Channel 5 and the audacious heist of BBC's Play For Today
Announcing the new initiative at the weekend, 5's Commissioning Editor Paul Testar said: 'Play for Today is synonymous with high quality stand-alone television dramas and we're incredibly excited to be reviving it with a new slate of single films. What makes this particularly important for us as a public service broadcaster is the opportunity to support emerging talent behind the scenes – from writers and directors to production teams, especially those from lower-income backgrounds who haven't always had clear pathways into the industry. It's a chance to tell great stories while helping to shape the future of British drama.'
No arguments there. Put like that it makes you wonder why the BBC ever canned the series in the first place – and exactly what the panjandrums at Broadcasting House make of 5's cheeky re-boot and their co-opting of one of the best regarded 'brands' in British television history. For the record, Play For Today ran between 1970 and 1984 but also encompasses a slew of television dramas from its 1960s predecessor, The Wednesday Play. Read through them and you can see they're not short of wow factor.
Read more Barry Didcock:
Many were ground-breaking, even historic. Examples: Ken Loach pair Up The Junction and Cathy Come Home, and The War Game, Peter Watkins' pseudo-documentary about nuclear holocaust. Under pressure from the government a jittery BBC cancelled its broadcast – now where have we heard that before? – and it would be 20 years before it was screened, but the point is that it was commissioned and made.
Cult doesn't begin to describe some of the productions which aired under the Play For Today banner itself. Folk horror classics such as Robin Redbreast and Penda's Fen, for example, both commonly cited as influences by film-makers and writers who weren't even born when they first screened in the 1970s. Or Red Shift, Alan Garner's cosmological love story set across three time periods. Scum, directed by the great Alan Clarke, set in a borstal and featuring an array of actors who would go on to become household names – Ray Winstone, Phil Daniels, David Threlfall – was made in 1977 but its transmission was also cancelled due to sensitivities around its subject matter.
Among those whose work did feature over the life of The Wednesday Play and Play For Today were Ingmar Bergman, Václav Havel (and later Czech president), Dennis Potter (many times), Mike Leigh (likewise), Alan Bennett, playwrights David Hare and the establishment-baiting Howard Brenton, screenwriter Alan Bleasdale, and novelists Rose Tremain, Malcolm Bradbury and Ian McEwan.
Scotland didn't fare badly, either. George McKay Brown, Douglas Dunn and William McIlvanney all had work produced. Legendary Scottish producer James McTaggart's name is all over the place. Ken Loach protege John McKenzie, who would later direct The Long Good Friday, was given early directorial slots, including the TV adaptation of ground-breaking theatre smash The Cheviot, The Stag And The Black, Black Oil. And of course it was Play For Today which screened Peter McDougall's trilogy of Glasgow-set dramas – Just Another Saturday, The Elephants' Graveyard and Just A Boys' Game – as well as John Byrne's The Slab Boys.
Can 5 compete? We'll see. So far it has announced only four stand-alone dramas of 60 minutes each, due to air later this year and made in collaboration with London-based Vertigo Films and Liverpool-based LA Productions. The 'plays' turn on subjects including ageing and the crisis in British schools, and feature established actors such as Anita Dobson, Nigel Havers, Sue Johnston and Alan Davies alongside relative newcomers like Jessica Plummer and Alexa Davies. Perhaps the key to the success of the new strand lies in the finer detail, however: young playwright Martha Watson Allpress is handed her TV debut, for instance, while on the directing side you can find Sara Harrak, winner of the prestigious Iris Prize for her short film F**KED. Definitely ones to watch.
Newcomer Jessica Plummer is one of the actors taking on the revived Play For Today (Image: Michael Shelford Photography) So while the return of Play For Today is welcome, the broadcaster has big boots to fill – and many miles to walk in them yet.
All points Perth
Billing itself as Scotland's biggest street party, Perth's 125 Live! festival takes place over the weekend of September 6 and 7 and celebrates, respectively, the 125th and 20th anniversaries of Perth Theatre and Perth Concert Hall. Headlined by Glasgow's indie-glam gems Walt Disco, it will see Mill Street transformed into an immersive outdoor theatre space featuring music, DJs, light displays and projections. Helmed by Perth Theatre Director Christopher Glasgow, formerly of innovative Scottish 'arts house' Cryptic, it is conceived in collaboration with Cryptic's Artistic Director, Cathie Boyd.
And finally
As the Edinburgh festival passes its mid-point, The Herald critics enter the home straight. Theatre critic Neil Cooper headed for the Churchill Hill Theatre to take in Cutting The Tightrope, a 'compendium of bite-size plays' programmed as part of the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF).
Still with the EIF, music critic Keith Bruce was at the Usher Hall for a performance by the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano of Puccini's one-act opera Suor Angelica. He also checked in on the EIF's Book Of Mountains And Seas at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, a re-imagining of ancient Chinese myths by composer and librettist Huang Ruo in collaboration with director Basil Twist and Danish choir Ars Nova Copenhagen.
Book of Mountains and Seas is a re-imagining of ancient Chinese myths (Image: Andrew Perry) Finally dance critic Mary Brennan dipped into the Dance Base programme to view two works by Glasgow-based companies and artists. First up, Barrowland Ballet's Wee Man. Second, Through Warm Temperatures by Mele Broomes and her dancers, also featuring cellist Simone Seales.
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