What a lovely actress Angharad Rees was. She was loved by many people in the business, illustrated by Julian Fellowes tribute at her memorial service who said of her, "If there was one thing she was superb at, it was friendship. And not just sympathetic friendship, but hard-working, useful, practical assistance. She was anxious, I think, that she should not be defined, entirely, as the star of a popular series, as one half of a golden couple, as a mother and hostess, although she excelled in all of these. She wanted also to be remembered as a serious actress whose early career might have gone on to greatness had she not made the personal decision to change direction by having a family'.
Every era has its art form. We are living through a golden age of podcasting and long form TV. In the 60s and 70s it was the TV play that was so often the jewel. Thank you so much for uploading.
The feeling of claustrophobia here is brilliant - Julia trapped in an uncomprehending world, desperate to escape but not knowing how to get out. This has layers, depth, and a magnificent cast in a wonderfully written drama.
George A Cooper, Peter Barkworth, Ray Brooks and Peter Denyer. Top quality actors , play for today and Armchair theatre so badly missed. This is why i haven't had a tv bar cds and videos for 32 years
There are a lot of very good comments around the themes and the times and places which are so different now to five or six decades ago. Just want to note - I enjoyed it.
In 1978 I started work for a small local company. I was introduced to the girl I was taking over from. The manager said that she was leaving to have a baby. Congratulations!’ I said to her. ‘But,’ said the manager, ‘she is not married!’ ‘Oh,’ I said. This play is so true to life at the time…
1978 was asked by an international advertising agency "how do *we* know your'e not going to go and get pregnant once we employ you?..." I told them my *first* _ever_ Self DETERMINED entirely UTTER LIE. "Because am a lesbian." Am not. Just never wanted to have children. My mother was a monster. Freedom of choice to NOT propagate. Whoever would have thought that would be *Pioneering stuff,* that nobody believed any beautiful woman would choose. 😂😅🤣 Now counsel and support depressed and battered men. They don't get the support one imagines. Ironic, eh. I used to live in Surrey. Chobham.
The fascinating thing about this play is how banking has changed over the decades through technology. So many minor administrative tasks were completed by staff and the bank manager had real power over who could have overdrafts and loans.
Hi Stella good comment but I'm not so sure banking has changed for the better, a news article yesterday from Australia was saying a few banks have decided to charge their customers for taking cash out
Yes, I remember banking before ATM machines were introduced. Everybody had to go to the bank in their lunch hour to withdraw cash - usually between 12:00 and 14:00 - which, of course, was when the bank staff also took their lunch breaks! So you had a long line of customers, all queueing to be served at the sole open window position! How did we ever cope before ATMs and debit cards?!
I enjoyed every second of this. I was young, but can remember 1971 & the characters portrayed here were true to life.Style, opulence & smart,alluring presentation of yourself to the opposite sex was of primary consideration.In today's world of 2025 it seems an option or irrelevance.
Where I live there are several banks that have been converted to shop, bars etc. You can always tell an old bank building, as they look solid and diginfied, along with the bricked up or disused night safe in the wall.
*Fabulous! Great cast. Thank you for sharing.* One has to have lived a long life to have seen _all_ of life's myriad kaleidoscopic patterns in all its pieces. Would genuinely *hate* to be 'young' in today's over predictable blandness that pompously insists it calls itself 'innovative'. We already did it all. 🙏🏻 ♀️♂️🌸
If only. You need a top director, Voytek, one of the most talented writers of her generation, Fay Weldon, a collection of first rate actors and then set and costume design that are spot on. Other than that, it's easy.
I remember Peter Denyer from Please Sir and The Fenn Street Gang (late '60s to early '70s), where his character name was Dennis Dunstable. One scene which still cracks me up when I think about it is his attempt at ironing a shirt. The shirt was on the ironing board, all scrunched up, and he was trying to press it flat with the iron! Brilliant!
@@veganandy152 OK I just seem to remember John Alderton always saying "Yes thank you Dennis" in Please Sir. It must have been someone else making owl noises.
