''Moonlight on the Highway'' is a television play by
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Singing Detective'' (198 ...
, first broadcast on 12 April 1969 as part of
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
's ''Saturday Night Theatre'' strand. The tale of a young
Al Bowlly
Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1898 – 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African– British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930s in Britain. He recorded more than 1,000 songs.
His most popular songs includ ...
obsessive attempting to blot out memories of sexual abuse via his fixation with the singer, the play was the first of Potter's works to use popular music as a dramatic device and strongly anticipated Potter's later 'serials with songs' ''
Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''
The Singing Detective
''The Singing Detective'' is a BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon and directed by Jon Amiel. Its six episodes are "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It".
The ser ...
'' (1986) and ''
Lipstick on Your Collar'' (1993).
Synopsis
Al Bowlly
Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1898 – 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African– British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930s in Britain. He recorded more than 1,000 songs.
His most popular songs includ ...
obsessive, David Peters (
Ian Holm
Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor who was knighted in 1998 for his contributions to theatre and film. Beginning his career on the British stage as a standout member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, ...
), is visited in his run-down
bedsit by Marie (
Deborah Grant
Deborah Grant (born Deborah Jane Snelling; 22 February 1947) is an English actress. Between 1981 and 1991, she played Deborah Bergerac in the BBC television detective series '' Bergerac''. Since 2007, she has appeared in the sitcom ''Not Going ...
), a researcher for Severn Television, who is collecting material for a documentary about the singer. David is the editor of the Al Bowlly Appreciation Society
fanzine
A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...
and Marie hopes to secure him as the programme advisor. David is enthusiastic about the offer but has other things on his mind; he has an appointment with an
NHS
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
psychiatrist the following day and his anxiety about the meeting, coupled with the novelty of entertaining his beautiful visitor, leads him to make an unwelcome pass at her. Marie fights off his advances and runs out the flat, leaving a defeated David to reflect on his problems.
In the waiting room the next day, David gets into an altercation with an elderly patient who has never heard of Al Bowlly. By the time he is finally called to see Dr Chilton (
Anthony Bate), David is agitated by the older man's ignorance – especially as today is the anniversary of Bowlly's death. The doctor's calm demeanour, however, soon puts David at ease and, with some difficulty, David explains that his mother died six weeks earlier after having nursed her throughout his adult life and harrowingly recounts how, at the age of ten, he was abducted by a stranger and sexually assaulted. Alongside these traumatic events, David hints as some "wicked" acts he has committed but Chilton stops him before he can elaborate on these and prescribes him some anti-depressants. He is warned not to drink alcohol or eat cheese while taking the tablets as they will "make
istongue wag."
After David leaves, Chilton informs the two student doctors who have been in attendance throughout the session that he believes David's claustrophobic relationship with his disabled mother and the earlier torment of sexual abuse have resulted in a sense of sexual disgust that he overcomes in his obsession with the innocent music of Al Bowlly. Chilton dismisses his junior colleagues' concerns that David may attempt suicide and suggests it is more likely that the desperate desire to discharge his secrets will perhaps lead him to confide in a friend.
Later that evening, David attends the annual meeting of the Al Bowlly Appreciation Society. Relieved that his ordeal with the psychiatrist is over, David forgets the warning not to mix his medication with alcohol and drinks heavily. After much merriment, the Society President calls David up on stage to talk about the success of the fanzine. As David holds forth in his speech about the beauty and innocence of Bowlly's music his mind wanders back to the sexual assault and, realising he is surrounded by friends whose attitudes to love and sex match his own, reveals that he has slept with 136 prostitutes. As he leaves the stage and the scandalised Society members return to their festivities, a jubilant David approaches a large blow-out of Bowlly mounted on the wall. He smiles: "Good old Al!"
