Patrick Kavanagh reflects on his time working as a film critic and a possible lost career in the media.

"...For a number of years I was a film critic. I attended the Irish Film Society shows of a Saturday, and wrote as enthusiastically as the next man ... and that was before I learnt the difficult art of not caring, of having the courage of one's feelings. But it didn't take me quite a while before it came out, the terrible disclosure, that what I thought of most of those foreign films, was what George III thought of Shakespeare, 'Poor stuff but one must not say so'..."

This episode of 'Self Portrait' featuring Patrick Kavanagh was broadcast on 30 October 1962.

The 'Self Portrait' series profiled writers, poets, actors and dramatists. Portraits in the series included Sylvia Beach, John B. Keane, Kate O'Brien, Louise Gavan Duffy, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Harry O'Donovan and Sam Thompson.

'Self-Portrait' was a series of intimate studio monologues with distinguished Irish men and women. It provided a unique opportunity to hear and see significant individuals presenting themselves in their own words and voices enriching their presentations with personal stories and examples of their work.

Kavanagh's script for this 'Self-Portrait' programme was later published by The Dolmen Press in 1964 © Patrick Kavanagh.

In 2004 to honour the centenary of Patrick Kavanagh's birth, RTE Libraries and Archives remastered this Self-Portrait programme. Later that year the programme was repackaged and rebroadcast 'The View Presents...' Tx 29 November 2004.

Extracts of Patrick Kavanagh's writings are published by kind permission of the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Trust.

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