Well, I’ve mentioned it already, but now it’s actually time for O Fat White Woman, William Trevor’s 1971 Play For Today starring Maureen Pryor. Taking it’s name from the Frances Cornford poem ‘To a Fat Lady Seen From The Train’, it sees Pryor playing the wife of an outwardly charming headmaster (Peter Jeffrey) who gradually becomes aware that he is physically abusing his pupils. Simultaneously, we learn about her sexual frustration, caused by both the world and even her husband finding her unattractive.
In and of itself a great and typically bittersweet play, O Fat White Woman is also notable for including music written by Radiophonics Workshop legend Delia Derbyshire.
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
