''Horace'' is a 1972 television play written by Roy Minton and directed by

Alan Clarke Alan John Clarke (28 October 1935 – 24 July 1990) was an English television and film director, producer and writer. Life and career Clarke was born on 28 October 1935, in Wallasey. Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cin ...

, first broadcast as part of a

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

new play series on 21 March 1972.

Plot

Diabetic Horace ( Barry Jackson) is mentally impaired and works in a joke shop. He befriends loner schoolboy Gordon Blackett (Stephen Tantum), who retreats from his loveless home into an imaginary world.

Cast

*Horace - Barry Jackson *Gordon - Stephen Tantum *Ivy - Christine Hargreaves *Dick - Talfryn Thomas *Mrs Radford - Hazel Coppen *Sidney - James Mellor *Miss Bowler -

Patricia Lawrence Patricia Lawrence (19 November 1925, Andover, Hampshire, Andover, Hampshire – 7 March 1993, Chelsea, London, Chelsea, London) was a British actress. Personal life In 1947 she married writer and arts administrator Greville Poke (1912–2000) i ...

*Mr Scrimshaw - Robert Hartley *Mr Frankel -

Howard Goorney Howard Jacob Goorney (11 May 1921 – 29 March 2007) was a British actor who starred in such programmes as ''Only Fools and Horses''. He was one of the founding members of Joan Littlewood's 'Theatre Workshop', and wrote ''The Theatre Workshop Sto ...

*Whitsun -

Ken Parry Kenneth Parry (20 June 1930 – 5 December 2007) was an English actor, born in Wigan, Lancashire. Bald, portly and cherubic, Parry portrayed mainly comic character parts in a number of films, but was more prolific on television, in such series as ...

*Brenda - Caleigh Simmons *Mrs Beal -

Daphne Heard Delia Phyllis Daphne Heard (21 August 1904 – 22 June 1983) was an English actress and acting teacher. She was born in Plymouth, Devon. She appeared in numerous made-for-TV movies and TV series. She was perhaps best known in latter years as ...

*Customer - Eric Francis *Waitress - Pamela Miles *Jeffries - Jeffrey Gardiner

Critical reception

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' wrote, "Never sentimentalised... sympathetic, touching The piece worked marvellously well."

Television series

The play was later developed as a six-part half-hour series for

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

References

External links

* 1972 television plays BBC television dramas 1972 in British television {{1970s-play-stub