''Caught on a Train'' is a British

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

play written by

Stephen Poliakoff Stephen Poliakoff (born 1 December 1952) is a British playwright, Film director, director and screenwriter. In 2006 Gerard Gilbert of ''The Independent'' described him as the UK's "pre-eminent TV dramatist" and that he had "inherited Dennis Po ...

and directed by

Peter Duffell Peter Duffell (10 July 1922 − 12 December 2017) was an English film and television film director, director and screenwriter. Early life Duffell was born in Canterbury, Kent, in 1922. He was the only son of a broken marriage, which resulted in ...

, based on an overnight train journey across Europe, and following the route of a journey that Poliakoff had himself made from

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. It was first shown, as part of the ''

BBC2 Playhouse ''BBC2 Playhouse'' is a British anthology television series of one-hour episodes produced by the BBC. Among its many performers were Helen Mirren, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Liam Neeson, Paul Scofield, Deborah Kerr, Ben Kingsley, Donald ...

'' series, on 31 October 1980, and was re-shown in 2001 and 2006. The play stars Dame

Peggy Ashcroft Dame Edith Margaret Emily "Peggy" Ashcroft (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991) was an English actress whose career spanned more than 60 years. Born to a comfortable middle-class family, Ashcroft was determined from an early age to become ...

as Frau Messner and

Michael Kitchen Michael Roy Kitchen (born 31 October 1948) is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle in the ITV drama '' Foyle's War'', which comprised eight series betwe ...

as Peter, and the main supporting cast features Wendy Raebeck as Lorraine and

Michael Sheard Michael Sheard (born Michael Lawson Perkins; 18 June 1938 – 31 August 2005) was a Scottish actor who featured in many films and television programmes, and was best known for playing villains. His most prominent television role was as strict ...

as Preston. The soundtrack was written by the jazz composer

Mike Westbrook Michael John David Westbrook (born 21 March 1936) is an English jazz pianist, composer, and writer of orchestrated jazz pieces. He is married to the vocalist, librettist and painter Kate Westbrook. Early work Mike Westbrook was born in Hig ...

. The play won a

BAFTA Television Award The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards, are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in ...

and other plaudits in 1980. Having previously been available on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

, the play was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetised BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...

in 2004, with an

audio commentary An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...

by Poliakoff and the producer,

Kenith Trodd Kenith Trodd (born 1936) is a British television producer best known for his professional association with television playwright Dennis Potter. Early life The son of a crane driver, Trodd was born in Southampton, Hampshire, and raised in the Chri ...

References

External links

The film's entry at the BFI Screenonline''Caught on a Train''
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

1980 television plays BBC television dramas {{BBC-drama-tv-prog-stub