outrageous black farce. ‘The boys, in my script,’ he wrote, ‘have been caught in-flagrante, become involved in dubious political activity, dressed as women, committed murder, been put in prison and committed adultery.’

The Beatles never made the film, but the screenplay survives, alongside Loot, What the Butler Saw, Entertaining Mr Sloane and Orton’s other plays, as yet another testament to his extraordinary talent.

The story behind the writing of Up Against It – Orton’s bizarre encounters with the Beatles’ entourage, and his death on the very morning he was due to discuss the filming – is recounted in the introduction by John Lahr, author of Orton’s biography, Prick Up Your Ears.