The Weekly Play

Time to look at what the BFI is showing in February. Yes, February. I never got my January guide, and since it’s now January and the February guide turned up yesterday, let’s just do February. I’ll be ahead of schedule for a change then.

February’s actually not got a huge amount of TV, but what there is is largely TV plays – and good ‘uns, too. As well as Dexter Press Gang Fletcher introducing Nuts In May, we also have a season of David Rudkin’s TV plays. Who’s Rudkin? Well, he wrote about 90% of the pagan dramas in TMINE’s guide to religion, including Penda’s Fen and Artemis 81, both of which get an airing in the season (although since the BFI describes the latter as ‘one of the medium’s greatest productions’, I’m not entirely sure they’ve actually watched it yet). 

But as well as those, Rudkin’s The Living Grave is also being shown. This was part of a somewhat odd, supernatural anthology series that aired on BBC Two called Leap In The Dark. This ran for 20 episodes in four series, over a period of eight years from 1973 to 1980, and featured work from Rudkin, as well as Fay Weldon and Alan Garner among others. Each episode featured a different incident of the paranormal, some in the modern day, but most set in other time periods.

So far, so ordinary, you might think. What’s odd about Leap In the Dark is that all these incidents were real events – indeed, the first series consisted only of documentaries, while the later series are technically docudramas, rather than dramas. Rushkin’s The Living Grave is about a young woman who regresses under hypnosis to the 1700s, with Rushkin’s play recreating both the hypnosis sessions and the 1700s. And it’s this week’s Wednesday’s Play.

Continue reading “What TV’s on at the BFI in February? Including Nuts In May, Penda’s Fen, Artemis 81 and Leap In The Dark”