Pamela Brighton
Documentary portrait of the life of playwright Joe Orton, who was murdered by his lover Kenneth Halliwell in April 1967.
In 1925, the coal owners decided to reduce the miners' wages whilst asking them to work longer hours, resulting in a strike.
The Matthews are country people. If they can get a living with their hard work they want no changes or dealings with the outside world. Their children are different. They feel the earth moving under them and are excited and full of hope. They could not imagine what will happen to their world during the next ten years. The war itself is to bring vast changes. For Ben the army is to open up disturbing new horizons; while for his brother-in-law Philip the war is a dilemma demanding morality and courage.
Less than 20 years after its birth, the Labour Party forms a government with Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister. Although outnumbered in Parliament by Conservatives and Liberals, Labour is the largest party. Many feel the task of legislating socialism into existence can now begin.
After 12 years away, Mrs Jordan’s son arrives in Birmingham from Jamaica. Writer Barry Reckord returns to the theme of an interracial relationship which causes conflict within a Jamaican family. Reconstructed from the surviving unedited studio footage by Simon Coward (Research Manager, Kaleidoscope).
Days of Hope is a BBC television drama serial produced in 1975. The series dealt with the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926. It was written by Jim Allen, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach.
