If the studio didn’t care or lacked the vision to see the long-term effects of their stereotypical casting, Bogarde knew that when his looks faded, so would the idol image. Longevity as an actor lay in mature roles: ‘Larking around as a fallen priest with Ava Gardner is all very well when you are still a young man. But when you are turning forty you do want to do slightly more serious things.’ (The Evening Standard quoted in Morley, 91)

When Films and Filming asked him to comment on significant trends in filmmaking between 1954 and 1963, his answer mirrored his own quest for the type of roles he wanted to play: ‘The general emergence, consolidation and public acceptance of a new trend in the cinema, guided by people like Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz, Bryan Forbes, Tony Richardson, Walter Lassally, and Joe Losey and others. I admire these films made by director-technicians, films concerned with the human elements more than the “fairy story” of British “family films”. I should be happy to see British films consolidate their position of today with new young directors and technicians, their production far removed from the influence of the film “tycoon” and “front office” interference, which is already fifteen years out of date.’ (January 1963, 36)