"Spend, Spend, Spend" is the 12th episode of seventh season of the British

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

anthology TV series ''

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 ...

''. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 15 March 1977. "Spend, Spend, Spend" was written by

Jack Rosenthal Jack Morris Rosenthal (8 September 1931 – 29 May 2004) was an English playwright. He wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV (TV network), ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' and over 150 screenplays, including original television plays, featur ...

, directed by

John Goldschmidt John Goldschmidt''a British-Austrian film director and producer. Goldschmidt was born in London, but grew up in Vienna leaving at the age of 16 to return to London. Goldschmidt has both Austrian and British nationality. He went to the Gymnasium ...

, produced by Graeme McDonald, and starred

Susan Littler Susan Littler (31 December 1947 – 11 July 1982) was an English actress who appeared in many television and stage productions in the 1970s and early 1980s, before her death from cancer. A versatile and respected actress, Littler is perhaps ...

and

John Duttine John Arthur Duttine (born 15 March 1949) is an English actor noted for his roles on stage, films and television. He is well known for his role as Sgt George Miller in '' Heartbeat'' and Bill Masen in the TV series '' The Day of the Triffids''. ...

. The play is based on the book of the same name by Nicholson and Stephen Smith and recounts Vivian Nicholson's life story from the 1950s to the early 1970s in a non-linear fashion.

Development

Rosenthal was a colleague of the PR man who, on behalf of

Littlewoods Pools Littlewoods was a retail and football betting company founded in Liverpool, England, by John Moores in 1923. By the 1980s, it had grown to become the largest private company in Europe but subsequently declined in the face of increased compe ...

, persuaded Nicholson to allow publicity for her pools win. He wrote in his autobiography: "From that day on, I followed her wild, seemingly stupid adventures in the papers - and believed every snide, snooty, biased word the relentless publicity said. All adding up to ''one'' word - that she was a cow." Being given Nicholson's book by director

caused Rosenthal to reassess his attitude and "become a fan" eager to put across an explanation of her behaviour.

Critical response

The production won the

British Academy Television Awards 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 ...

for Best Single Play and

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

's Writer's Award 1977.

Home media

The work was released on DVD as part of ''Jack Rosenthal at the BBC'' by Acorn media in 2011, alongside other works for television written by Rosenthal.

References

External links

*
''Spend Spend, Spend''
at the TV Cream website {{Play for Today 1977 British television episodes 1977 television plays British television plays Play for Today