''Up the Junction'' is an episode of the BBC anthology drama series ''

The Wednesday Play ''The Wednesday Play'' is an anthology series of United Kingdom, British television plays which ran on BBC One, BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramati ...

'' directed by

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (''Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessne ...

and produced by

James MacTaggart James MacTaggart (25 April 1928 – 29 May 1974) was a Scottish television producer, director and writer. He worked in London from 1961. Early life MacTaggart was born in Glasgow and served in the Royal Army Service Corps from 1946, rising to ...

. It was first broadcast on 3 November 1965 on

BBC 1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

. The play was adapted by

Nell Dunn Nell Mary Dunn (born 9 June 1936) is an English playwright, screenwriter and author. She is known especially for a volume of short stories, ''Up the Junction'', and a novel, ''Poor Cow''. Early years The second daughter of Sir Philip Dunn and ...

and (uncredited) Ken Loach from Dunn's short story collection of the same name. It tells the stories of three young women living in North

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

and

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history T ...

and, to a lesser degree, their boyfriends.

Plot

Three young female factory workers, Rube, Sylvie and Eileen, go out to a pub where they meet three young men, Terry, Ron and Dave. They flirt, go on a date to a

lido Lido may refer to: Geography Africa * Lido, a district in the city of Fez, Morocco Asia * Lido, an area in Chaoyang District, Beijing * Lido, a cinema theater in Siam Square shopping area in Bangkok * Lido City, a resort in West Java owned by MN ...

and pair off, each couple developing a significant relationship. Terry and Rube soon have sex at Rube's flat while her mother is out. Rube becomes pregnant and must seek an illegal back-street abortion, which is botched, causing Rube to suffer a

miscarriage Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...

. Although Terry and Rube continue their relationship after the abortion, they begin to grow apart, and finally have a row. Terry speeds off on his motorcycle, crashes it, and dies. Sylvie marries Ron, but soon marital troubles develop, culminating in the couple having an ugly public row in the street outside a pub that Sylvie visited with Rube and Eileen. Dave is already married when he meets Eileen, but he is unhappy with his wife, and he and Eileen have a romantic affair. In addition to his job, Dave also has a criminal history of theft. He is finally caught and imprisoned. Eileen remains loyal to him.

Cast

Carol White Carole Joan White (1 April 1943 – 16 September 1991) was an English actress. She achieved a public profile with her performances in the television play ''Cathy Come Home'' (1966) and the films ''Poor Cow'' (1967) and '' I'll Never Forg ...

- Sylvie *

Geraldine Sherman Geraldine Sherman (born Geraldine Judith Schoenmann) known as Dena Hammerstein, is a British actress and writer, and theatre producer. She was the third wife of James Hammerstein, and after his death became president/CEO of James Hammerstein ...

- Rube *

Vickery Turner Vickery Turner (3 April 1940 in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey – 4 April 2006), born Christine Hazel Turner, was a British actress, playwright, author and theatre director. Career She started out on stage and her first breakthrough role was in ...

- Eileen *

Tony Selby Anthony Samuel Selby (26 February 1938 – 5 September 2021) was an English actor. He was best known for his roles as Clive Mitchell in ''EastEnders'', Corporal Percy Marsh in ''Get Some In!'', and Sabalom Glitz in ''Doctor Who''. Life and ca ...

- Dave * Michael Standing - Terry *

Ray Barron Raynor Alan Francis Barron (1 November 1940 – 13 February 2016) was a British actor. He typically played minor roles such as policemen or workmen. He was known for his work in films such as ''10 Rillington Place'' (1971) in which he played a ...

- Ron *

Rita Webb Olive Rita Webb (25 February 1904 – 30 August 1981), later known as Olive Rita Thompson, was an English character actress, mainly in comedy roles. She was the eldest child of Henry Augustus Webb (1880–1926) and Rose Jeannette Keysor. She had ...

- Mrs. Hardy * Hilda Barry - Old May *

Jessie Robins Jessie Robins (5 June 1905 – 10 August 1991) was an United States, English actress whose career lasted from 1958 to 1974. She was best recognised as Ringo Starr's "Auntie Jessie" in The Beatles' made-for-television movie ''Magical Mystery Tour ...

