''The Wednesday Play'' is an anthology series of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television mov ...

s which ran on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction (and occasionally stage plays) also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen. Some of British television drama's most influential, and controversial, plays were shown in this slot, including '' Up the Junction'' and ''

Cathy Come Home ''Cathy Come Home'' is a 1966 BBC television play about homelessness. It was written by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach. A 1998 ''Radio Times'' readers' poll voted it the "best single television drama" an ...

''. The earliest television plays of

Dennis Potter Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Singing Detective'' (198 ...

were featured in this slot.

History

Origins and early seasons

The series was suggested to the BBC's Head of Drama,

Sydney Newman Sydney Cecil Newman (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman w ...

, by the corporation's director of television

Kenneth Adam Kenneth Adam (1 March 1908 – 18 October 1978) was an English journalist and broadcasting executive, who from 1957 until 1961 served as the Controller of the BBC Television Service. Early life and education He was born in Nottingham. After ...

after his cancellation of the two previous series of single plays.Oliver Wake
"Wednesday Play, The (1964-70)"
BFI Screenonline. Newman had been persuaded to join the BBC following the success of the similar programme ''

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Canad ...

'', which he had produced while Head of Drama at

ABC Weekend TV ABC Weekend TV was the popular name of the British broadcaster ABC Television Limited, which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one ...

from 1958 to 1962. ''Armchair Theatre'' had tackled many difficult and socially relevant subjects in the then-popular ' kitchen sink' style, and still managed to gain a mass audience on the ITV network, and Newman wanted a programme that would be able to tackle similar issues with a broad appeal. Newman also wanted to get away from the BBC's reputation of producing safe and unchallenging drama programmes, to produce something with more bite and vigour, what Newman called "agitational contemporaneity". ''The Wednesday Play'' succeeded in meeting this aim, and the BBC quickly developed the practice of stockpiling six or seven ''Wednesday Plays'' in case there were problems with individual works. One production, ''

The War Game ''The War Game'' is a 1966 British pseudo-documentary film that depicts a nuclear war and its aftermath. Written, directed and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC, it caused dismay within the BBC and also within government, and was subseque ...

'' (1965), was withdrawn from broadcast by a nervous BBC under pressure from the government, while John Hopkins' ''

Fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular m ...

'' (20 January 1965),Mark Dugui
"Fable (1965)"
BFI Screenonline. an inversion of South Africa's

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

system, was delayed for several weeks over fears that it would incite racial tensions. Intended as a vehicle for new writers, several careers began thanks to the series. Television programmes had a much shorter

lead time A lead time is the latency between the initiation and completion of a process. For example, the lead time between the placement of an order and delivery of new cars by a given manufacturer might be between 2 weeks and 6 months, depending on vari ...

in this era, and

's first four accepted television plays were shown during the course of 1965. The two Nigel Barton plays (8 and 15 December 1965) first brought him to widespread public attention and the slightly earlier ''

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

'' (13 October 1965), about

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

's relationship with

Alice Liddell Alice Pleasance Hargreaves (''née'' Liddell, ; 4 May 1852 – 16 November 1934), was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip beca ...

, developed themes to which Potter would return. In the first half of 1966 a series of 26 ''Wednesday Plays'' were produced by Peter Luke, the playwright, and story edited by David Benedictus. Highlights included '' The Snow Ball'' (20 April 1966),Irene Shubik, ''Play for Today: the evolution of television drama'', Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000

975 Year 975 ( CMLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor John I raids Mesopotamia and invades Syria, using ...

p. 46 adapted from the novel by

Brigid Brophy Brigid Antonia Brophy, Lady Levey (12 June 19297 August 1995) was a British writer and campaigner for social reforms, including the rights of authors, and animal rights. The first of her seven novels was ''Hackenfeller's Ape'' (1953), a story c ...

, '' Toddler on the Run'' adapted by

Shena Mackay Shena Mackay FRSL (born 1944) is a Scottish novelist born in Edinburgh. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1996 for '' The Orchard on Fire'', and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction in ...

from her novella and directed by James MacTaggart, (25 May 1966), '' Cock Hen and Courting Pit'' (renamed ''A Tour of the Old Floorboards'', 22 June 1966) by

David Halliwell David William Halliwell (31 July 1936, Brighouse, Yorkshire – c.16 March 2006, Charlbury, Oxfordshire)Alan Strachan & Janet Street Porte ''The Independent'', 5 April 2006 was a British dramatist. Early life Halliwell attended Huddersfield Col ...

and two plays by

Frank O'Connor Frank O'Connor (born Michael Francis O'Donovan; 17 September 1903 – 10 March 1966) was an Irish author and translator. He wrote poetry (original and translations from Irish), dramatic works, memoirs, journalistic columns and features on a ...

