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Underrated Play Fsor Todays

Started by itsfredtitmus, September 17, 2021, 10:14:07 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

itsfredtitmus

What is in your opinion an underrated Tlay 4 Poday?

itsfredtitmus

Trevor Griffiths can cast my children and have them fuck me for all I care. Legend

itsfredtitmus

Listen, if it's directed by Les Blair and WRITTEN by Trevor Griffiths just fuck me right there and then. THERE. Give me the p4t seed.

itsfredtitmus

I am of the opinion that everything Angels Are So few, Blue Remembered Hills, Joe Ark's & Treacle are better than Detective- more honest

Povidone

Abigail's Party is the only one I've seen. So that I suppose.

itsfredtitmus

Quote from: Povidone on September 17, 2021, 10:31:52 PM
Abigail's Party is the only one I've seen. So that I suppose.
Ever fucked it?

itsfredtitmus

I once fucked a Mike Leigh play but it just spewed cigarettes and RICHEY EDWARDS back to me. I'd fuck it again!

Povidone

Quote from: itsfredtitmus on September 17, 2021, 10:43:44 PM
Ever fucked it?

Had a wank over Alison Steadman. I feel that this is not the answer you are looking for.

elliszeroed

If anyone knows where I can find a copy of Angels Are So Few, please PM me. I've been looking for it for years!

sevendaughters

#9
The Hallelujah Handshake (1970) - written by Colin Welland, directed by Alan Clarke
Desperately underrated piece about a misfit who attaches himself to the local church and tells tall tales and seems desperate to work with kids. He seems harmless, people seem to know he's talking bollocks, and they all feel some sort of care for him - and then things go wrong. Brilliantly ambiguous piece: is he misunderstood, is he mentally ill, is he possibly a paedo? Really unsettling piece of work.

phes

Yeah that's a good'un. Recommended.

One of my favorites from that period, though it's not a lot of fun is Orkney. Three George Mackay Brown adaptations that are mostly about hardship and suffering of Orkney residents. A Time to Keep, The Whaler's Return and Celia. Celia in particular is excellent. I'm not sure how easy it is to find but I should have it somewhere, and will do what I can if it's wanted.

mothman

The Flipside of Dominick Hyde, and Another Flip for Dominick.

phes

Before Play for Today was The Wednesday Play. I guess most don't exist any more. Some of those that do were probably repeated for Play for Today. One that sticks in the mind and might pique interest here is The Gorge, something of a proto Nuts in May and latterly Sightseers.

Echo Valley 2-6809

Alan Bleasdale's Scully's New Year's Eve was a good one - it inspired the Channel 4 series six years later.

I think there's only a couple of incomplete extracts on youtube now - although the whole thing was part of that great selection that 'Cleops' uploaded before it was all zapped.

It isn't on the DVD so I guess a lot of people familiar with the series don't know about it.

sevendaughters

Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971) written by Jeremy Sandford, directed by Ted Kotcheff (who did First Blood and Wake in Fright!)

Patricia Hayes dominates in this thoroughly depressing drama as I guess what would be called a bag lady in less enlightened times. She goes from hostel to bridge to court to social project and always something prevents even a moment of stability. Sandford wrote Cathy Come Home but I think this is a more mature work with better acting and directing, and honestly will make you look at older homeless people differently.

sevendaughters

Quote from: mothman on September 17, 2021, 11:46:04 PM
The Flipside of Dominick Hyde, and Another Flip for Dominick.

have you seen any of the Play For Tomorrow strand that the success of this one inspired?

itsfredtitmus

Quote from: phes on September 17, 2021, 11:55:21 PM
Before Play for Today was The Wednesday Play. I guess most don't exist any more. Some of those that do were probably repeated for Play for Today. One that sticks in the mind and might pique interest here is The Gorge, something of a proto Nuts in May and latterly Sightseers.
i have this on dvd but for some reason ive never seen it! sounds so good like

Keep Smiling, from 1980, involved an ordinary suburban white-collar commuting man with a wife and kids succumbing slowly to paranoid schizophrenia.   It was very atmospheric and disturbing.

the science eel

The only ones I can think of are The Comedians and The Flipside of Dominick Hyde, both of which have already been mentioned. I watched them both recently and they're still really good. Not sure if Mike Leigh's Hard Labour was in the series but that's a treat - Liz Smith is impeccable, playing it incredibly subtly, and Clifford Kershaw as her whinge-bag husband is very funny.

'underrated', tho', I dunno....you have to be careful, because the more well-known/well-remembered ones (Edna, Abigail's Party) are the good ones. Go much deeper and there really isn't a lot of gold. Many feature some dreadful overacting, shaky sets, ridiculous scripts etc.

I'm looking at these BFI boxsets but neither of the two volumes seem worth the money. There might be two good plays on each one - not really worth shelling out 35 quid for. Maybe volume 3 will have some of the ones we've been talking about.

chveik


Neomod

I remember watching 'Oi For England' and thinking it was very niche. My niche at the time as it happens being a skinhead into Oi music. It was Trevor Griffiths but ITV so not a Play For Today it seems.

sevendaughters

Psy-Warriors is great. Really harsh to look at. Most of Clarke's Plays For Today/Screen Two works are killer.