The direction, by the legendary, Voytek is wonderful. The camera is almost always in motion as it weaves between the party guests. Fay Weldon's teleplay is equally good, as are the performances. It is just a joy and does more in 50 minutes than many stage plays achieve over three hours. It does everything a play should do i.e be a bridge into another reality, other lives.
Peter Wynn Barkworth (14 January 1929 - 21 October 2006) was an English actor. He twice won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor; for Crown Matrimonial in 1975 and for Professional Foul and The Country Party in 1978.
Thank you MDC. God I had some awful office parties, awkward things that would never be mentioned again. From 16-21 I wondered what the hell am I doing sitting here in the first place? That's not right. So eventually I left. Never did it again. A man, or woman need never be stuck in such a position, life is too short to sit at a desk for some unknown oligarch.
My very first office party (some 40+ years ago now) they had genuine party games such as "pass the parcel" and bingo. Then there was a meal and dancing to a local jazz quartet. Genuinely enjoyable and nobody felt excluded. It wasn't till I moved jobs some 15 years later that the office parties became an excuse for a booze-up. Which certainly isn't to everyone's tastes.
@@stevenmcghee6649 Another difference now would be the obligatory loudspeakers blasting out music at ten thousand decibels to make sure everyone there ends up with irreversible hearing damage.
@@Gwilym.Kernow I've literally just got home from my latest one. Left after the meal at 10pm. One advantage of being the oldest person in the company is that I can use that as an excuse for leaving before all the booming bass begins! I tell the young 'uns about the prog rock of my youth - but we didn't subject our elders to Yes or Hawkwind at the office party. Sorry - I think I'm now officially an old fogey.
At 21:27, at the end of his spontaneous soliloquy, The Manager exclaims "What am I going to do?", in reference to his imminent retirement. I am always dismayed at this apparent fear from people facing retirement, because they have a privilege that is not afforded to everyone: they have CHOICE. They have the choice to do nothing, to take up a new hobby or interest, to do part-time work, or to donate their time usefully to voluntary work, for example. The least you can do is have a lie-in! For me, the thing I hated the most about working was the alarm clock going off. You are awoken 'alarmingly', possibly having had insufficient sleep and all you want to do is go back to sleep. But you HAVE TO get up and get on with it. So, be grateful for your new found freedom, is what I say to Mr Manager and others in his position.
Worst. Party. Ever. But a fascinating time capsule, I really love these short tele-plays. Julia looked like a Julie Christie goddess at the party, everyone else was just so unpleasant or a creep. She's too good for that scene. I was disappointed at the ending (spoiler) that she went off with the guy who had treated her so callously.
George A Cooper, Peter Barkworth , Ray Brooks, Peter Denyer great cast. Play for today and armchair theatre proper programmes of quality. I haven't had a connected TV for 32 years because the quality has vanished
@@BennyTheBall8899 Yep the intro music was bad enough but Quiet As A Nun scared the bejesus outta me, remember they even had a nightime version of the Thames ident, telly really knew how to viscerally scare back then
Taking a fancy to women, and you call that bad behaviour? If only there were women now instead of an ever growing supply of ringed nose, tattoed effalumps with more colours in their hair than a pride flag dangling from a public building.
Judging by a few of the comments here (in addition to the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein), I'd say that it continues today! But I know what you mean and am in agreement. Sometimes - often - I am embarrassed and ashamed to belong to the male gender.
Many programmes that I'm really interested in watching end up getting turned off within a couple of minutes as I can't concentrate when the frying starts
I can't believe that The manager (George A Cooper) insists Julia should be dismissed because she has become pregnant! Surely he wouldn't have gotten away with that - even in 1971?
@@melokc7257 yep had to put up the misogynistic behaviour of their colleagues exactly as portrayed. Best office lay, or 'the office bicycle'. Always annoyed me, mostly of course they [the men] whispered it behind the girls backs.
@majordolbyscat The film is no great shakes either. The Smiths connection is the only good thing about it for me. Courtney was a very strange choice for the lead. He looks like an old man.
