"In Two Minds" is a television play by
David Mercer commissioned for ''
The Wednesday Play
''The Wednesday Play'' is an anthology series of United Kingdom, British television plays which ran on BBC One, BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic ...
'' (
BBC 1
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 ...
) anthology drama series. First transmitted on 1 March 1967, it was directed by
Ken Loach
Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a retiredhttps://variety.com/2024/film/global/ken-loach-retirement-the-old-oak-jonathan-glazer-oscars-speech-1235956589/ English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views ar ...
and produced by
Tony Garnett and features
Anna Cropper in the lead role.
Outline and production
The play depicts the experiences of Kate Winter, a young woman with
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...
, and her experiences with the medical professionals who attempt to care for her in a mental hospital. She is shown being given
Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatry, psychiatric treatment that causes a generalized seizure by passing electrical current through the brain. ECT is often used as an intervention for mental disorders when other treatments are inadequ ...
(ECT) as a clinical treatment and being discussed at a lecture for medical students.
''In Two Minds'' was influenced by the ideas of
R. D. Laing expressed in his co-authored book, ''Sanity and Madness in the Family''.
Attempting to demonstrate that schizophrenia lacks an organic basis in the brain, Laing believed that the family had the potential to make people mentally ill. Mercer and producer
Tony Garnett were introduced to Laing and his colleague
David Cooper, by the theatre critic
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Initially making his mark as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised John Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) and encouraged the emerging wave ...
; Laing and Cooper served as official consultants on the project.
It is the earliest of Loach's television works to be shot entirely on location, without any use of the television studio. Loach's previous ''Wednesday Play'', ''
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" and a 200 ...
'', contains five brief scenes which were shot electronically. By the time ''In Two Minds'' was in production, an agreement had been reached between
Equity, the actors' union, and the BBC to allow the shooting of drama entirely on film in the conventional manner.
Cast
*
Anna Cropper as Kate Winter
*
Brian Phelan as interviewing doctor
*
George A. Cooper as Mr. Winter
*Helen Booth as Mrs. Winter
*
Christine Hargreaves as Mary Winter
*
Peter Ellis as Jake
*Adrienne Frame as hairdresser
*
Bill Hays as man at the rehearsal room
*
Vickery Turner as woman at the rehearsal room
*Yvonne Quenet as girl in the bar
*
Neville Smith as man at the pub
*Malcolm Taylor as man at the pub
*
Patrick Barr as consultant
*
George Innes
George Innes (born 8 March 1938) is a British actor.
Stage career
George Innes was born in Wapping, Stepney, East London on 8 March 1938, and he began his career on the stage with the Royal National Theatre, National Theatre of Great Britain ...
as Paul Morris
*Anne Hardcastle as doctor
*
Edwin Brown as Mental Warfare officer
*
Eileen Colgan as sister
*Julie May as nurse
Response
The play gained mixed response from psychiatrists at the time of its first broadcast, with some arguing that Kate is depressed and hysterical rather than truly schizophrenic.
In his review for ''
The Listener'', the novelist
Anthony Burgess
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer.
Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...
felt the play had not found a resolution for Kate's problems and found the form of the play problematic. Despite accusing the whole ''Wednesday Play'' series as being 'anti-art,' he wrote that ''In Two Minds'' "was better than art because it was so real".
[Brandt ''British Television Drama'', p.104]
Conversely, within the BBC Drama department, the play had led to intense discussions between producer Tony Garnett and department head
Sydney Newman
Sydney Cecil Newman (; April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian producer and screenwriter who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, he was app ...
over its status as drama and its veracity.
Television critic
Anthony Hayward wrote that Cropper displayed "a rollercoaster of emotions, from breaking down on pondering her dilemma to giving a beaming smile, eyes sparkling, while recalling an ex-boyfriend. At times, she talks as if 'Kate' is another person."
Legacy
''In Two Minds'' won the
Writers' Guild Award for the Best Television Play of 1967.
It is included in the ''Ken Loach at the BBC'' 6 DVD box set.
''
Family Life'' (1971), again directed by Loach and with a screenplay by Mercer, is a feature film remake of this television play.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:In Two Minds
1967 television films
1967 films
1967 television plays
BBC television dramas
British docudrama films
Films directed by Ken Loach
Films about social realism
1960s British films
The Wednesday Play