"Blue Remembered Hills" is the 14th episode of ninth season of the British BBC anthology TV series ''

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 ...

''. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 30 January 1979. "Blue Remembered Hills" was written 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 ...

, directed by Brian Gibson and produced by Kenith Trodd. The play concerns a group of seven-year-olds playing in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to ...

one summer afternoon in 1943. It ends abruptly when the character Donald is burned to death, partly as a result of the other children's actions. Perhaps the most striking feature of the play is that, although the characters are children, they are played by adult actors. Potter first used this device in '' Stand Up, Nigel Barton'' (1965) and returned to it in '' Cold Lazarus'' (1996). The dialogue is written in a Forest of Dean

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

, 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'' 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).

Cast

The stars of the original production were:

Robin Ellis Anthony Robin Ellis (born 8 January 1942) is a British actor and cookbook writer 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 British author Winsto ...

(John), Michael Elphick (Peter), Colin Welland (Willie), John Bird (Raymond),

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom ...

(Angela), Janine Duvitski (Audrey),

Colin Jeavons Colin Abel Jeavons (born 20 October 1929) is a retired British television actor. Career Jeavons' earliest television role was as Jules Neraud in an episode of the 1956 anthology series of teleplays ''Nom-de-Plume''. Broadcast live, it is unkno ...

(Donald). The

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, f ...

has also been adapted for the

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

. The play is now a standard text for GCSE Drama in Great Britain.

Title

The title comes from the 40th poem in A.E. Housman's ''

A Shropshire Lad ''A Shropshire Lad'' is a collection of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman, published in 1896. Selling slowly at first, it then rapidly grew in popularity, particularly among young readers. Composers began setting th ...

''. The poem is read by Potter himself at the end of the BBC version of the play. "Blue remembered hills" is also the title of

Rosemary Sutcliff Rosemary Sutcliff (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novel ...

's autobiography (1984).

References

External links

*
British Film Institute - Screen Online

Blue Remembered Hills 2012 UK Tour

TV Cream Review

Review of Blue Remembered Hills Production in Strode Theatre, Street, Somerset, U.K..com

Blue Remembered Hills at Brighton Open Air Theatre, July 2017
{{Play for Today 1979 British television episodes 1979 television plays Period pieces Play for Today