(which

Hugh Leonard Hugh Leonard (9 November 1926 – 12 February 2009) was an Irish dramatist, television writer, and essayist. In a career that spanned 50 years, Leonard wrote nearly 30 full-length plays, 10 one-act plays, three volumes of essay, two autobiograph ...

adapted)Madeleine MacMurragh-Kavanagh and Stephen Lacey "Who Framed Theatre?: The 'Moment of Change' in British TV Drama" in ''New Theatre Quarterly'', No.57, February 1999, p. 69. virtually without dialogue and which, renamed '' Silent Song'', won The

Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...

award in 1967 for 'original dramatic programmes' jointly with a French programme. The other O'Connor/Leonard work was ''

The Retreat The Retreat, commonly known as the York Retreat, is a place in England for the treatment of people with mental health needs. Located in Lamel Hill in York, it operates as a not for profit charitable organisation. Opened in 1796, it is famous ...

'' (11 May 1966). These two plays starred

Milo O'Shea Milo Donal O'Shea (2 June 1926 – 2 April 2013) was an Irish actor. He was twice nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performances in '' Staircase'' (1968) and '' Mass Appeal'' (1982). Early life O'Shea was born and ...

and

Jack MacGowran John Joseph MacGowran (13 October 1918 – 30 January 1973) was an Irish actor, probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett. Stage career MacGowran was born on 13 October 1918 in Dublin, and educated at Synge Street CBS. He establi ...

. ''Cathy Come Home'' by Nell Dunn and Jeremy Sandford was offered to the Luke/Benedictus team who passed it on to

Tony Garnett Tony Garnett (3 April 1936 – 12 January 2020) was a British film and television producer, and actor. Best known for his thirteen-year association with director Ken Loach, his work as a producer continued into the 21st century. Early life and ...

Tony Garnett and Ken Loach

Garnett was quickly seen as someone capable of delivering plays which would gain much publicity for the BBC and its Drama department.Stephen Lacey, ''Tony Garnett'', Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002, p. 56. He had the enthusiastic support of Newman, his immediate superior, who lobbied for increased funding to allow for more location shooting on film rather than shooting productions in the multi-camera electronic television studio, a practice which was felt to impair realism, the preferred mode. Director

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty ('' Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessn ...

made ten plays in all for ''The Wednesday Play'' series. Two of them are among the best remembered of the entire run: an adaptation of Nell Dunn's '' Up the Junction'' (3 November 1965), and the saga of a homeless young couple and their battle to prevent their children being taken into local authority care: ''

'' (16 November 1966). The latter began Loach's 13-year collaboration with Tony Garnett as his producer, although Garnett had been closely involved with ''Up the Junction'' as well. Plays like ''Up the Junction'' though were controversial among more conservative viewers. The 'Clean-Up TV' campaigner

Mary Whitehouse Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permi ...

accused the BBC of portraying "promiscuity as normal" in ''Up the Junction''Anthony Haywar
"Cathy come home"
''The Independent'', 3 November 2006. and ''The Wednesday Play'' as featuring "Dirt, Doubt and Disbelief". The writer on television Anthony Hayward quoted Garnett in 2006: "Mary Whitehouse was on the prowl, which was an added frisson, but it was actually very good free publicity and helped the ratings." The "drama documentary" approach was criticised by television professionals who thought it was dishonest. In a ''

Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', ...

'' article published before its first repeat transmission

Grace Wyndham Goldie Grace Wyndham Goldie (née Grace Murrell Nisbet; 26 March 1900 – 3 June 1986) was a British producer and executive in television for twenty years, particularly in the fields of politics and current affairs. During her career at the BBC, she was ...

complained that ''Cathy Come Home'' "deliberately blurs the distinction between fact and fiction ... iewershave a right to know whether what they are being offered is real or invented."Quoted by Stephen Lacey, ''Tony Garnett'', Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002, p. 57. Loach has admitted that " were very anxious for our plays not to be considered dramas but as continuations of the news" which preceded ''The Wednesday Play'''s slot.

Later seasons

The last three years of the strand were predominantly produced by

Irene Shubik Irene Shubik (26 December 1929 – 26 September 2019) was a British television producer and story editor, known for her contribution to the development of the single play in British television drama. Beginning her career in television at A ...

and Graeme MacDonald; by this time the BBC Drama head Sydney Newman had left the BBC. Highlights from this period include several plays by David Mercer such as ''

In Two Minds ''In Two Minds'' is a television play by David Mercer commissioned for ''The Wednesday Play'' (BBC 1) anthology drama series. First transmitted on 1 March 1967, it was directed by Ken Loach and produced by Tony Garnett and features Anna Cropper ...

'' (1 March 1967) and '' Let's Murder Vivaldi'' (10 April 1968) and Potter's '' Son of Man'' (16 April 1969), a modern interpretation of the story of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

. Suffering from declining audience figures, the run of ''The Wednesday Play'' ended in 1970 when the day of transmission changed, and the series morphed into ''

Play for Today ''Play for Today'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage ...

''.

