The Making of Michael Radford’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) – John Hurt, Richard Burton & O

Released in the year it was set (and shot in the times and settings depicted), Michael Radford’s film of George Orwell’s 1949 novel starred John Hurt as Winston Smith, Suzanna Hamilton as Julia and, in his last movie role, Richard Burton as O’Brien. David Ryan, author of George Orwell on Screen, talks about the production’s speedy and sometimes troubled development, which continued after its release when the studio replaced the score with a Eurythmics soundtrack, to the enormous annoyance of writer-director Radford and his producer.