In the summer of 1914, the annual cricket match between the Gentlemen of the Hall and the Players of the village is the focus of a Lancashire community. The Houghton family, led by mill owner Tom Houghton (David Hargreaves) and his wife Margaret (Jean Rimmer), are central to the local club, with their sons Ken (Christopher Baines) and Joseph (Jonathan Cullen) playing in the match. As the game proceeds over the August Bank Holiday weekend, news from Europe of imminent war increasingly intrudes upon the idyllic scene. The match becomes a poignant final act of a peaceful era, as players and spectators alike face the prospect of enlistment.
Colin Shindler’s teleplay is a powerful elegy for a lost generation, built around the juxtaposition of an English village cricket match and the outbreak of the First World War. The production treats the annual game not merely as a backdrop but as a microcosm of a pre-lapsarian social order, with its own ingrained rituals and class divisions. The drama’s bleak, ironic force comes from its title; “All Out” refers both to the conclusion of the cricket innings and the impending mass slaughter on the Western Front. Produced by Yorkshire Television, the film is a fine example of the character-driven single plays that were a hallmark of the period.
Broadcast: ITV, 07 November 1987
Written by: Colin Shindler
Director: David Green
Executive Producer: Keith Richardson
Producer: Colin Shindler
Main Cast: David Hargreaves (Tom Houghton), Christopher Baines (Ken Houghton), Jonathan Cullen (Joseph Houghton), Jean Rimmer (Margaret Houghton), Barry Jackson (Arthur Hayworth), Melanie Kilburn (Hilda Fairbrother)
