The Sherwood creator writes about bringing the political drama back on stage. <\/p>
This feature first appeared in\u00a0Radio Times magazine<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Plays for television \u2013 remember them? If you\u2019re under the age of 35, then probably not.<\/p>\n Play for Today was a landmark drama series running from 1970 to 1984 that, week by week, presented a new single play for television audiences at home, aiming for mass appeal and written by playwrights who were often little known or undiscovered, but who would in many cases become household names.<\/p>\n Alan Bennett, Alan Plater, Alan Bleasdale (a lot of Alans), Dennis Potter, Mike Leigh, Beryl Bainbridge.<\/p>\n The format lent itself to \u2013 as pompous as this phrase can sound \u2013 \u201cstate of the nation\u201d pieces. Single plays, for single issues. Characters wrestling with a particular condition they find themselves in, shining a light on the social issues of the day.<\/p>\n The most frequently cited example of a TV play that packed a political punch is, of course, Cathy Come Home, which was broadcast under the umbrella of the series\u2019s predecessor, The Wednesday Play, in 1966.<\/p> Directed by Ken Loach and written by Jeremy Sandford, the hard-hitting story centred around a young working-class couple, Cathy and Reg, struggling with homelessness. It was a drama generating not just awareness, but \u201cempathy\u201d (the main superpower of a play) for people\u2019s plight, by living through it with them.<\/p>\n One quarter of the entire nation \u2013 12 million people at the time \u2013 tuned in to watch the broadcast. It cut through to the press and politicians, in a similar way to Mr Bates vs The Post Office<\/a> in the modern day. MPs spoke about Cathy in the House of Commons, and the homelessness charity Crisis was created the next year.<\/p>\n Because single plays and dramas \u2013 back then, but also today \u2013 are lower risk for commissioners (in other words \u2013 cheaper), it meant that, invaluably, greater risks could be taken on newer and untested talent. Working-class writers, regional voices, bringing their experiences and outlook to the screen.<\/p>\n Liverpool seemed to do very well out of this. Beryl Bainbridge, the chain-smoking, blackly comic national treasure from its Allerton suburb, cut her teeth with a play in 1976. Willy Russell\u2019s Our Day Out \u2013 a staple now of school shows everywhere \u2013 began life as a television play in 1976.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Boys from the Black Stuff \u2013 Alan Bleasdale\u2019s single play, originally broadcast in 1980, that would then become expanded into one of the most seminal and impactful television dramas of the late 20th century: 1982\u2019s Boys from the Blackstuff.<\/p>\n