Blue Remembered Hills
Encyclopedia
Blue Remembered Hills is a television
play by Dennis Potter
, originally broadcast on January 30, 1979 as part of the BBC
's Play for Today
series.
The play concerns a group of silly seven year olds playing in the Forest of Dean
one summer afternoon during 1943. It displays how victimisation
and stereotypical views occur even in young children, and ends abruptly when the character of "Donald" is burned to death as a result of the other children's actions. The play, despite seeming very frivolous (bar the final scene) on first reading, is in fact reflecting on the human capability for brutality, especially in children, and is in a similar vein to William Golding
's The Lord of The Flies.
The most striking feature of the play was that though the characters were children they were played by adult actors. Potter first used this device in Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965) and would return to it in Cold Lazarus
(1996).
The dialogue is written in a Forest of Dean dialect
, which Potter also uses extensively in other dramas incorporating a Forest of Dean setting - most notably A Beast with Two Backs (1968), Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective
(1986).
Robin Ellis
(John), Michael Elphick
(Peter), Colin Welland
(Willie), John Bird
(Raymond), Helen Mirren
(Angela), Janine Duvitski
(Audrey), Colin Jeavons
(Donald).
The screenplay
has also been adapted for the theatre
and, as such, remains one of Dennis Potter
's best known and most successful plays. The play is now a standard text for GCSE Drama. It is featured in the 2008 AQA English Language and Literature Specification B A2 pre release material.
XL) in A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad
. The poem is read by Potter himself at the end of the BBC version of the play.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
play by Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
, originally broadcast on January 30, 1979 as part of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Play for Today
Play for Today
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
series.
The play concerns a group of silly seven year olds playing in the Forest of Dean
Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. The forest is a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.The...
one summer afternoon during 1943. It displays how victimisation
Victimisation
Victimisation is the process of being victimised or becoming a victim. Research that studies the process, rates, incidence, and prevalence of victimization falls under the body of victimology.-Peer victimisation:...
and stereotypical views occur even in young children, and ends abruptly when the character of "Donald" is burned to death as a result of the other children's actions. The play, despite seeming very frivolous (bar the final scene) on first reading, is in fact reflecting on the human capability for brutality, especially in children, and is in a similar vein to William Golding
William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
's The Lord of The Flies.
The most striking feature of the play was that though the characters were children they were played by adult actors. Potter first used this device in Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965) and would return to it in Cold Lazarus
Cold Lazarus
Cold Lazarus is a four-part British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying of cancer of the pancreas....
(1996).
The dialogue is written in a Forest of Dean dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
, which Potter also uses extensively in other dramas incorporating a Forest of Dean setting - most notably A Beast with Two Backs (1968), Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective is a BBC television miniseries written by Dennis Potter, which stars Michael Gambon, and was directed by Jon Amiel. The six episodes were "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It"....
(1986).
Cast
The stars of the original production were:Robin Ellis
Robin Ellis
Robin Ellis is an English actor best known for his role as Captain Ross Poldark in 29 episodes of the BBC classic series Poldark, adapted from a series of books by the late British author, Winston Graham...
(John), Michael Elphick
Michael Elphick
Michael John Elphick was an English actor. Elphick was known in the UK for his trademark croaky voice and his work on British television, in particular his roles as the eponymous private investigator in the ITV series Boon and later Harry Slater in BBC's EastEnders.Robust and ruggedly good-looking...
(Peter), Colin Welland
Colin Welland
Colin Welland is a British actor and screenwriter. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his script for Chariots of Fire ,,,....
(Willie), John Bird
John Bird (actor)
John Bird is an English satirist, actor and comedian.-Early life:Born in Bulwell, Nottingham, England, and educated at High Pavement Grammar School, Nottingham, Bird briefly joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain, while still at school...
(Raymond), Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
(Angela), Janine Duvitski
Janine Duvitski
Janine Duvitski is an English actress, known for her roles as Jane Edwards in Waiting for God and Pippa Trench in One Foot in the Grave. She also created and played the role of Angela in Mike Leigh's play Abigail's Party.-Personal life:Duvitski was born in Nottingham. Her father was Polish...
(Audrey), Colin Jeavons
Colin Jeavons
Colin Jeavons is a Welsh television actor.-Career:Jeavons is best known as Inspector Lestrade in the Granada television serials The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or the part of the undertaker, Shadrack, in the television situation comedy written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall from...
(Donald).
The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
has also been adapted for the theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and, as such, remains one of Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
's best known and most successful plays. The play is now a standard text for GCSE Drama. It is featured in the 2008 AQA English Language and Literature Specification B A2 pre release material.
Title
The title comes from the 40th poem (in Roman numeralsRoman numerals
The numeral system of ancient Rome, or Roman numerals, uses combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet to signify values. The numbers 1 to 10 can be expressed in Roman numerals as:...
XL) in A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad
A Shropshire Lad
A Shropshire Lad is a cycle of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman . Some of the better-known poems in the book are "To an Athlete Dying Young", "Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now" and "When I Was One-and-Twenty".The collection was published in 1896...
. The poem is read by Potter himself at the end of the BBC version of the play.
-
- Into my heart an air that kills
- From yon far country blows:
- What are those blue remembered hills,
- What spires, what farms are those?
-
- That is the land of lost content,
- I see it shining plain,
- The happy highways where I went
- And cannot come again.