This double bill showcases work from two of the UK’s major television drama anthologies: ITV’s Armchair Theatre and the BBC’s Play for Today. These long-running series transformed the British media landscape, providing regional screenwriters with a platform that allowed for social comment, creative experimentation and a space to tell local stories.
This screening will be preceded by Incompatible, a short film by Maxine Peake and Hayley Standing.
Land of Green Ginger (1973)
Director: Brian Parker/Actors: Gwen Taylor, John Flanagan, Jean Heywood
Faced with the prospect of being sent to work abroad, Sally Brown returns home from London to Hull to see if she still feels the same attachment for her hometown – and for her old boyfriend, Mike.
Hull-raised writer Alan Plater harnesses Sally’s homecoming narrative as a means of questioning notions of nostalgia and belonging in a changing north. His narrative is supplemented by traditional songs performed by local folk group The Watersons.
The Pity of It All (1966)
Dir Patrick Dromgoole/Actors: Billie Whitelaw, Nigel Stock, Ann Firbank
When Walter accidentally kills a young child while driving, he feels compelled to visit the child’s mother. An attraction draws them together, resulting in an affair that offers Walter some escape from the claustrophobia of his own marriage. Stan Barstow – the Yorkshire writer best known for his novel A Kind of Loving – produces a sensitive script which gives Billie Whitelaw the opportunity to shine. Her portrayal of Nancy, the grieving mother who finds herself implicated in Walter’s affair, is a superb performance of intelligence and dignity.
Plus/ This screening will be preceded by Incompatible, a short film by Maxine Peake and Hayley Standing.