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"The Wednesday Play" Cathy Come Home (1966)
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showtimesofficial sitesmiscellaneousphotographssound clipsvideo clips"The Wednesday Play" Cathy Come Home (1966)
Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
TV Series:
Original Air Date:
16 November 1966
(Season 1, Episode 71)
Plot:
From the BBC's influential 'Wednesday Play' series. This tells the bleak tale of Cathy, who loses her home...
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Plot Keywords:
Caravan
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Hunger
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Train Station
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Fire
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Homeless Shelter
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Awards:
1 win
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User Comments:
The archetypal social propagandist film
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Cast
(Episode Cast overview, first billed only)| Carol White | ... | Cathy Ward | |
| Ray Brooks | ... | Reg Ward | |
| Winifred Dennis | ... | Mrs. Ward | |
| Wally Patch | ... | Grandad | |
| Adrienne Frame | ... | Eileen | |
| Emmett Hennessy | ... | Johnny | |
| Alec Coleman | ... | Wedding Guest | |
| Geoffrey Palmer | ... | Property Agent | |
| Gabrielle Hamilton | ... | Welfare Officer | |
| Phyllis Hickson | ... | Mrs. Alley | |
| Frank Veasey | ... | Mr. Hodge | |
| Barry Jackson | ... | Rent Collector | |
| James Benton | ... | Man at Eviction | |
| Ruth Kettlewell | ... | Judge | |
| John Baddeley | ... | Housing Officer |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
75 min
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Language:
Color:
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Filming Locations:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
At an anniversary screening of Cathy Come Home, Ken Loach spoke of how the play had become an important part in making the debate on homelessness public. At the same event his producer, Tony Garnett, pointed out that the number of homeless in Britain had more than doubled "but Ken (Loach) and I now live in much more expensive houses."
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Movie Connections:
Featured in A Personal History of British Cinema by Stephen Frears (1997) (TV)
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (7 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for "The Wednesday Play" (1964)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| really? | laura_myers_58 |
| Cathy Come Home - I missed the last 7 minutes! | susan-mcgarvey |
| 40th ann. TV revisit | tractorgurl |
| Music | Spider J |
| humour? | an-only-twin |
| help | rolymole |
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| Main series | Episode guide | Full cast and crew |
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| IMDb Drama section | IMDb UK section | Add this title to MyMovies |

This film is one of the TV drama that is often cited as one that showed how TV can be a force for good, how it can influence government policy and propel social change. It is a film that chronicled the trials and tribulations of a young mother who fell into poverty and homelessness. The screening of the film and the following impact that it had helped shaped public policy on housing, and spawned numerous other similar TV projects that highlighted social issues.
It was done with a good script and good actors, but the impact came from the faux documentary style that it adopted, such that the audience were made to imagine that what happened might just be real. There was no attempt at objectivity - Cathy was portrayed in sympathetic manner, nothing that happened can really be her fault, and the officialdom was unfeeling, severe and judgmental. The film is manipulative but many would argued that that's justified because the heart of the director was in the right place. It is the ultimate propagandist film, one that achieved its objective in spectacular fashion and showed aspiring directors how propaganda on social issues should be done.
But did the film actually do any good? It had a profound influence on housing policy and thus indirectly on the social development of Great Britain. For example, young mothers are now given priority on public housing, and this helped created a situation where young women think that having children would help them getting a council house. It is no accident that Britain has the highest incidence of teenage pregnancy in the Western world and this (and the consequent social problems created) can be argued to be the direct legacy of this film. Does it help with the problem of homelessness? Not a jot from the large number of homeless people we see in London and other British towns, a great proportion of them young men, and a situation that is probably worse than that of the 60's.
This film, and its many subsequent imitators, propagated the dishonest view that individuals who get into difficulties in life are largely blameless, and the government is the one to blame and the one to solve the problems. It, directly or indirectly, helped foster the view that individuals carry little responsibility for their own actions. It is, in essence, a "bad" film, one that no doubt done with good intention, but whose effect has been deleterious and damaging to society.