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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 22, 2016 18:25:40 GMT
We mentioned the BBC's long running series of tv plays in the Boys From The Black Stuff thread, ( 'The Black Stuff' being a PFT that the series sprang from, much like The Sweeney was born out of ITV's Armchair Cinema's 'Regan' ), so I thought it would be good to create a thread discussing PFT's and tv plays in general ( Armchair Theatre, Armchair Cinema, The Wednesday Play, Village Hall, Plays For Britain, etc. ). There are over 300 PFT's, most of which aren't on dvd or youtube, plus sites like TV Cream have covered the series in detail, so I think it would be best to keep the thread loose & draw people's attention to some of the more interesting plays that are available. It goes without saying that anyone is welcome to contribute memories, reviews, etc., please don't think of it as 'Arthur Pringle's thread' The BBC shop has over 30 to download including 'Joe's Ark' which features Dennis Waterman. I bought one the other day, you can either stream them or download them using a downloader that you're required to install. I was quite disappointed with the quality ( the site doesn't give any info re size of file, etc. ) but they are an improvement over the copies on youtube. The Fishing Party ( first broadcast 1st June 1972 )
This is the first of a trilogy of comic plays written by Peter Terson featuring 3 naive Yorkshire miners played by Brian Glover, Ray Mort & Douglas Livingstone. The second is 'Shakespeare Or Bust' & the final one is 'Three For The Fancy'. In The Fishing Party, the trio, described as 'idiots at large' on the TV Cream listing, take off for the weekend to Whitby for a fishing trip & a stay in a B&B. In Shakespeare Or Bust they take a canal boat down to Stratford hoping to see a Shakespeare play & in 'Three For The Fancy', currently the one play of the 3 that isn't available to watch, they exhibit pets ( a rabbit, mouse & guinea pig ) in Bradford Championship Show. I've seen both The Fishing Party & Shakespeare Or Bust and they are wonderful. A pity Three For The Fancy is not around as it sounds the most ridiculous of the three.
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Post by Gene Hunt on Sept 22, 2016 19:09:28 GMT
On of the PFT's that always springs to the forefront of my mind was the excellent Kisses At Fifty, which starred Bill Maynard & Rosemarie Dunham (Edna from Get Carter) along with a few other Sweeney faces like Marjorie Yates.
Written by yet another Sweeney face, Tober himself - Colin Welland, it tells the story of a fifty year old factory worker (Maynard) who leaves his wife after many years for another woman.
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be on youtube any more but if you can find it, give it a go as it is very good.
Gene.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Sept 23, 2016 11:56:15 GMT
I remember The Fishing Party when it was first on, never seen it since, thought it was very good. Another brilliant entry in this series was Mike Leigh's Nuts in May. That is just superb, Roger Sloman as Keith with Alison Steadman as Candice Marie. Ive shown it my 9 year old son, who loved it too. Every time Mrs Cartman tells him to get on with his homework or whatever, he likens her to Keith!
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Post by Steve Austin on Sept 23, 2016 11:58:10 GMT
I remember The Fishing Party when it was first on, never seen it since, thought it was very good. Another brilliant entry in this series was Mike Leigh's Nuts in May. That is just superb, Roger Sloman as Keith with Alison Steadman as Candice Marie. Ive shown it my 9 year old son, who loved it too. Every time Mrs Cartman tells him to get on with his homework or whatever, he likens her to Keith! Seen it too Cartman, brilliant. Love Alison Steadman's accent in that, totally different to how she is in Gavin & Stacey and made me realise that she is a good actress. I haven't seen many of these but I do remember that one, good call mate
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 23, 2016 12:41:33 GMT
There are couple of short clips of Kisses At Fifty on yt, like Gene says it's a memorable play with Maynard, previously well known as a comic performer, giving a great performance.
