#in this case the unofficial strike at Pilkington's glass works in St. Helens in 1970. both Allen and Loach would express some doubts about
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Play for Today: The Rank and File (BBC, 1971)
"I mean, the cry of a kiddie, the hungry kiddie, that means much more to me than all the laws and all the prisons in creation. I go along with Trotsky, that life is beautiful; that the future generation cleanses of all the oppression, violence and evil and - and enjoy it to the full."
#play for today#the rank and file#single play#1971#bbc#ken loach#jim allen#peter kerrigan#bill dean#tommy summers#joan flood#johnny gee#mike hayden#bert king#neville smith#ernie mack#michael forrest#charlie barlow#bernard atha#an early surviving PfT from the very first season‚ reuniting writer Allen director Loach and much of the cast of a previous bbc play The#Big Flame (shown as part of The Wednesday Play in 1969). like Flame this is realistic docudrama dealing with recent industrial action#in this case the unofficial strike at Pilkington's glass works in St. Helens in 1970. both Allen and Loach would express some doubts about#this play in later years (chiefly that it is too closely centred on the specific event that inspired it; altho a nervous bbc insisted names#and locations be changed; without a wider view on the societal issues and workers' exploitation that had caused the strike to begin with)#but personally i think both were being overly harsh: this is a searing‚ infuriating indictment of a system which robbed honest men of their#work and of their reputations‚ backed by the mass media (who falsely reported the strike had been infiltrated by communists looking to#cause mischief; in fact there's evidence the real strike was infiltrated instead by the uk security services to smear the organisers)#and failed by a gutless Trades Union Congress. as tv drama‚ this isn't the most valuable example: it is necessarily dry in places‚ and the#steady pace and narrow focus don't lend themselves to great storytelling exactly. as social document and historical record‚ however?#this is absolutely invaluable and a stirring‚ affecting piece of television that cannot fail to make rail against the capitalist system
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