Ruth Dunning
2021
Hot Summer Night
Ted Kotcheff
John Slater, Lloyd Reckord
Jacko, a respected union man, is fighting for the promotion of a Jamaican colleague to chargehand, but when his daughter brings home her black boyfriend, he realises that racial prejudice is rife within his own home. This powerful drama exposes the deep-seated racial tensions hidden in British family life during the late 1950s. Written for the stage by Unity Theatre's Ted Willis, this television recording was filmed a few weeks after the play's successful West End run, and most of the stage cast repeat their roles here, including the terrific John Slater, Andree Melly and Lloyd Reckord. The drama's interracial kiss is probably the first to be shown on British TV.
Hot Summer Night
The Three Lives of Thomasina
Don Chaffey
Patrick McGoohan, Susan Hampshire
Thomasina is the pet cat of Mary McDhui, the daughter of Scottish veterinarian Andrew McDhui. When Thomasina falls ill, McDhui declares that the pet should be put down. But when Mary and her father try to bury the cat, Lori MacGregor (Susan Hampshire), who is said to be a witch, shows up and attempts to steal it.
The Three Lives of Thomasina
The Woman in the Hall
Jack Lee
Ursula Jeans, Jean Simmons
Lorna Blake, (Ursula Jeans) is a widow with two daughters. She augments her slender income by using her children to extort money - visiting the houses of the rich to tell a pathetic story and beg for help. And Lorna makes a rich capture when Sir Halmar Bernard, (Cecil Parker), proposes to her. She tells him that she has only one daughter, Molly (Jill Freud, credited as Jill Raymond). When her other daughter, Jay (Jean Simmons), is arrested for forging a cheque, she refuses to help her.
The Woman in the Hall
The Weak and the Wicked
J. Lee Thompson
Glynis Johns, Diana Dors
Jean Raymond an upper class woman with a gambling addiction, is given a twelve-month prison sentence resulting from her inability to pay her debts. At first she is overwhelmingly depressed by life in the women's prison; gradually, however, her misery is relieved by the many close friends she makes there. This sympathetic drama traces the contrasting lives and often faltering progress of the inmates of a women's prison.
The Weak and the Wicked
Intimate Relations
Charles Frank
Harold Warrender, Marian Spencer
Yvonne is seething when her devoted son, Michael, declares his intention to marry Madeleine, despite the latter's admitting to having an affair with a mysterious older man. At the same time, George, Michael's father, confides in Yvonne's sister, Leo, that he is in fact Madeleine's other lover. Together, they hatch a plot to end Madeleine's hopes of marriage - by threatening to reveal George's scandalous secret to his son.
Intimate Relations
The House in Nightmare Park
Peter Sykes
Frankie Howerd, Ray Milland
Comedy legend Frankie Howerd stars as the victim of sinister shenanigans in this hilarious spoof of British horror films of the early ‘70s. Starring Hugh Burden and Oscar winner Ray Milland, and written by Terry Nation. Foster Twelvetrees, a struggling tragedian who scrapes a living by giving hammy performances from the classics, can hardly believe his luck when he’s invited to give a dramatic reading at the country home of a well-off family. Joy soon turns to outraged horror when he discovers dead bodies, foul intentions, lots of snakes and a madwoman in the attic. Can he uncover the hidden family secret before he comes to a sticky end..?
The House in Nightmare Park
It's a Great Day
John Warrington
Ruth Dunning, Edward Evans
Big screen spin off from the BBC TV series The Grove Family, ostensibly the first British soap opera. Bob Grove, a builder has problems with the council, over building supplies that he needs to complete a job on a local housing estate. Under pressure to finish the job, his son gets them from a local crook. When the council find out, they call in the police, so the Grove family get together, to clear themselves, in time for the grand opening.
It's a Great Day
Save a Little Sunshine
Norman Lee
Dave Willis, Pat Kirkwood
Dave Smalley buys a lost Archaeopteryx fossil by accident at an auction and uses the reward money for this to buy a share in his landlady's lodging- house. She turns him into an exploited man-of-all-work about the house, but after a lady guest persuades him that he resembles Napoleon he becomes convinced that he is a born leader and mounts a takeover bid to reverse their roles.
Save a Little Sunshine
