The BBC's Wednesday Play is synonymous with 1960s television. Its name evokes
memories of sensational drama and controversy, but its range was much broader
than that, encompassing many genres and styles.
Its origins have become obscured over the years, but The Wednesday Play was a
phoenix from the flames of the BBC's under-performing drama schedule. In July
1964, BBC director of television Kenneth Adam cancelled the failing drama
strands First Night (1963-64), which showcased new work for television, and
Festival (1963-64), which presented highbrow adaptations. As a concession to the
affronted head of drama Sydney Newman, Adam suggested The Wednesday Play, a
strand which would embody the BBC's support for new television writing.
The series launched prematurely in October 1964 with a season of leftover
Festival productions and imported Canadian dramas. Although often excellent
plays, they did not fit The Wednesday Play's remit. The appointment of First
Night producer James MacTaggart helped to steer it onto the correct course.
Although his public brief was to provide a variety of "exciting and interesting
and up to date" television plays, he would also realise Newman's ambition for
what he would later call "agitational contemporaneity" - i.e. confrontational
drama reflecting and challenging modern Britain.
James O'Connor's crime caper 'A Tap on the Shoulder' (tx. 6/1/1965) opened
the new series. The commissioning of O'Connor, who had served a prison sentence
for murder, was indicative of the new bold strategy. Variety was illustrated by
the contrast with the following play, 'Sir Jocelyn, the Minister Would Like a
Word' (tx. 13/1/1965), written by ex-Cambridge scholar Simon Raven about the
conflicts surrounding the establishment of a new university.
The series was soon tackling contentious issues head-on, from apartheid and
racial prejudice ('Fable', tx. 27/1/1965), to homosexuality ('Horror of
Darkness', tx. 10/3/1965) and capital punishment ('3 Clear Sundays', tx.
7/4/1965). These plays demonstrated that The Wednesday Play was not only seeking
to highlight social issues, but was actively attempting to influence public
opinion. The BBC's audience research suggested that '3 Clear Sundays' had a
marked effect in turning people against hanging, but not all plays were so
successful: the satire of 'Fable' was misinterpreted by some, whose prejudices
it reinforced rather than challenged.
The season also included 'The Confidence Course' (tx. 24/2/1965), the first
play by Dennis Potter, who would make his name on The Wednesday Play, and
established television playwright David Mercer's satirical fantasy 'And Did
Those Feet?' (tx. 2/6/1965). MacTaggart opened a new season with Potter's
'Alice' (tx. 13/10/1965), a psychological portrait of Lewis Carol. Potter would
also provide a pair of semi-autobiographical plays about a working-class boy's
progress through Oxford and into politics as a Labour election candidate ('Stand Up, Nigel
Barton', tx. 8/12/1965, 'Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton', tx.16/12/1965),
among others.
This spirit of social intervention peaked with Nell Dunn's 'Up the Junction'
(tx. 3/11/1965), which included a vividly realised scene of a back-street
abortion that caused howls of protest. The drama was timed to coincide with a
parliamentary debate on the Abortion Law Reform Bill, and as such attempted to
intervene in the political process (something which 'Fable' had been rescheduled
to avoid). This opened the series up to accusations that it was deliberately
contravening the BBC's pledge of impartiality.
The Wednesday Play was heavily dependant on the tastes and convictions of its
producers. When MacTaggart departed he was replaced by Festival's old producer,
Peter Luke. Luke did not believe in using television drama for political
purposes and steered the series towards "irony and humour", as he wrote in the
Radio Times. Notable instalments during Luke's tenure included Clive Exton's
'The Boneyard' (tx. 5/1/1966) and John Hopkins' 'A Game - Like - Only A Game'
(tx. 16/2/1966), in which two young boys blackmail an elderly woman. Under the
literary-minded Luke, adaptations crept back in, including a critically
acclaimed version of Aldous Huxley's atomic war satire 'Ape and Essence' (tx.
18/5/1966). By March 1966, The Wednesday Play was attracting a very respectable
average audience of nine million.
Luke was succeeded by ex-theatre director Lionel Hale, who continued the
series along similarly conventional lines. To shake things up from time to time,
Newman allowed the politically motivated Tony Garnett, previously the series'
story editor, to produce occasional instalments. One of these was to become the
series' most famous example, and its most successful intervention in public life.
Jeremy Sandford's 'Cathy Come Home' (tx. 16/11/1966) was an expose of housing
shortages and the inadequacy of the state's provisions for the homeless. It
sparked massive social and political dialogue, resulting in the introduction of
new measures to combat homelessness.
Like 'Up the Junction' before it, 'Cathy Come Home' was made largely on
location by Kenneth Loach using 16mm film, as opposed to being captured mainly
in the electronic studio. This was part of a conscious move, spearheaded by
Loach, Garnett and, earlier, MacTaggart, to take drama out of the studio and
shoot in a cinema verité style for added verisimilitude. The willingness of the
BBC to produce plays on film would grow over the life of The Wednesday Play and
be seized upon by the strand's producers. Other examples include 'In Two Minds'
(tx. 1/3/1967), David Mercer's study of schizophrenia, and 'The Big Flame' (tx.
19/2/1969), Jim Allen's socialistic drama of an industrial dispute, both of
which were also directed by Loach.
The final three seasons of The Wednesday Play, between 1967 and 1970, were
produced largely by newcomers Irene Shubik and Graeme McDonald, whose
productions would roughly alternate. They were joined on occasion by Pharic
Maclaren and the returning Garnett and Harris, among others. These years
concentrated on variety, with McDonald handling the strand's established and
reliable writers like Mercer, Simon Gray and Potter, while Shubik pursued new talent.
Mercer's continued contribution was particularly notable, with four further
plays, including a complex trilogy about politics and personal memory with 'On
the Eve of Publication' (tx. 27/11/1968), 'The Cellar and the Almond Tree' (tx.
4/3/1970), and 'Emma's Time' (tx. 13/5/1970). Potter's 'Son of Man' (tx. 16/4/1969) was a secular retelling of the story of Christ, ending with his
crucifixion. It generated much pre-transmission publicity but - despite some
headlines like "Storm over TV Christ" - the audience response was muted,
indicating that by 1969 such provocative drama was expected and accepted of The
Wednesday Play.
Shubik had notable success drawing stage writer David Rudkin and popular
novelist William Trevor to the strand. Other distinguished commissions included
John Mortimer's legal fantasy 'Infidelity Took Place' (tx. 8/5/1968), whose
central character would later be reinvented as Rumpole of the Bailey (ITV,
1978-92).
Social problem plays still featured, notably two by Tony Parker: 'Mrs
Lawrence Will Look After It' (tx. 21/8/1968), about unregulated childminders,
and 'Chariot of Fire' (tx. 20/5/1970), which painted a sympathetic portrait of a
paedophile. 'There is Also Tomorrow' (tx. 19/11/1969) dramatised a family
divided by their views on nuclear weapons. It also marked the point at which The
Wednesday Play moved over to colour production.
Although they would occasionally peak higher, the viewing figures for the
last year of The Wednesday Play hovered around five to six million, dropping to
approximately four-and-a-half by the time the ninth season concluded in May
1970. In an attempt to reinvigorate the series for its autumn return, the new
head of drama, Shaun Sutton, shifted its day of transmission and renamed it Play
for Today, emphasising its contemporary credentials. Under this guise it would
run for another fourteen years.
Oliver Wake
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