Benjamin Britten the apex of his reputation: it was almost universally hailed as a masterpiece." Shostakovich told Rostropovich that he believed it to be "the greatest work of the twentieth century". In 1967 the BBC commissioned Britten to write an opera specially for television. "Owen Wingrave" was based, like "The Turn of the Screw", on a ghost story by Henry James. By the 1960s Britten found composition much slower than in his prolific youth; he told the 28-year-old composer Nicholas Maw, "Get as much done now as you can, because it gets much, much more difficult as you grow older." He did
The Turn of the Screw (2009 film) or "suppurate[d] in evil", found it "never less than absorbing", suspecting this would be particularly so for viewers unfamiliar with the story. "The Daily Telegraph"s Simon Horsford felt that "The Turn of the Screw" "might not work on all levels but it is an unsettling interpretation nonetheless". By contrast, Tom Sutcliffe, writing in "The Independent", was unimpressed with the film, considering James's novel to have been "comprehensively vandalised", while Richard Whittaker, writing in "The Austin Chronicle", felt that the film was "a particular and peculiar misfire" from Welch. "The Turn of the Screw" was chosen as "pick of the day"