Licking Hitler is a good one by David Hare (think he directed it too) about disinformation propaganda. Imagine it resonates quite nicely now, actually.

re: Neomod's recent post, I reckon this thread is fine for Armchair Theatre/Screen Two/Screen One etc.

Rizla

Elephant's Graveyard - the Peter McDougal one starring Jon Morrison and Billy Connolly that isn't Just Another Saturday (which would be a topical watch, given today is marching for cunts day - it's also got scenes filmed right outside my house as Im sure I've mentioned before). Anyway, a very enjoyable two-hander about a pair of lads skiving work and shooting the breeze.

Quote from: Neomod on September 18, 2021, 05:41:31 PM
I remember watching 'Oi For England' and thinking it was very niche. My niche at the time as it happens being a skinhead into Oi music. It was Trevor Griffiths but ITV so not a Play For Today it seems.

I remember that, vaguely.  The lead character us a skinhead.  He smashes a Job Centre window in one scene.  He somehow ends up in a long chat with some social-worker/university-lecturer-type middle class intellectual leftie.  It ends when he and a mate goes on a spree smashing windows at night.  He ends up arrested and at a police station.  It was shown in summer 1984, I think.

mothman

Quote from: sevendaughters on September 18, 2021, 10:44:33 AM
have you seen any of the Play For Tomorrow strand that the success of this one inspired?

I don't remember the title, and looking up the episode list doesn't ring any bells either. Round about Easter '82 it looks to have been on, I was 11 and at boarding school for some of that time period so TV watching was not something I got to do a lot of. That said, I remember being allowed to watch Harry's Game which I thought was on at about that same time period - but would actually have been on during the Autumn half term.

Ignatius_S

A little while ago, a friend recommended Just a Boys' Game - I think they had also watched a documentary about Frankie Miller, who starred in it and also had fulsome praise for it.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Echo Valley 2-6809 on September 18, 2021, 12:37:22 AM
Alan Bleasdale's Scully's New Year's Eve was a good one - it inspired the Channel 4 series six years later.

I think there's only a couple of incomplete extracts on youtube now - although the whole thing was part of that great selection that 'Cleops' uploaded before it was all zapped.

It isn't on the DVD so I guess a lot of people familiar with the series don't know about it.

I have a feeling that it was available on the ill-fated BBC Store - some Play For Todays certainly was. Sure it was on Mubi, but it's a shame it's not more easily available to be sure.

re: people not being aware of the connection with the series - I suspect that it depends on age. A couple of friends, who are a 'few' years older than me, were certainly knew it (but one has an encyclopaedic knowledge about British TV) but one (maybe both) didn't know that prior to Play for Today, there had been a stage play, which evolved from radio broadcasts.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: sevendaughters on September 18, 2021, 10:30:33 AM
Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971) written by Jeremy Sandford, directed by Ted Kotcheff (who did First Blood and Wake in Fright!)

Patricia Hayes dominates in this thoroughly depressing drama as I guess what would be called a bag lady in less enlightened times. She goes from hostel to bridge to court to social project and always something prevents even a moment of stability. Sandford wrote Cathy Come Home but I think this is a more mature work with better acting and directing, and honestly will make you look at older homeless people differently.

Yeah, it's an extraordinary work.

Hayes' character in The Lady Is a Tramp (early C4 sitcom penned by Johnny Speight) drew on her portrayal of Edna (to a degree, anyway).

Ignatius_S

Quote from: the science eel on September 18, 2021, 05:02:44 PM...'underrated', tho', I dunno....you have to be careful, because the more well-known/well-remembered ones (Edna, Abigail's Party) are the good ones. Go much deeper and there really isn't a lot of gold. Many feature some dreadful overacting, shaky sets, ridiculous scripts etc.

I'm looking at these BFI boxsets but neither of the two volumes seem worth the money. There might be two good plays on each one - not really worth shelling out 35 quid for. Maybe volume 3 will have some of the ones we've been talking about.

Anthology series often aren't all gravy - but even when PTF isn't firing on all cylinders, there's usually something of interest in them. Also, I'm not sure how reasonable to expect that television shows that are four decades plus old, will always stand the test of time. But in any case, this series has a fair bit of social historical interest and for me, it's interesting to compare with the state of the industry now.

re: box sets - they can be had for cheaper now and then. As for the contents, from various discussions I've seen, found it interesting to see the diversity of opinion in which ones are good and not so good -  much more than I was expecting.

Neomod

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on September 18, 2021, 06:08:11 PM
I remember that, vaguely.  The lead character us a skinhead.  He smashes a Job Centre window in one scene.  He somehow ends up in a long chat with some social-worker/university-lecturer-type middle class intellectual leftie.  It ends when he and a mate goes on a spree smashing windows at night.  He ends up arrested and at a police station.  It was shown in summer 1984, I think.

Nah, you could be thinking of Alan Clarke's Made in Britain. Came out the same year as Oi (82) so us skins felt very special indeed.