The Wednesday Play
The family set off for a picnic in the country with all the paraphernalia – the cine camera the frozen barbecued chicken – all of which is looked on, with sixth-form cynicism and disgust, by the family’s son. Nor does he think he’s going to enjoy the trip round the Cheddar Gorge …
“A breakthrough in TV drama ” – ROBERT OTTAWAY, DAILY SKETCH
“Pure and hilarious farce” – MARTIN JACKSON , DAILY EXPRESS
“The funniest ever Wednesday Play… every laugh a wound – MAURICE WIGGIN , SUNDAY TIMES
Sighs of relief. Think BBC White Paper could have been worse? Read behind the PR and be very afraid.
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Five Minute Films BBC Series: Episode 2/5
| Producer Director Writer |
Tony Garnett Mike Leigh Mike Leigh |
The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play
The lives and loves of three young working class women, set in the pubs, terraced houses and factories of Battersea, South London.
Tony Garnett’s 1965 introduction in the Radio Times…
Five Minute Films BBC Series: Episode 1/5
| Producer Director Writer |
Tony Garnett Mike Leigh Mike Leigh |
The 1916 uprising in Dublin and the mini series about judicial corruption, Law and Order, are welded as one in my mind. Connection?
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The Wednesday Play
Best Script Award at the Fourth International Television Festival, Prague 1967
Main Prize International Jury of Critics 1967
Who is Kate Winter? That is the question. She is, on the outside, an unexceptional girl from an ordinary semi-detached background. Her mother says ‘ We are respectable people in this house.’ But tonight the lace curtains are opened and you are invited to probe inside-if you can bear it.
“Compellingly written, brilliantly acted and directed with cunning efficiency” – DENNIS POTTER, NEW STATESMAN
“All the intensity and suggestiveness of ‘Cathy’. It was powerful stuff – R. W. COOPER, THE TIMES
The Wednesday Play
Winner: Italia Prize for Television 1968
Cathy and Reg fall on hard times when Reg is injured at work. They begin a slide into poverty, debt and homelessness, until the authorities forcibly take Cathy’s children away…
“A programme to remember” – OBSERVER
“Few can have watched … without being deeply moved” – TIMES
“Dynamite … a magnificent piece of observant, sparse writing, direction, and production” – DAILY MIRROR
Play for Today
An everyday account of the unceasing work undertaken by a harassed wife and mother.
The Wednesday Play
STEWART LANE talks to Tony Garnett, the producer of tonight’s B.B.C.- 1 play. (1966)
TONY GARNETT, producer of “Cathy Come Home”, tonight’s play on BBC 1 began his career as an actor, appearing in several television plays.
In 1964 he joined the B.B.C. as a script editor, assisting in the work on the Wednesday play series.
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BBC TV Mini-Series
The judicial system examined from four points of view: detective, criminal, lawyer, and prisoner.
Play of the Month
Werner Reger , a young German officer in the Second World War. prepares to test a new parachute with his regiment for the ultimate benefit of his Führer. As he moves through the early-morning routine in the barracks and out to the tower for a jump, his mind travels in a series of flashbacks over the curious conflicts of his childhood and youth.
The Wednesday Play
This week marks the 50th anniversary of Cathy Come Home. Cathy Come Home let everybody off the hook. It didn’t put the boot in where it should have done. Earlier this year I wrote a piece for the PCS Union explaining why I believe this.
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Play for Today X 2
TV Movie
Crisis - Ending Homelessness 
Blair, Milburn and Hattersley: a modern morality Socialism without the free artist becomes Stalinism 
Villa Winning!?! 
Cathy Come Home - 50 years on Events 
Trumpism Obesity and the NHS 
Writing your story 
Fighting exploitation in the film & TV industry 
Corbyn and Attlee 
Events 
The Day The Music Died 
On Performance Nurturing creativity in filmmaking 
BECTU Freelancers' Fair 2016: Political Drama 
Response to the BBC White Paper 
Old books, new blog post 
On Success and Failure Goodbye Facebook? 
