''Scully'' is a British

television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional te ...

with some comedy elements set in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, England, that originated from a BBC ''

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 ...

'' episode "Scully's New Year's Eve" (3 January 1978). Originally broadcast on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in 1984, the single series was spread over six half-hour episodes plus a one-hour final episode. It was written by

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Alan Bleasdale. The drama is notable for featuring many of the

football club first-team squad of that era. The estate parts were filmed in Longsight, Manchester, on the 'Anson Road' Estate. Also some scenes were filmed in Leaton Avenue, Wythenshawe m22 Manchester. Scully's house is situated on Bluebell Lane in Huyton, Knowsley, Several parts were also filmed on roads off Princess Drive, Dovecot. The school building featured is the 'Central High School for Boys' (demolished) on Pink Bank Lane, which is off Kirkmanshulme Lane in the Belle Vue/Gorton area of Manchester. The extras used in the school/classroom scenes were pupils of the school. Francis Scully (played by Andrew Schofield) is a teenage boy who has his heart set on gaining a trial match for Liverpool to hopefully fulfil his ambition of playing for the club. Francis, in everyday situations during his waking hours, occasionally "sees" famous Liverpool players such as

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time as well as one of Celtic's, Liv ...

when they are not really there. These dream-like sequences recur throughout the episodes. The main plotline concerns the efforts of Scully's school teachers to persuade Scully to appear in the school

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

which they attempt by promising him a trial with his beloved Liverpool if he will cooperate. When Scully and his friends are not in school making trouble for the teachers and the school caretaker, they are seen roaming the local streets upsetting the neighbours and getting into trouble with the police. Scully sometimes has visions of the school caretaker appearing as a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

due to the caretaker's nickname being

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

. These frequent waking dream sequences give the show a somewhat surreal atmosphere. English musician and songwriter

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

played Scully's brother. Costello also wrote and performed the show's theme song "Turning The Town Red". The complete series was released on DVD in 2006 as a two-disc set from Network DVD.

References

External links

* {{Alan Bleasdale Television shows set in Liverpool 1984 British television series debuts 1984 British television series endings 1980s British drama television series Channel 4 television dramas Channel 4 miniseries 1980s British television miniseries Television series by ITV Studios Television shows produced by Granada Television British English-language television shows Television shows shot in Liverpool