Thank you, I can’t speak for other channels, but I try to incorporate certain themes with my uploads and prefer to explore the less explored productions of everything that has come before.
Appreciate the work. There is so many exceptionally good TV that seems to be forever lost. I know it's about licencing and rights issues but what a waste the BBC and ITVX cannot add thousands of hours of old TV on their digital services.
At least 80% of comments, condensed: "Oh, I miss the days when women didn't expect to be paid the same as men. Why can't I smoke at work? It's freedom of choice. Not a single sylable (sic) of vocal fry. Men were men and women were women back then. No mobile phones! Blah blah blah blah blah."
Angharad Rees is acting the classic doormat. Telford's change man is doing his usual shtick. Interesting, but also a tad dated & wooden. I rather enjoyed it though.💙
I think you can see that Julia is on a journey somewhere. In 1971 she is just setting off but Fay Weldon is I think hinting that when it is Dickie's turn to retire it might just be someone like Julia that he is handing over to. Remember it is Julia that effectively writes the letter to the customer. She is no fool, and in a play of misunderstandings Dickie and Julia do end up with an understanding of sorts, and it is not a sexual one. They appreciate each other as people. The awful Rachel is also on a journey somewhere, and again clearly smarter than the men around her. It is a subtly subversive piece actually.
What a lovely actress Angharad Rees was. She was loved by many people in the business, illustrated by Julian Fellowes tribute at her memorial service who said of her, "If there was one thing she was superb at, it was friendship. And not just sympathetic friendship, but hard-working, useful, practical assistance. She was anxious, I think, that she should not be defined, entirely, as the star of a popular series, as one half of a golden couple, as a mother and hostess, although she excelled in all of these. She wanted also to be remembered as a serious actress whose early career might have gone on to greatness had she not made the personal decision to change direction by having a family'.
Thank you for providing that delightful bit of backstory.
The last years of her life and Christopher Cazenove's were so sad because of what tragically happened to their son.
I wore those knee-high white boots in the 1960s and 1970s . Every girl had them, in various colours.
Every era has its art form. We are living through a golden age of podcasting and long form TV. In the 60s and 70s it was the TV play that was so often the jewel. Thank you so much for uploading.
What is long form TV please?
@@LuciThomasHardylover-qx6ts Something like "The Sopranos" or "Mad Men" perhaps. A drama that you would devote tens of hours to watching.
@@LuciThomasHardylover-qx6ts streamed chat rubbish & events ?
@@LuciThomasHardylover-qx6ts I think it means long-running (or continuous) series.
Long form tv?...... Smh.... lol.
Every character exceptionally played. Thank you so much for this upload.
The feeling of claustrophobia here is brilliant - Julia trapped in an uncomprehending world, desperate to escape but not knowing how to get out. This has layers, depth, and a magnificent cast in a wonderfully written drama.
George A Cooper, Peter Barkworth, Ray Brooks and Peter Denyer.
Top quality actors , play for today and Armchair theatre so badly missed.
This is why i haven't had a tv bar cds and videos for 32 years
Me neither. Thank heavens for TH-cam.
Did you not see the late Angarhad Rees ???
There are a lot of very good comments around the themes and the times and places which are so different now to five or six decades ago. Just want to note - I enjoyed it.
In 1978 I started work for a small local company. I was introduced to the girl I was taking over from. The manager said that she was leaving to have a baby. Congratulations!’ I said to her. ‘But,’ said the manager, ‘she is not married!’ ‘Oh,’ I said. This play is so true to life at the time…
1978 was asked by an international advertising agency "how do *we* know your'e not going to go and get pregnant once we employ you?..."
I told them my *first* _ever_ Self DETERMINED entirely UTTER LIE.
"Because am a lesbian."
Am not.
Just never wanted to have children.
My mother was a monster.
Freedom of choice to NOT propagate.
Whoever would have thought that would be *Pioneering stuff,* that nobody believed any beautiful woman would choose. 😂😅🤣
Now counsel and support depressed and battered men.
They don't get the support one imagines.
Ironic, eh.
I used to live in Surrey.
Chobham.
