#Harrowing‚ frankly. One of the most disturbing and upsetting plays produced on British TV in this era and all the more affecting for being

[mariocki]

Play for Today: Don't Be Silly (BBC, 1979)

"I think men often don't know what they're doing. They don't analyse themselves the way women do; that would be unmanly. I used to ask Michael what he was thinking. I never do now."

#play for today #Don't be silly #Single play #Domestic abuse tw #Rachel Billington #Kenneth Ives #Susan Fleetwood #Christopher Godwin #Maria Aitken #Doreen Mantle #Richenda Carey #Rosalind Boxall #Timothy Chasin #Stephanie Cole #Noel Collins #Emily Dean #Charlotte Howard #James Lister #Harrowing‚ frankly. One of the most disturbing and upsetting plays produced on British TV in this era and all the more affecting for being #So horribly real. Less than 10% of the plays produced for Play for Today were written by women (one of the main failings of the series #Along with similarly under representation of people of colour as creators and performers). Those that were made‚ however‚ are among the #Most urgent and vital dramatic works being made in the medium of television. Billington wrote two plays for the strand‚ this being the #First. A slow‚ steady view of a marriage between wife and wife beater. Shot in a clinical‚ documentary fashion we see the slow build up of #Resentments and frustrations as well as the tell tale beginnings of abuse as the husband lashes out more and more. Cut through with pov #Shots of a hospital bed being wheeled through a corridor‚ there is never any doubt about where the narrative is headed. It's inevitable and #Perhaps all the more powerful for that. The late Susan Fleetwood is incredible here‚ holding the entire play together and making a very #Real character of her part: tired‚ frightened‚ dignified‚ confused. A brilliant performance‚ as is Godwin in a very different way. He is a #Monster by degrees; outwardly charming and sociable but increasingly cruel and ultimately violent to his wife. A truly important play and a #Deeply affecting one but obviously one full of triggers and disturbing content; the denouement when it finally comes is utterly horrifying.