Anthony Bate
1927 - 2012Moonlight on the Highway
James MacTaggart
Ian Holm, Anthony Bate
Writing for ITV's SATURDAY NIGHT THEATRE series, Dennis Potter introduced the notion that popular music expresses the yearning of the human spirit for a better world. A troubled young man, David Peters (Ian Holm), claims, "Once dreams were possible, that's what the popular songs told us." Rejecting rock music of the day, Peters is immersed in the tunes of Thirties crooner Al Bowlly (killed during the London blitz). He collects Bowlly memorabilia, publishes the Bowlly fan-club newsletter, and finds pleasure in lip-synching Bowlly records but his obsession with Bowlly masks certain darker events in his past.
Moonlight on the Highway
The Seagull
Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Anthony Bate, Michael Gambon
A group of friends and relations gather at a country estate to see the first performance of an experimental play written and staged by the young man of the house, Konstantin, an aspiring writer who dreams of bringing new forms to the theatre.
The Seagull
Nowhere in Africa
Caroline Link
Juliane Köhler, Merab Ninidze
A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.
Nowhere in Africa
Payroll
Sidney Hayers
Michael Craig, Françoise Prévost
A vicious gang of crooks plan to steal the wages of a local factory, but their carefully laid plans go wrong, when the factory employs an armoured van to carry the cash. The gang still go ahead with the robbery, but when the driver of the armoured van is killed in the raid, his wife plans revenge, and with the police closing in, the gang start to turn on each other.
Payroll
Double Echo
Alan Bridges
Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Bate
A psychologist comes to believe that the acutely autistic 17-year-old girl that he has been attempting to treat is gifted with telepathic powers, and begins to exhaustively test her capabilities, enlisting the aid of a psychiatric colleague to impartially observe.
Double Echo
'Tis Pity She's a Whore
Roland Joffé
Kenneth Cranham, Cherie Lunghi
Lord Sorenzo marries the beautiful young Annabella, but unbeknownst to him, she is pregnant as a result of an incestuous relationship with her brother Giovanni. Sorenzo discovers the truth, and his ambitious, scheming servant Vasques, resorts to murder (and worse) to ensure that the whole affair ends in a heart rending tragedy! The original 17th century play was set in Italy, this version the action takes place in Victorian England.
'Tis Pity She's a Whore
Snowball
Pat Jackson
Gordon Jackson, Kenneth Griffith
A boy tells his parents that a bus conductor turned him off the bus home for not having a ticket. The story gets out of control and the conductor, a war veteran with memory problems, is harassed until events take a tragic turn.
Snowball
Countdown to War
Patrick Lau
Ian McKellen, Michael Aldridge
Based on a play, the story details the dramatic negotiations between UK, France, Poland, Nazi-Germany and USSR from the day Czechoslovakia fell, until Britain's declaration of war on Germany caused by Hitler's invasion of Poland.
Countdown to War
