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PLay for Today, returning to our screens this week after four decades, was a genuine national institution when it first aired in Britain between 1970 and 1984. The line-up of single films alternately captivated the nation and offered powerful, impassioned critiques of the biggest issues of the day with a mix of state-of-the-art, socialist-realist dramas. Take Ken Loach’s kathy come homeAbout a young couple whose lives are affected by poverty, or a highly controversial prison drama Scum. There were also colourful, sometimes satirical pictures of British life (by Mike Leigh). abigail’s party being the most notable). The films weren’t afraid to highlight offbeat trends, as bottom foam – A magical-realist coming-of-age story laced with folk horror.
In many cases the dramas, created by and starring working-class talent – most of whom were sourced from the BBC’s former regional outpost at Pebble Mill in Birmingham – gave a platform to under-represented voices, establishing the likes of Dennis Potter and Alan Bleasdale. Journalist and author Phil Harrison says, “Play for Today was a place to be experimental at the center of the mainstream.” The age of static: how TV explains modern Britain“And a lot of it was really ahead of its time – something like bottom foamFor example, both in terms of format and subject matter. I like the idea that people look at these quite dark, quite difficult things and create what-nots. It sounds like appropriately adventurous public service broadcasting.
What exactly is “reasonably adventurous public service broadcasting”? channel 5 is hoping to repeat that with its new revival, with four original dramas set to air in the coming weeks and more in the pipeline. It also aims to bring diversity to the often quaint, middle-class TV industry, where it’s more important who you know than how good you are. “UK drama is in a crisis at the moment,” says Sebastian Cardwell, Channel 5’s head of drama and deputy head of content at its parent company Paramount. “You need a credit on your CV, and if you come from a low income or disadvantaged background, it’s incredibly difficult to get into [the industry]We thought we’d use the Play for Today comeback series to give people a chance to showcase their talents,” The idea was conceived after a conversation with Alan Niblo of Vertigo Films, with the first four films made by London-based Vertigo and Liverpool-based LA Productions (each company made two films respectively),
Born in 1993 – nine years after Play for Today’s final broadcast – screenwriter Martha Watson Allpress was not around to see the first incarnation of the TV universe. “I was like, Oh, I just got this email – this is interesting,” she says, recalling the moment she was asked to take part in its revival. “My mom was saying, Oh my God! I knew it was a big deal when she got a little giddy with excitement.” Watson AllPress gets to work right away big winner, One of the first dramas in the new series, about an elderly couple whose £14 million lottery win sparks conversations between them about deep trauma and buried ambitions.
Watson Allpress dominated the theater with plays such as the acclaimed Patricia agreed (for a date with the man who used to beat her)so big winners This marks his transition into television. As a playwright, having her first TV project snatched away in this way “felt really serendipitous”, she says. However, he resisted the urge to head straight to the vast collection and begin taking notes. “If I did that, I’d miss the people I admire again. But I guess the whole point of writing a play Today.”
big winners Tells the story of Arthur and Edith Thistle (Paul Copley and Sue Johnson), who should be enjoying his huge lottery windfall – in fact, Arthur immediately announces that he wants to go “somewhere classy, somewhere sunny – with a Waitrose”. Instead, they find themselves striving for their unfulfilled dreams, especially Edith’s. Her life has been “a domino run of dissatisfaction”, as Watson Allpress poetically puts it, and the film juxtaposes her stymied existence with the crucial presence of a young neighbor, Jade (Alexa Davis). What does Watson Allpress think its article says about the current moment? “My opinion is that the world is a really scary place [right now]And it can feel very messy and overwhelming”, she says.[You can feel like] I, as an individual, can’t possibly do anything about it – so I won’t do anything. big winners It’s about not making decisions and letting someone else guide your life, and that’s probably worse than being wrong and strong.
The author, originally from Sleaford, Lincolnshire, was keen to set her film in a similar environment. “There’s a misconception that if you’re from a small town, you have small dreams. And that’s not true.”
