Hard Labour (Play for Today)
"Hard Labour" | |
---|---|
Play for Today episode | |
Episode no. | Series 3 Episode 20 |
Directed by | Mike Leigh |
Written by | Mike Leigh |
Produced by | Tony Garnett |
Original air date | 12 March 1973 |
"Hard Labour" is the 20th episode of third season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 12 March 1973. "Hard Labour" was written and directed by Mike Leigh, produced by Tony Garnett, and starred Liz Smith in her first major role.
The episode is the most clearly drawn in all Leigh's work from the background in Higher and Lower Broughton where he grew up. "Though elements of autobiography are buried in all Leigh's films and plays, only Hard Labour is set in Salford, – the scenes in the Stones' house were shot in a house just two doors along from where the Leighs had lived in Cavendish Road."[1]
Plot
This article needs a plot summary. (February 2024) |
Cast
- Liz Smith as Mrs Thornley
- Clifford Kershaw as Mr Thornley
- Polly Hemingway as Ann
- Bernard Hill as Edward
- Alison Steadman as Veronica
- Vanessa Harris as Mrs Stone
- Cyril Varley as Mr Stone
- Ben Kingsley as Naseem
Theme
"The polarity between the worlds of Mrs Stone and the lady who cleans her house (the central figure, Mrs Thornley, the Catholic house-cleaner) is icily delineated. In the middle is the new housing estate, where Mrs Thornley's son, Edward, (played by Bernard Hill in his professional début), a car mechanic, lives with his wife Veronica (Alison Steadman)."[2]
References
External links
- Use dmy dates from June 2016
- Use British English from June 2016
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Television episode articles with short description for single episodes
- Television episode articles with short description and disambiguated page names
- Pages using infobox television episode with unlinked values
- Wikipedia articles without plot summaries from February 2024
- 1973 British television episodes
- 1973 television plays
- British television plays
- Play for Today
- Films directed by Mike Leigh
- All stub articles
- British television film stubs