Nuts In May is indeed superb. The League Of Gentlemen borrowed quite a bit from the Roger Sloman character. Two Sweeney faces in that one- Sloman & Anthony O'Donnell from 'Trust Red'. The farmer in Nuts In May is played by Alec Guinness's son. A lesser known Mike Leigh PFT is 'Hard Labour', not much humour in this one focussing as it does on the miserable existence of a cleaning lady ( the character was based on Mike Leigh's cleaning lady apparently ) played by The Royle Family's Liz Smith. Her unpleasant husband is played by Clifford Kershaw & contrasts with his more sympathetic role in 'Loving Arms'. Kershaw was in a few Leigh plays, in his day job he was a market stall trader & Conservative councillor.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 24, 2016 20:46:18 GMT
Comedians ( first broadcast 25th Oct 1979 )
Several Sweeney faces in this play by Trevor Griffiths- Derrick O'Connor, James Warrior, Linal ( 'Eeeasy' ) Haft & Edward Peel ( Lennie in 'Bait' ). Originally a stage play that later transfered to Broadway where it was directed by Mike Nichols ( director of the film 'The Graduate' ), Comedians was a staple 70's play & is still performed to this day. Apparently Griffiths got the idea for the play after talking to some of the stand ups on ITV's 'The Comedians'. A few of the cast of the PFT version were in the original theatre production, including Jellineck.
According to BFI Screenonline, the play was moved from the usual 9.25pm slot to 10.10pm due to BBC concern over the use of swearwords.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 26, 2016 18:29:02 GMT
Kisses At Fifty ( originally broadcast 22nd Jan 1973 ) Written by Colin Welland & one of 6 PFT's directed by Michael Apted, perhaps best known for the series of documentaries charting the lives of 7 people that began in 1964 with "Seven Up!" & has continued since every 7 years, also the director of 'The Squeeze', the crime drama written by 'Minder' creator Leon Griffiths. Kisses At Fifty was remade as a 1985 film, 'Twice In A Lifetime' starring Gene Hackman in Bill Maynard's role. Colin Welland wrote 4 other PFT's- The Hallelujah Handshake ( 1970 ) directed by Alan Clarke & available on the recent Clarke BFI blu ray boxset, is the story of a lonely man who insinuates himself into a local church community & causes unrest. Leeds United ( 1974 ) is the true story of an unofficial strike by female textile workers who were in protest against their union who rejected their request for equal pay with their male co-workers. Welland's mother in law was amoungst those who striked & he interviewed other women involved before writing the play. The subject proved too controversial for Granada tv who were originally offered it. Jack Point ( 1973 ) Your Man From Six Counties ( 1976 ) www.veoh.com/watch/v111351944shQZ4txc
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Sept 26, 2016 22:09:59 GMT
Enjoying this thread so far. Nice one for setting it up Arthur Play For Today really is a fine body of work over, such high standards over many years. Its great to see them being discovered and some being made available. I love finding old telly of interest, as I'm more at home watching that kind of stuff than new offerings.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 27, 2016 0:18:35 GMT
Cheers Del Btw, if anyone's considering buying any of the PFT's from the BBC shop, they can be streamed but if you want to download them you have no choice but to install their downloader which I discovered after buying only works with Windows 8 & above. I'm on XP & when I try installing I get an error message. Also as I mentioned earlier the quality isn't that good, below is a screencap from the play I bought, as you can see it doesn't fill the screen. The play is a 'A Photograph', two Sweeney wives are in it- Carter's missus & Philip Budd's neurotic wife from 'Queens Pawn' & funnily enough it's directed by none other than Gene's old man John Glenister! He directed 3 PFT's & also a 'Play For Tomorrow' which were 6 sci-fi plays made in 1982. There's a few Play For Tomorrow's on youtube.
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Sept 27, 2016 9:46:08 GMT
The quality must be because of the fairly low budget nature of the tv production. I would assume that these were regarded as having a limited life, maybe repeated once or twice. They must of looked fine when broadcast but effectively after the years of storage they now look like a VHS playback.
That said I'm glad if anything survives from back then and i think that technology will exist in the future to improve things. To improve this kind of thing will probably be down to individuals because companies won't do it unless they can make money off them.
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