"BBC2 Playhouse" Going Gently (1981)

User Rating:

9.0/10   

Director:

Stephen Frears

Writers:

Robert C.S. Downs (novel)
Thomas Ellice (script)

TV Series:

"BBC2 Playhouse" (1974)

Original Air Date:

5 June 1981 (Season 7, Episode 27)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Play about two elderly cancer patients suffering in hospital. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel | Number In Title

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Norman Wisdom	...	Bernard Flood
Judi Dench	...	Sister Scarli
Fulton Mackay	...	Austin Miller
Stephanie Cole	...	Gladys Flood
Peter Attard	...	George Flood
Margaret Whiting	...	Sister Marvin
Garry Cooper	...	Orderly
Ivan Steward	...	Orderly
Edward Lyon	...	Surgeon
Christian Burgess	...	Resident
Robert Hickson	...	Doctor
Ray Hassett	...	Priest
Ann Queensberry	...	Voluntary worker
Bill Dean	...	Painter
John Mulcahy	...	Painter

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

'Trevor Howard' turned down one of the leads

An excellent TV play but harrowing to watch

I saw this play on TV way back in the early 1980s and I doubt it'll ever be shown again, but I still remember it. It's a very moving story about two men in their 60s sharing a hospital room and both dying from cancer. The drama comes from these two men having utterly different backgrounds and, at first, a strong dislike for each other, yet forced to share the most intimate of experiences. Fulton Mackay plays an intellectual retired university lecturer and Norman Wisdom has the role of a brash & uneducated former salesman. What makes the play particularly interesting is that Mackay and Wisdom are both very well known to British audiences as comedy actors so it was a huge departure, but I remember they played their roles with great sensitivity. Sadly Fulton Mackay really did die from this awful disease just six years later but Norman Wisdom is still working at age 89. IF Going Gently is ever shown again it's worth seeing.