An ATV play in which a young girl’s search for her biological father forces a family to confront its past.
After months of growing tension, Deirdre (Elizabeth Bodington) finally tells her teenage daughter, Alison (Janet Ellis), the truth about her parentage. Alison’s father is not Deirdre’s husband, Frank (James Kerry), but a former boyfriend named Arnold (Paul Daneman). Determined to find him, Alison sets out on a search that unearths long-buried family secrets and forces all involved to deal with the consequences of the revelation.
A tightly focused, single-play character study, Arnold is built around the emotional fallout of a single, devastating revelation. The teleplay, by Deborah Mortimer, uses the search for a biological father as a device to dissect the fragile compromises of a seemingly stable family unit. The production’s strength lies in its small-scale, domestic realism, typical of ATV’s dramatic output of the period, relying on the performances of its four central actors to carry the weight of the drama rather than elaborate plotting. Directed by Valerie Hanson, the play forgoes melodrama for a sober examination of secrets and their consequences.
Broadcast: ITV – ATV, 07 November 1978
Written by: Deborah Mortimer
Director: Valerie Hanson
Producer: Joan Brown
Main Cast: Paul Daneman (Arnold), Elizabeth Bodington (Deirdre), James Kerry (Frank), Janet Ellis (Alison)
