The Naked Civil Servant (film) The Naked Civil Servant (film) The Naked Civil Servant is a 1975 biographical film based on Quentin Crisp's 1968 book of the same name, starring John Hurt and directed by Jack Gold, adapted by Philip Mackie, and produced by Verity Lambert. Originally broadcast on 17 December, the 77-minute television film was produced by Thames Television for the British channel ITV. Crisp is depicted from youth to middle age. For his performance, Hurt won the BAFTA for Best Actor in 1976 and the production also won the 1976 Prix Italia. In 1976, it was shown on US channel WOR-TV and later
Naked Lunch because it was based on an earlier 1958 manuscript in Allen Ginsberg's possession. The article "the" in the title was never intended by the author, but added by the editors of the Olympia Press 1959 edition. Nonetheless "The Naked Lunch" remained the title used for the 1968 and 1974 Corgi Books editions, and the novel is often known by the alternative name, especially in the UK where these editions circulated. Burroughs states in his introduction that Jack Kerouac suggested the title. "The title means exactly what the words say: "naked" lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on