- Fat Lil *

George Sewell George Sewell (31 August 19242 April 2007) was an English actor, best known for his television roles, but also active on stage and in films. Early life and career The son of a Hoxton printer and a florist, Sewell left school at the age of 14 a ...

- Barny, the Tallyman *

Ann Lancaster Ann A Lancaster (5 May 1920 – 31 October 1970) was a well-known character actress who appeared in many British films, television shows and in theatre. Lancaster specialised in comic roles and had a talent for voices which she often used on ra ...

- Winnie, the abortionist

Production

The filmed play has an episodic structure.Leig
''The Cinema of Ken Loach''
p.26 As story editor

Tony Garnett Tony Garnett (3 April 1936 – 12 January 2020) was a British film and television producer, and actor. Best known for his thirteen-year association with director Ken Loach, his work as a producer continued into the 21st century. Early life and ...

's biographer Stephen Lacey has written, the play "is less concerned with its narrative high-points ... and is motivated more by the seemingly haphazard interplay of accident and incident". The play included documentary elements, such as an interview with a doctor advocating a change in the law to prevent 35 deaths each year from back-street abortions. The inclusion of documentary material caused confusion among some viewers who were unsure whether they were watching a fictional play or the continuation of a news broadcast that had aired just before ''The Wednesday Play''.

Reception

Audience research found that the programme was viewed by about 10 million people. The BBC received 400 complaints about the broadcast, mostly about its bad language and depiction of abortion.Ian Aitken (ed.
''The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film''
Abingdon: Routledge, 2013, p.949 Christian morality campaigner

Mary Whitehouse Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permiss ...

, responding to ''Up the Junction'', wrote in her book ''Cleaning-up TV'' (1967):

"The sooner these terrible back-street abortionists are put out of business the better! True. But what about a play which would make it clear that any kind of abortion, legal or otherwise, has dangers to mental and bodily health far greater than natural childbirth. How about a programme which demonstrate that clean living could cut out a great deal of this problem at the root?"

Some commentators objected to the merging of documentary elements with drama at the time of the play's transmission, but Loach rejected the criticism, stating that "we were very anxious for our plays not to be considered dramas but as continuations of the news." Loach went on to use the same technique of including documentary elements in the 1966 television play ''

Cathy Come Home ''Cathy Come Home'' is a 1966 BBC television play about homelessness. It was written by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach. A 1998 ''Radio Times'' readers' poll voted it the "best single television drama" and a ...

''. The antagonism to the play included the upper echelons of the BBC itself. A proposal to repeat the play was rejected by the governors in the summer of 1966 who noted the "great offence" the piece had caused at its first screening. Trade unionist Dame

Anne Godwin Dame Beatrice Annie Godwin DBE (6 July 1897 – 11 January 1992), known as Anne Godwin, was a British trade unionist. Early life Born in July 1897 in Farncombe, Surrey, Godwin's father was a draper. She attended school in Godalming until age ...

, a BBC governor who had herself not seen the play, was minuted at a meeting in June 1966 as complaining of "too great a tendency ... to concentrate on the 'sick' elements in society as sources from which to illustrate contemporary problems." The play contributed to the debate leading up to the

Abortion Act 1967 The Abortion Act 1967 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom legalising abortions on certain grounds by registered practitioners, and regulating the tax-paid provision of such medical practices through the National Health Service (NHS ...

, which legalised the termination of a pregnancy in the UK. Tony Garnett, whose work on the project was more extensive than his formal brief as story editor, commented in 2013 about the "very, very personal" nature of this play. When Garnett was a child, his mother had died following a back-street abortion, and his father committed suicide less than a month later.Jason Deans and Maggie Brow
"Up the Junction's Tony Garnett reveals mother's backstreet abortion death"
''The Guardian'', 28 April 2013 A

film version A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

based on Dunn's original short stories was released in 1968. In 2011, the television play was included in the 6 DVD box set, ''Ken Loach at the BBC''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Up the Junction 1965 television plays BBC television dramas Films directed by Ken Loach Television episodes about abortion Social realism