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Reviews
The Wednesday Play: Pitchi Poi (1967)
A tragic tale from a tragic era
I was just into adulthood when I saw this television drama in 1967, and it made such a deep impression on me that I found myself trying to track it down more than three decades later. All I could recall by way of identification, was that the central character was played by an actor who also appeared in the "Callan" series. I was unable to trace it until 2006, when I found it here, on IMDb - for which I am most grateful.
It still comes back to me after all these years, the sheer unremitting grind of hard travelling and disappointment that this man of simple faith and his young charge went through, because he had taken on, as a matter of honour, the hopeless quest of reuniting her with her lost mother. The whole of post-WWII Europe, it seemed, was full of displaced people on the move. Nobody could have done more, and yet he was unable ultimately to live with failure.
The performance of Ronald Radd is spot on. The ending is an absolute shock, throwing up resonances of "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", which it predates by some years. I still find myself trying to get inside his mind, and it is a bleak feeling indeed. Full marks to the cast and the writers.
Play for Today: The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil (1974)
The seminal work by John McGrath and 7:84 Theatre Company
There has never been a more entertaining, gripping, or ultimately uplifting treatment of recent Scottish history.
This musical drama was designed to be toured by a small band of actor/musicians, and it was indeed toured all over the Highlands and Islands. The television production draws on some of these actual performance events, in telling the tale of how Scotland was exploited from pre-Victorian times to the present day.
Along the way we meet some great Scottish characters, and are introduced to a number of villains both ancient and modern, both local and foreign, who have seen it as their destiny to achieve 'progress' for Scotland (and simultaneously to line their own pockets) while avoiding any engagement in the disastrous effects which their actions and policies have had on the people and on the land.
Some of the eye-witness accounts that we hear, are harrowing in the extreme. It is hard indeed to remain detached while hearing of women and children - the men-folk having been shipped overseas to fight Britain's wars - being driven off their crofts with such violence that some had their skulls smashed open.
The other side of the coin, though, is the delightful crop of humorous songs, including my favourite, "We Are The Men Who Own Your Glen".
John McGrath has produced other great plays, and both the Scottish and English 7:84 Theatre Companies have often performed with greatness. But this remains the best of their oevre, in my eyes.