Great play. Another world
Angharad Rees was beautiful,I remember her well in Poldark.
stunning
What a well written gem and solid performances
Hey Dolby this was very well done kept getting flashbacks of mannerings bank, thanks heaps for showing enjoyed so two pats for your cat
If you mean the Home Guard captain from Dad's Army, his character name was George Mainwaring - not 'Mannering'!
Good Lord, Angharad Rees was beautiful.
The fascinating thing about this play is how banking has changed over the decades through technology. So many minor administrative tasks were completed by staff and the bank manager had real power over who could have overdrafts and loans.
Hi Stella good comment but I'm not so sure banking has changed for the better, a news article yesterday from Australia was saying a few banks have decided to charge their customers for taking cash out
@@johngibson3837 Good God, if there was ever a reason to invest anywhere but banks, this must be right at the top
@@johngibson3837 Good heavens! A company charging its customers for providing a service to them; whatever next?
Yes, I remember banking before ATM machines were introduced. Everybody had to go to the bank in their lunch hour to withdraw cash - usually between 12:00 and 14:00 - which, of course, was when the bank staff also took their lunch breaks! So you had a long line of customers, all queueing to be served at the sole open window position! How did we ever cope before ATMs and debit cards?!
@@veganandy152 and they closed at 3.30, and weren`t open on Saturdays either.
I enjoyed every second of this. I was young, but can remember 1971 & the characters portrayed here were true to life.Style, opulence & smart,alluring presentation of yourself to the opposite sex was of primary consideration.In today's world of 2025 it seems an option or irrelevance.
My old bank looked very much like this building. Gone now, it's been converted into a Wetherspoons (yuk).
Where I live there are several banks that have been converted to shop, bars etc. You can always tell an old bank building, as they look solid and diginfied, along with the bricked up or disused night safe in the wall.
*Fabulous! Great cast. Thank you for sharing.*
One has to have lived a long life to have seen _all_ of life's myriad kaleidoscopic patterns in all its pieces.
Would genuinely *hate* to be 'young' in today's over predictable blandness that pompously insists it calls itself 'innovative'.
We already did it all.
🙏🏻
♀️♂️🌸
Great play this one, good old actors!
It wants more programmes of this kind on the television instead of the all the endless crime programmes.
If only. You need a top director, Voytek, one of the most talented writers of her generation, Fay Weldon, a collection of first rate actors and then set and costume design that are spot on. Other than that, it's easy.
I remember Peter Denyer from Please Sir and The Fenn Street Gang (late '60s to early '70s), where his character name was Dennis Dunstable. One scene which still cracks me up when I think about it is his attempt at ironing a shirt. The shirt was on the ironing board, all scrunched up, and he was trying to press it flat with the iron! Brilliant!
Dennis Dunstable there's a blast from the past, was he the one who went "hoot hoot"?
@@robert-wr6md I don't recall that, Robert. I think you may be confusing Peter with a large nocturnal bird of prey from the order Strigiformes!
@@veganandy152 OK I just seem to remember John Alderton always saying "Yes thank you Dennis" in Please Sir. It must have been someone else making owl noises.
Think I concentrated more on Sharon😏
@@HymnfortheDudes Mini skirts never came back did they? It was a one off.
Julia's dress is fabulous.
Typical ladies fashion at the time. We've lost something in the way that we present ourselves.
Looking forward to this🤞
The direction, by the legendary, Voytek is wonderful. The camera is almost always in motion as it weaves between the party guests. Fay Weldon's teleplay is equally good, as are the performances. It is just a joy and does more in 50 minutes than many stage plays achieve over three hours. It does everything a play should do i.e be a bridge into another reality, other lives.
Peter Wynn Barkworth (14 January 1929 - 21 October 2006) was an English actor.
He twice won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor; for Crown Matrimonial in 1975 and for Professional Foul and The Country Party in 1978.