Principal cast
*
Ian Holm
Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor who was knighted in 1998 for his contributions to theatre and film. Beginning his career on the British stage as a standout member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, ...
as David Peters
*
Anthony Bate as Dr Chilton
*
Deborah Grant
Deborah Grant (born Deborah Jane Snelling; 22 February 1947) is an English actress. Between 1981 and 1991, she played Deborah Bergerac in the BBC television detective series '' Bergerac''. Since 2007, she has appeared in the sitcom ''Not Going ...
as Marie Holdsworth
*
Robin Wentworth as Al Bowlly Appreciation Society President
*
Derek Woodward as first medical student
*
John Flanagan John Flanagan or Jack Flanagan may refer to:
Sportspeople
* Jack Flanagan (footballer) (1902–1989), English footballer
* John Flanagan (hammer thrower) (1868–1938), Irish-American three-time Olympic champion in athletics
* John Flanagan (Limeri ...
as second medical student
Music
(All songs recorded by Al Bowlly and the
Lew Stone
Louis Stone known professionally as Lew Stone (28 June 1898 – 13 February 1969) was a British bandleader and arranger of the British dance band era, and was well known in Britain during the 1930s. He was known as a skillful, innovative a ...
Orchestra)
*"Moonlight on the Highway" (21 March 1938)
*"
Lover, Come Back to Me
"Lover, Come Back to Me" is a popular song composed by Sigmund Romberg with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II for the Broadway show ''The New Moon'', where the song was introduced by Evelyn Herbert and Robert Halliday (as Robert Misson). The song was ...
" (13 November 1933)
*"Just Let Me Look at You" (12 August 1938)
*"Easy Come, Easy Go" (15 June 1934)
*"
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" is one of the best-known American songs of the Great Depression. Written by lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Jay Gorney, it was part of the 1932 musical revue ''Americana''; the melody is based on a Russian-Je ...
" (12 December 1933)
*"Oh! Mr Moon" (12 April 1933)
*"
My Melancholy Baby
"My Melancholy Baby" is a popular song published in 1912 and first sung publicly by William Frawley. The music was written by Ernie Burnett (1884–1959), the lyrics by George A. Norton.
Background
Ernie Burnett, who composed the music, was ...
" (
Pathé News
Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as British Pathé. Its coll ...
film extract)
Songs quoted in dialogue but do not feature on the soundtrack include:
*"
You Couldn't Be Cuter
"You Couldn't Be Cuter" is a 1938 song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics written by Dorothy Fields.
It was written for the film ''Joy of Living'' (1938) where it was introduced by Irene Dunne.
Popular recordings in 1938 were by Tommy Dorsey ...
"
*"Marie"
*"Isn't It Heavenly?"
*"
I Love You Truly
"I Love You Truly" is a parlor song written by Carrie Jacobs-Bond. Since its publication in 1901 it has been sung at weddings, recorded by numerous artists over many decades, and heard on film and television.
History
Carrie Jacobs-Bond began to ...
"
*"Love Is the Sweetest Thing"
Production
Kenith Trodd
Kenith Trodd (born 1936, in Southampton) is a British television producer best known for his professional association with television playwright Dennis Potter.
Early life
The son of a crane driver, Trodd was raised in the Christian fundamentalist ...
, Potter's producer and long-time friend since their days at
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, introduced the author to the popular songs of the 1930s and 40s through an article he wrote for the university magazine ''
Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
''. Trodd acted as musical advisor on the play, a role he reprised for Potters later 'serials with songs' and the 1981
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
film version of ''
Pennies from Heaven''.
''Moonlight on the Highway'' contains a number of semi-autobiographical elements. In 1945 the ten-year-old Potter and his sister June went to stay with their mother's relatives in
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
, West London. Potter shared a bedroom with his bachelor uncle Ernie who sexually abused him. Potter first spoke publicly about the event in his introduction to ''Waiting for the Boat'' (published 1984) and later during his
James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the 1993
Edinburgh Television Festival
The Edinburgh International Television Festival is an annual media event held in the United Kingdom each August which brings together delegates from the television and digital world to debate the major issues facing the industry.
The Festival ...
. The main character of ''Moonlight'' appears to live in Hammersmith and it is established during a montage sequence that the abuse David suffers occurred sometime around
VJ Day
Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on ...
, as Potter declared his had.
In
Humphrey Carpenter
Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (29 April 1946 – 4 January 2005) was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inkli ...
's 1998 Potter biography, Kenith Trodd claimed that at an unspecified point in the early 1960s Potter confessed to having regularly used prostitutes while working in London; the number of women he visited allegedly matched the number of David Peters' conquests in ''Moonlight''.
