James Walton

A curate’s cornucopia

Was television in Seventies Britain that good? Is today’s better? James Walton investigates

issue 04 July 2009

Was television in Seventies Britain that good? Is today’s better? James Walton investigates

On the weekend of 2–3 December 1978, two ambitious drama projects began on television. One was the BBC Shakespeare — which seven years later had finally carried out its promise to make TV versions of the entire canon. The other took rather less time, but these days is perhaps even harder to imagine. ITV (yes, ITV) gave over the first of six Saturday nights to a series of new and sometimes experimental plays by Alan Bennett.

In late 1978, the solid cultural fare didn’t end there. The weekend before, BBC1’s long-running Play of the Month (in the slot recently occupied by such shameless heart-warmers as Lark Rise to Candleford or The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency) had allowed Sunday-evening viewers a rare chance to see Kean by Jean-Paul Sartre, with a cast including Anthony Hopkins and Robert Stephens.

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