Thank you MDC. God I had some awful office parties, awkward things that would never be mentioned again. From 16-21 I wondered what the hell am I doing sitting here in the first place? That's not right. So eventually I left. Never did it again. A man, or woman need never be stuck in such a position, life is too short to sit at a desk for some unknown oligarch.
other non multi conglomorate office jobs are available
My very first office party (some 40+ years ago now) they had genuine party games such as "pass the parcel" and bingo. Then there was a meal and dancing to a local jazz quartet. Genuinely enjoyable and nobody felt excluded. It wasn't till I moved jobs some 15 years later that the office parties became an excuse for a booze-up. Which certainly isn't to everyone's tastes.
@@stevenmcghee6649
Another difference now would be the obligatory loudspeakers blasting out music at ten thousand decibels to make sure everyone there ends up with irreversible hearing damage.
@@Gwilym.Kernow I've literally just got home from my latest one. Left after the meal at 10pm. One advantage of being the oldest person in the company is that I can use that as an excuse for leaving before all the booming bass begins! I tell the young 'uns about the prog rock of my youth - but we didn't subject our elders to Yes or Hawkwind at the office party. Sorry - I think I'm now officially an old fogey.
At 21:27, at the end of his spontaneous soliloquy, The Manager exclaims "What am I going to do?", in reference to his imminent retirement. I am always dismayed at this apparent fear from people facing retirement, because they have a privilege that is not afforded to everyone: they have CHOICE. They have the choice to do nothing, to take up a new hobby or interest, to do part-time work, or to donate their time usefully to voluntary work, for example. The least you can do is have a lie-in! For me, the thing I hated the most about working was the alarm clock going off. You are awoken 'alarmingly', possibly having had insufficient sleep and all you want to do is go back to sleep. But you HAVE TO get up and get on with it. So, be grateful for your new found freedom, is what I say to Mr Manager and others in his position.
Lovely Peter Barkworth thank you
He was a very understated actor, always thoughtful. He was in an episode of Secret Army, in which he was assassinated. An excellent series.
Also excellent as Brauner the gestapo officer in Colditz spirit of freedom. If peter barkworth was in it then it was worth watching.
Thankyou 🎉
Worst. Party. Ever. But a fascinating time capsule, I really love these short tele-plays. Julia looked like a Julie Christie goddess at the party, everyone else was just so unpleasant or a creep. She's too good for that scene. I was disappointed at the ending (spoiler) that she went off with the guy who had treated her so callously.
I loved Armchair Theatre! My favourite was the one about Mr Kitling - does anyone else remember that?
Great cast TV today I don't watch it is rubbish endless repeats this was excellent
George A Cooper, Peter Barkworth , Ray Brooks, Peter Denyer great cast.
Play for today and armchair theatre proper programmes of quality.
I haven't had a connected TV for 32 years because the quality has vanished
@@stephenholmes1036 Me neither, but long as you have.
Good little choice from the selection box Herr Major ..!
Thank goodness times have changed
I was hoping for that creepy whistler music snd the shadow chair intro that spooked me as a sprog
Armchair Thriller, especially the one with the faceless nun.😮
@JulianOrchardfan doh ! My mistake your right thriller not theatre !
@@MrBenmanning That music from Armchair Thriller still gives me the creeps.
@@BennyTheBall8899 Yep the intro music was bad enough but Quiet As A Nun scared the bejesus outta me, remember they even had a nightime version of the Thames ident, telly really knew how to viscerally scare back then
@@BennyTheBall8899 there's a few on TH-cam. Nothing recreates that childhood fear and strangeness
George A Cooper, remember him from Billy Liar the TV series, reminds me of my late father 😂😂.
So tragically funny. Definitely worth watching.
Interesting to view the fashion trends of the times; particularly the women's attire. The 'mini' was def. in maxi mode....
Blimey, were us men really this badly behaved in the seventies? Probably.
Some men in the 70s made Gregg Wallace look like a total amateur - I was there…
Taking a fancy to women, and you call that bad behaviour? If only there were women now instead of an ever growing supply of ringed nose, tattoed effalumps with more colours in their hair than a pride flag dangling from a public building.
Judging by a few of the comments here (in addition to the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein), I'd say that it continues today! But I know what you mean and am in agreement. Sometimes - often - I am embarrassed and ashamed to belong to the male gender.
