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mariocki · 4 months ago

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Play for Today: Bavarian Night (BBC, 1981)

"These bloody middle class parents, ooh, they do get up my nose! You can work yourself blue in the face for them, go out of your way to accommodate them, but it's no use! They're just out to carve and criticise and try to make a fool out of you! Oh, I felt like - I'm ashamed to tell you what I felt like."

"Giving her a good hiding?"

"Yes, somebody should have done, I don't mind saying so! Oh, they make me sick! Always had their own way, always had the best of everything; she should have been brought up in our house, my dad would've had her sorted! I'm sorry, Estelle, this isn't like me, I know. Well, that's my evening spoilt for a start!"

"But what about the sausages?"

#play for today #bavarian night #1981 #single play #andrew davies #jack gold #bob peck #sarah badel #malcolm terris #arwen holm #barrie rutter #gawn grainger #kristopher kum #allan surtees #christine hargreaves #noel collins #brian protheroe #jack chissick #karen craig #a comparatively rare original work from Davies‚ who already in 81 was known chiefly for his adaptations of the work of others #a comic piece about a teacher parent social evening which descends into predictable chaos what with the heavy consumption of alcohol and #the loudly decried lack of sausages. Davies' script is frequently very witty‚ sometimes very funny indeed‚ but in a rather grotesque way #you can tell there's little warmth in his writing for most of the characters on display here: the late great Peck is the ostensible lead‚ a #hypocritical intellectual who waxes lyrical about his love for his children but who really just mines them for material for his job as a #scriptwriter; Rutter's would be progressive young head teacher quickly reveals his reactionary‚ petty nature‚ while Grainger is positively #repulsive as a middle class fascist whose desire to teach the younger generation he despises a lesson in manners is tempered only by his #own cowardice. warmth is reserved only for Badel‚ as Peck's cheating wife who at least retains a streak of humanity and a willingness to #stand by her (mildly) socialist principles‚ and particularly for Kum as the sole parent actually interested in learning more about his #daughter's education and progress (and whose bemused response to the increasingly bacchanalian mood of the evening is often the funniest #thing here). a sharp satirical piece on the mores of 80s English suburbia and the petite bourgeoisie‚ and a genuinely funny play

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