Reputation and availability

It is regarded as one of the most influential and successful programmes to be produced in Britain during the 1960s and is still frequently referenced and discussed. In a 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

to find the

100 Greatest British Television Programmes The BFI TV 100 is a list of 100 television programmes or series that was compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI), as chosen by a poll of industry professionals, with the aim to determine the best United Kingdom, British television pr ...

of the 20th century, two ''Wednesday Plays'' made the list: ''The War Game'' was placed twenty-seventh, and ''Cathy Come Home'' was voted the second greatest British television programme of the century. Some examples of ''The Wednesday Play'', such as ''

'' (which was not screened by the BBC for 20 years) and ''

'' (1966), a television play exploring the theme of housing and homelessness, was according to filmmaker

Roger Graef Roger Arthur Graef OBE (18 April 1936 – 2 March 2022) was an American-born British documentary filmmaker and theatre director. Born in New York City, he moved to Britain in 1962, where he began a career producing documentary films investigat ...

"a giant wakeup call for the whole nation," and some of the Potter plays, surfaced on VHS and DVD; the Potter play, ''Alice'' was a bonus feature of a Region 1 DVD in 2010 of

Jonathan Miller Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 1 ...

's surrealist version of ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

''. The Ken Loach material has resurfaced in a ''Ken Loach at the BBC'' set, and the two plays directed by Alan Clarke in the ''Alan Clarke at the BBC'' set. However, as with much British television of this era, many episodes are

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

, leaving 79 surviving in the archives (along with 3 with some surviving sequences) out of 182 transmitted.

Productions

This table is based on records in the BBC Genome archive of the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves ...

''. Titles billed as ''The Wednesday Play'' (or ''The Wednesday Play presenting: ...'') in the ''Radio Times'' listings for their first or a subsequent transmission are included, plus an additional two for the reasons given in the notes. Repeats of the individual productions are excluded, as are some additional repeats from ''

Theatre 625 ''Theatre 625'' is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production a ...

'' shown in the Wednesday Play slot during 1968–69 but not billed as such in the ''Radio Times''. All episodes were broadcast on BBC1, with the introduction of colour from November 1969. The archival status has been ascertained for almost all productions based on the BFI National Archive and TV Brain online databases. Most of the extant versions are in the form of 16mm or 35mm black & white telerecordings (prints or negatives), or in a few cases original film versions where that was the original medium used for production. Some of the later plays exist in videotape formats.

''The Wednesday Play'' on DVD

* ''Alice'' (written by

; directed by Gareth Davies), as an extra on the DVD of Jonathan Miller's 1966 ''

'' * ''

'' (written by Jeremy Sandford; directed by Kenneth Loach) * ''

The End of Arthur's Marriage "The End of Arthur's Marriage" is a television satirical musical drama that was an episode in ''The Wednesday Play'' series first broadcast on 17 November 1965. It was an early work of director Ken Loach, and the script was written by poet Chris ...

'' (written by

Christopher Logue Christopher Logue, CBE (23 November 1926 – 2 December 2011)Mark EspineObituary: Christopher Logue ''The Guardian'', 2 December 2011 was an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival, and a pacifist. Life Born in Portsmouth, ...

; directed by Kenneth Loach) * ''

'' (written by David Mercer; directed by Kenneth Loach) * '' The Nigel Barton Plays'': ''Stand Up, Nigel Barton'' and ''Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton'' (written by

; directed by Gareth Davies) * ''The Big Flame'' (written by Jim Allen; directed by

Kenneth Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (''Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessne ...

) * ''

'' (written and directed by

Peter Watkins Peter Watkins (born 29 October 1935) is an English film and television director. He was born in Norbiton, Surrey, lived in Sweden, Canada and Lithuania for many years, and now lives in France. He is one of the pioneers of docudrama. His films ...

) * '' 3 Clear Sundays'' (written by

James O'Connor James O'Connor may refer to: Politics and law * James O'Connor (Louisiana politician) (1870–1941), U.S Representative from Louisiana * James F. O'Connor (1878–1945), U.S Representative from Montana * James Francis Thaddeus O'Connor (1886–1 ...

; directed by Kenneth Loach) * '' Up the Junction'' (written by Nell Dunn; directed by Kenneth Loach) * ''The Golden Vision'' (written by Neville Smith and Gordon Honeycombe; directed by Kenneth Loach) * ''The Vortex'' (written by Noël Coward; directed by Philip Dudley), in the Noël Coward Collection, BBCDVD2566 * ''

The Year of the Sex Olympics ''The Year of the Sex Olympics'' is a 1968 television play made by the BBC and first broadcast on BBC2 as part of ''Theatre 625''. It stars Leonard Rossiter, Tony Vogel, Suzanne Neve and Brian Cox, and was directed by Michael Elliott. The wr ...

'' (written by Nigel Kneale, directed by Michael Elliott), DVD released by the BFI * ''The Last Train through the Harecastle Tunnel'' (written by Peter Terson, directed by Alan Clarke), in the 'Alan Clarke at the BBC' box set from the BFI. * ''Sovereign's Company'' (written by Don Shaw, directed by Alan Clarke), in the 'Alan Clarke at the BBC' box set from the BFI.

References

External links

''The Wednesday Play''
site with history and individual episodes listed
TV Cream website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wednesday Play 1964 British television series debuts 1970 British television series endings 1960s British drama television series 1970s British drama television series 1960s British anthology television series 1970s British anthology television series BBC television dramas Black-and-white British television shows English-language television shows Lost BBC episodes Social realism Wednesday Television series created by Sydney Newman