@veganandy152 Judging by the comments, I'm amazed some have the time to tear themselves away from The Guardian On-Line😏
Paul was the voice of “ Mr Benn” .
Don't leave it there, I want a follow up.
The opening credits for this cost £4.78. No one knows what happened to the £4.56 that was left over.
How bizarre. Not a single sylable of vocal fry.
Many programmes that I'm really interested in watching end up getting turned off within a couple of minutes as I can't concentrate when the frying starts
"Syllable". A pompous ass MUST be able to spell.
I can't believe that The manager (George A Cooper) insists Julia should be dismissed because she has become pregnant! Surely he wouldn't have gotten away with that - even in 1971?
Ugh, the options for women back then. Thank goodness for the right to make a good living.
@@melokc7257 yep had to put up the misogynistic behaviour of their colleagues exactly as portrayed.
Best office lay, or 'the office bicycle'. Always annoyed me, mostly of course they [the men] whispered it behind the girls backs.
@@rivergladesgardenrailroad8834Watch Mad Men, that's about as misogynistic and sexist as you can get. A brilliant series.
I made the mistake of revising Billy Liar, which seemed so fresh and original forty years ago. It is unbelievably bad.
I'll assume you are talking about the Jeff Rawle television series and not the Tom Courtenay / John Schlesinger cinema classic?
@majordolbyscat
Yes.
@majordolbyscat
The film is no great shakes either. The Smiths connection is the only good thing about it for me. Courtney was a very strange choice for the lead. He looks like an old man.
Angharad Rees❤, I had some of these on dvd Major, Network I think.I really miss Network distributing.
The Smiths connection is the reason I've heard of it as an American. I think The Smiths can be blamed for my love pof British television
RAY BROOKES MR BENN
The moral of the story...tell lies come unstuck...
What on earth was all that about ?
Scriptwriting and acting have come on leaps and bounds since 1971
Back in the 'good old days' of rampant sexism.
Thicko Dennis from fen street gang.
AR Hot Totty here.
I love your channel MDC, are there any other YT channels like yours you can recommend?
Thank you, I can’t speak for other channels, but I try to incorporate certain themes with my uploads and prefer to explore the less explored productions of everything that has come before.
Appreciate the work. There is so many exceptionally good TV that seems to be forever lost.
I know it's about licencing and rights issues but what a waste the BBC and ITVX cannot add thousands of hours of old TV on their digital services.
At least 80% of comments, condensed: "Oh, I miss the days when women didn't expect to be paid the same as men. Why can't I smoke at work? It's freedom of choice. Not a single sylable (sic) of vocal fry. Men were men and women were women back then. No mobile phones! Blah blah blah blah blah."
most odd
Please Sir
Bilge.
Office Parties should be banned
Since COVID I think they are rather very rare happenings now.😊😊
@@stellamariayates3776 and you can file "Common Sense" along with it 🤔
Yes, and so should office parries!
@veganandy152 corrected thanks
@@rivergladesgardenrailroad8834 You're welcome - most people wouldn't bother to correct their error, so award yourself a feather in your cap!
Angharad Rees is acting the classic doormat. Telford's change man is doing his usual shtick.
Interesting, but also a tad dated & wooden. I rather enjoyed it though.💙
I think you can see that Julia is on a journey somewhere. In 1971 she is just setting off but Fay Weldon is I think hinting that when it is Dickie's turn to retire it might just be someone like Julia that he is handing over to. Remember it is Julia that effectively writes the letter to the customer. She is no fool, and in a play of misunderstandings Dickie and Julia do end up with an understanding of sorts, and it is not a sexual one. They appreciate each other as people. The awful Rachel is also on a journey somewhere, and again clearly smarter than the men around her. It is a subtly subversive piece actually.
what a load of old rubbish.
And there we have it! Thanks for such a well-constructed and comprehensive analysis and critique! Clearly, most of the other commenters are way off!
On the end credits I'm sure it's The Grinch lurking in the background. Incidentally I loved the play.
That was good!......thanks