CBI and Mussolini 
Orgreave 
CBEEBIES 
Junior doctors are the new miners of 1984 
The inspiration behind 'The Spongers' 
Arnold Wesker, Jim Allen and Perdition Remembering Barry Hines 
Saying goodbye to Barry Hines Villa Park 
Off-Cut: Law and Order - 1916 Off-Cut: Kes - the football scene Football is about family Barry Hines 1939 - 2016 
Don’t blame the old Etonians. Some of them are even good actors. Tory sale of council houses and Labour’s PFI. A connection? Sure! “Two steps forward, one step back”: Vladimir Ilyich Hunt goes into enemy territory, The Guardian, and becomes Nye Bevan. Beware a Tory with his “hurt” face on So the penny has finally dropped, eh? Get with the programme, Dave Prentis! Privatisation of the NHS by stealth started with Blair. Think these refugees are a problem? @yanisvaroufakis - find your answer to Europe vote. Remembering Jim Allen Kids Company Google Tax The Aneurin Bevan Memorial Lecture, 2060 Steve Hilton Today 'The BBC Made Me' 
Off-Cut: Attachments 
Off-Cut: Ballykissangel 
Tony Garnett on the BBC Files The Wednesday Play: Aims and Policy Sydney Newman defends The Wednesday Play D.A.N. Jones on Sidney Newman [sic] - The Listener 1967 A Discussion with Frank Kermode "Committed" Plays in Television Huw Wheldon's near resignation over 'Up The Junction' 'Days of Hope' - going to extremes (The Listener 1975) 'Days of Hope': various BBC correspondence 'Five Women': correspondence with Huw Wheldon 'Law and Order': various BBC correspondence Control over Subject Matter in BBC Television MI5 and the Christmas Tree files - secret political vetting at the BBC 
Details Football is about family Off-Cut: Kes - the football scene 
'A typical reaction was a snigger... I was making a film about the wrong kind of bird' Saying goodbye to Barry Hines 
Youtube
Details "We need drama people believe in" Grace Wyndham Goldie Article 1967 Cathy Come Home - 50 years on Gallery Cathy Come Home left out in cold by BBC row ‘Cathy Come Home’ and ‘Accuracy’ in British Television Drama Youtube (not free)Off-Cut: The Parachute Off-Cut: Arturo Ui Off-Cut: The Price of Coal Off-Cut: Save the Children Fund Off-Cut: The Ones That Got Away Off-Cut: The Producing MA 
Off-Cut: Beautiful Thing Off-Cut: Kes - the football scene Off-Cut: Attachments 
Off-Cut: The Golden Vision 
Off-Cut: Prostitute Off-Cut: Cardiac Arrest The Aneurin Bevan Memorial Lecture, 2060 
Off-Cut: Between The Lines Production Notes from Beautiful Thing Doyen attacks “poison” in TV industry Ken Loach Variety Dec 15, 1997 The Observer - TV's Secret Godfather Cathy Come Home left out in cold by BBC row Kes It's a Cop Out ‘Cathy Come Home’ and ‘Accuracy’ in British Television Drama When This Life entered our lives... Dot.com drama starts up on BBC2 Welcome to seethru INTERFERENCE - CV: Tony Garnett In Praise of the Great Unknowns Autumn 2000 BBC 2 Season The Cops call it a day after three series Setting sites on the Net The beat goes on... (Bafta 2000 magazine) Attachments article AfterLife (circa 2000) A REAL BOBBY World Champion It’s a Big World After All Research by Karen Shepherdson (2001) Barry Hines 1939 - 2016 Drowning By Numbers - New Statesman Jim Allen Obituary Off-Cut: The Ones That Got Away Off-Cut: The Producing MA Off-Cut: Attachments Remembering Barry Hines How to kill creativity while claiming to help it grow. 
Tracking Changes - BFI Interview 2014 'A typical reaction was a snigger... I was making a film about the wrong kind of bird' 
On BBC News 'HARDtalk' with Stephen Sackur 
On BBC Radio 3 'Free Thinking' with Matthew Sweet Podcast - BBC Radio 5 Live Afternoon Edition - July 11 Theatre Quarterly, Vol. II, No. 6, April-June 1972 THIS LIFE, THIS ART KICKING OVER THE TRACES – Interview with Tony Garnett Extracts from an Interview August 2000 A REAL BOBBY Meet the producer Tony Garnett talks about THE COPS - November 1998 Recipe for a dust-up (Drama Forum) Performance With Banners Held High - the BBC and miners strikes Screenplay A Message For Graduates - Creatively Disrupt Crisis - Ending Homelessness Notes from the Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture, 1996 Reading University Speech 1998 For the love of it: in praise of the amateur 