Watson Allpress was also keen to write older heroes in a way that gave them agency and intrigue; Johnston (best known as royal family matriarch Barbara) and Copley (who starred in Downton Abbey, and was in the last seven Play for Today films) are 81 and 80 respectively. When he began work on the script, he had just completed organizing a program with older writers ranging from the seventies to the mid-nineties. She says, “I was really stunned to see older writers writing older characters. No one wrote about grandparents.” “I really wanted to center an older woman here, because I think it’s a forgotten demographic on screen. And then we got Sue Johnston, and I lost my mind!” If the female writer and director of Play for Today 1.0 can often be ignoredWatson Allpress is certainly center stage here, along with his octogenarian lead and a female director, Emma Turner.
The brief focused on producing a contained story, something that Watson Allpress used to describe as a “pressure cooker” atmosphere. big winnersThis is a trend that continues through the films (special measures is set in a failing school, never too late in a chaotic retirement home), but which perhaps reaches its most stressful peak A knock on the door, It is described by its makers as a “ticking bomb strain”. A meditation on cancel culture, alan davis Nikki Amuka-Bird plays disgraced actor Lenny Bray (NW, small island) as his loyal but increasingly troubled wife Maggie, who stands by him amid allegations of inappropriate behavior from several women. Newcomer Logan Marsh gives a performance to rival his more famous co-stars, as the delivery driver who is attacked outside the couple’s beautiful, gorgeous design-gets home and comes to them begging for help (spoiler alert: he’s not a delivery driver).
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In a post-#MeToo landscape that often seems disappointingly unchanged, a knock at the door The resonance is clear. “I’ve always been very fascinated by – and sadly these stories have become very common now – the abuse of that power by celebrities or politicians or people in power,” says Amuka-Bird. “One of the strongest tools they have for claiming their innocence is their spouse, and the fact that they stand with them. I was thrilled by this story, and [the sense of]: ‘How are you still there?’ Maggie has a beautiful life and there are things she is not ready to give up. So perhaps she keeps convincing herself of Lenny’s innocence.
“The more diverse your stories are, the more diverse your audience is – everyone wins. I just felt like, everyone is doing it for the right reasons.”
Martha Watson Allpress
a knock at the door It was written by novelist David Whitehouse, and directed by Daniel Rands, the latter of whom had previously received scholarships from the BBC and the National Film and Television School. “I’d seen Dan’s work and I knew his ability to withstand stress,” says Amuka-Bird. “I’m always interested in work that has that kind of visceral quality – it engages you intellectually, but it also makes the hairs on the back of your arms stand up.”
There really is a rawness to all the films – even never too late, Soap tragicomedy from Lydia Merchant and Simon Warne about a glamorous, rebellious widow, played by Anita Dobson, who reunites with an old flame in the mid-seventies, played by Nigel Havers. special measuresMeanwhile – written by Lee Thompson – is a short, sharp, flick of a play that takes aim squarely at a broken, underfunded state school system, as Ofsted inspections unravel and teachers begin to consider leaving the profession altogether. One hungry student even asked her teacher if she could take her class snack home for dinner. One need not reach for hyperbole to find the horror, but rather trace it into the scenes playing out in schools across the country.
“Diversity schemes” of any kind can be used to provide participants with new fuel for the media machine – to be chewed up and spat out, be it TV, film, journalism or any other industry where such initiatives take place. For Watson Allpress, their Play for Today experience couldn’t have been more different. She was impressed by what TV executive Cardwell said during a recent screening of the plays and how excited Channel 5 was to broadcast them. And there is benefit from every side. “It’s a two-way street,” she says. “The more diverse your stories are, the more diverse your audience is – everyone wins. I just felt like, everyone is doing it for the right reasons.”
As far as the future of Play for Today is concerned, the current, highly conflicted moment in both Britain and the world will certainly inspire more writers; In fact, like the original, it certainly has a lot to say about race and identity in particular. Watson of Allpress sees it as a springboard that could well launch the writers’ TV careers for years to come. “It should be like national service,” she laughs. “We must bring forward all working-class writers.”
Play for Today airs on Channel 5 from 13 November