A hospital strike unlocks 40 years of buried revolutionary fire — and nobody makes TV like angry 1981 Britain.
"I wish I could write ... about what Spain was like - a real cause. Not just Cornford, Hemingway and Orwell, but the ordinary blokes who went." A confused industrial dispute at a London hospital triggers off in trade unionist George Harley 's mind memories of his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War, when the issues seemed so much clearer.
Acting
Jimmy Jewel's weathered face does 70 years of regret in one look.
Writing
Trevor Griffiths' script: ideology as lived ache, not speechifying.
Direction
Barry Davis weaves 1936 and 1980 without a single lazy dissolve.
Director
Barry Davis
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Written for BBC's 'Play for Today' strand, the same series that launched 'Raining Stones' and 'The Spongers' — peak televisual socialism.
Released months after the 1981 UK riots and during Thatcher's union-busting — Harley's defeat lands differently now than then, or does it?
GB
