A single play in which a soldier visits the family of a comrade killed during National Service in Cyprus, forcing them to confront the reality of their loss.
Sarah Hodgson (Hermione Baddeley) is a mother undone by grief. Her son has been killed while on National Service in Cyprus, and she remains dependent on her daughter, Mary (Doreen Aris). Since her brother’s death, Mary has been corresponding with John Simons (Brian Smith), a soldier who served in his unit. The drama begins as John arrives at the family home for a visit. He carries with him the full circumstances of the boy’s death, a truth that proves to be as unexpected as it is disturbing. Other characters include a Ticket Collector (Philip Garston-Jones) and two waitresses (Mary Chester, Victoria Morris).
Broadcast live from the BBC’s Birmingham studios, this Willis Hall play used a domestic setting to examine the personal cost of a distant colonial conflict. The Cyprus Emergency was a contemporary and volatile political issue, and its appearance as the catalyst for a television drama was unusual. By confining the action to a single conversation in a provincial living room, the production strips the conflict of any patriotic grandeur. The focus is instead on the quiet, devastating impact of geopolitics on the lives of an ordinary family, a subject Hall would return to in his later, more famous work.
Broadcast: BBC, 1 Episode, Tuesday 11 November 1958
Written by: Willis Hall
Director: Peter Dews
Main Cast: Hermione Baddeley (Mrs Sarah Hodgson), Doreen Aris (Mary Hodgson), Brian Smith (John Simons), Philip Garston-Jones (Ticket Collector), Mary Chester (Waitress), Victoria Morris (Second Waitress)
