Fascinating historical insights from John R. Cook.
by John Cook
‘The television play is virtually the last place on the box where the individual voice and the personal vision is central to the experience.’[1]
‘Play for Today ! Just for today !… Something easy, undemanding. It’s all part of the commercial ! It’s all “pass the time”‘ !
How do we reconcile these two statements from the 1970s, both from the pen of Dennis Potter ? Granted, the first is supposedly ‘fact’: the articulated views of the writer himself, addressing his peers at the 1977 Edinburgh Television Festival. The second is allegedly ‘fiction’ – a typical angst-ridden outburst from Potter’s fictional TV playwright character Christopher Hudson (played by Keith Barron). Hudson is venting his frustrations as he struggles to complete his latest TV play within Potter’s own self-referential Play for Today about the writing of a television play, Only Make Believe (12 February 1973).
Keith Barron…
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Opening Negotiations 