Gareth Davies, who directed several of Potter's plays in the 1960s, also claims that Potter admitted to using prostitutes around this time but this time the number was much higher. These claims, however, have not been substantiated.
The play text was substantially cut for time, with twenty minutes of material featuring David's encounters with prostitutes being excised.
Style and themes
The play is structured as a
nonlinear narrative
Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, video games, and other narratives, where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other ways ...
. The main action of the drama takes place at Chilton's practice, while other scenes (David's attempt to seduce Marie and the meeting of the Al Bowlly Appreciation Society) are incorporated as
flashbacks or
flashforwards. David's memories of sexual abuse and the death of his mother are represented with overlays and
montage
Montage may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Filmmaking and films
* Montage (filmmaking), a technique in film editing
* ''Montage'' (2013 film), a South Korean film
Music
* Montage (music), or sound collage
* ''Montage'' (Block B EP), 201 ...
sequences, accompanied by Al Bowlly music on the soundtrack.
Potter uses Bowlly's songs to represent both David's desire to return to innocence and as a means for the character to express through Bowlly's lyrics the emotions that he can never express in his own words. When David unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Marie he plays her "Just Let Me Look at You" in the hope that Bowlly's words will make her understand his desire, while during his meeting with Dr Chilton he recites the lyrics of several Bowlly songs to explain the horror of his ordeal at the hands of his abuser. Potter's witty resetting of the meaning behind the Bowlly tracks used throughout the drama finds its apotheosis in the
extra-diegetic, and ironic, use of "Lover, Come Back to Me" and "Easy Come, Easy Go": the former song accompanying David's memories of the assault, the latter as he attempts to recount his experiences to Chilton – suggesting the nature of his lost innocence.
Intertextuality
Potter would later use popular music as a means to heighten the dramatic tension in his work in the serials ''
Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''
The Singing Detective
''The Singing Detective'' is a BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon and directed by Jon Amiel. Its six episodes are "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It".
The ser ...
'' (1986), ''
Lipstick on Your Collar'' (1993) and the play ''
Cream in My Coffee
''Cream in My Coffee'' is a television drama by Dennis Potter, broadcast on ITV on 2 November 1980 as the last in a loosely connected trilogy of plays exploring language and betrayal. A juxtaposition between youth and old age, the play combines ...
'' (1980).
The theme of sexual abuse is returned to in ''Only Make Believe'' (1973), ''
Brimstone and Treacle'' (1976), ''
Where Adam Stood
''Where Adam Stood'' is a television play by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on BBC 2 in 1976. It is a free adaptation, wholly shot on film, of Edmund Gosse's autobiographical book ''Father and Son'' (1907).
Synopsis
Philip Gosse, naturalist ...
'' (1976), ''
Blue Remembered Hills'' (1979), ''
Blackeyes
''Blackeyes'' is a multi-layered novel by British writer Dennis Potter, published in 1987 by Faber and Faber. It concerns the relationship between sexuality, exploitation, power and money. These are explored through the career of a desirable mod ...
'' (1989), ''
Cold Lazarus
''Cold Lazarus'' is a four-part British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying of pancreatic cancer.
It forms the second half of a pair with the television serial ''Karaoke''. The two serials were filmed ...
'' (1996) and the novel ''Hide and Seek'' (1974).
Characters also undergo psychiatric assessment in ''
Follow the Yellow Brick Road'' (1972), ''Hide and Seek'' and ''The Singing Detective''.
Broadcast and commercial release
The play was broadcast on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
on 12 April 1969. It was released in the Network DVD collection ''Dennis Potter at London Weekend Television'' alongside the dramatist's other work for the company.
Sources
*Humphrey Carpenter, ''Dennis Potter: A Biography''; 1998
*Graham Fuller (Ed.), ''Potter on Potter''; 1993
*W.S. Gilbert, ''Fight and Kick and Bite: The Life and Work of Dennis Potter''; 1995
*Nigel Williams (Ed.), ''
Arena
An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...
: Painting the Clouds''; 2005
*Nigel Williams (Ed.), ''Arena: It's in the Songs''; 2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moonlight on the Highway
1969 television plays
ITV (TV network) original programming
Television shows written by Dennis Potter