Lewis Gilbert film versions of Willy Russell's plays "Educating Rita" (1983) and "Shirley Valentine" (1989). Gilbert also directed the film "Stepping Out" (1991). Gilbert was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1997 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry. In 2001, Gilbert was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute, the highest accolade in the British film industry. In June 2010 he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Desert Island Discs". In it he said that his 1970 film "The Adventurers" was a disaster, and that he should never have made it. On
Blood and Gifts Blood and Gifts Blood and Gifts is a play by the American playwright J. T. Rogers. Its subject is the struggle for control of Afghanistan during the 1980s, from the American, Soviet, British, Pakistani, and secular Afghan points of view. It premiered in September 2010 at the Lyttelton Theatre, starring Lloyd Owen. The play was originally shorter and in one act. That version, now withdrawn, was presented in 2009 as part of "". In 1981 Central Intelligence Agency operative Jim Warnock arrives in Peshawar as station chief, accidentally meeting his Soviet counterpart Gromov at the airport. He and his MI6