Bates was handpicked by director John Schlesinger (with whom he had previously worked on "A Kind of Loving" and "Far From The Madding Crowd") to play the starring role of Dr. Daniel Hirsh in the film "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (1971). Bates was held up filming "The Go-Between" (1971) for director Joseph Losey alongside Christie, and had also become a father around that time, and so he had to refuse the role. (The part then went first to Ian Bannen, who balked at kissing and simulating sex with another man, and then to Peter Finch who earned an Academy Award nomination for the role.)