In this four-part serial adaptation, the dreary lives of London office workers are upended by a charismatic but dangerous newcomer.
The struggling London firm of Twigg and Dersingham is on the verge of bankruptcy, a source of constant worry for its long-serving cashier, Mr Smeeth (Cyril Luckham). The company’s fortunes appear to change with the arrival of a dynamic businessman, Mr Golspie (Anthony Bate), who brings with him a lucrative deal for cheap veneers that promises to save the business. His arrival disrupts the bleak routines of the small staff, including the downtrodden clerk Turgis (Murray Melvin) and the lonely typist Lilian Matfield (Judy Parfitt). When Turgis becomes hopelessly infatuated with Golspie’s alluring daughter, Lena (Jane Bond), the intrusion turns disastrous. Golspie’s promises prove to be hollow, and his sudden disappearance leaves the staff worse off than before, their brief hopes extinguished.
David Turner’s four-part adaptation for BBC 2 presented J. B. Priestley’s Depression-era novel to a new generation. Broadcast in the more optimistic climate of the late 1960s, the production revisited a period of pervasive financial anxiety, using the claustrophobic offices of a failing firm as a microcosm of a society on the brink. Director Paddy Russell draws out the quiet desperation of the employees, whose lives are suddenly electrified by the appearance of the mysterious entrepreneur. Anthony Bate’s Golspie is a whirlwind of bluff charisma, a catalyst whose energy is both creative and destructive, awakening false hopes and dormant ambitions before leaving the characters in ruins.
Broadcast: BBC 2, 4 Episodes, 19 August – 9 September 1967
Adapted by: David Turner
Based on the novel by: J. B. Priestley
Director: Paddy Russell
Producer: David Conroy
Designer: Austen Spriggs
Main Cast: Cyril Luckham (Mr Smeeth), Anthony Bate (Mr Golspie), Judy Parfitt (Lilian Matfield), Murray Melvin (Turgis), Hilda Braid (Mrs Smeeth), Jane Bond (Lena Golspie), Christopher Cooper (Stanley Poole), Erik Chitty (Benenden), Tony Steedman (Dersingham), Anna Cropper (Miss Cadnam)
