"Joe's Ark" is the second episode of fourth season of the British

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

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 14 February 1974. "Joe's Ark" 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

Alan Bridges Alan Bridges (28 September 1927 – 7 December 2013) was an English film and television director. In 1967 Bridges directed a television adaptation of Charles Dickens' ''Great Expectations'' starring Gary Bond as Pip. He won the ''Grand Pri ...

, produced by

Graeme McDonald Graeme Patrick David MacDonald (30 July 1930 – 30 September 1997), sometimes credited as Graeme McDonald or Graham McDonald, was a British television producer and executive. Early life MacDonald was educated at St Paul's School, London an ...

, and starred Freddie Jones.

Plot

In rural Wales, Lucy ( Angharad Rees), the daughter of formerly god-fearing pet shop owner Joe ( Freddie Jones) has returned home from her studies at

Oxford University 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 ...

suffering from terminal cancer. Joe's crisis of belief estranges him from his neighbours in the small community and he quarrels with the priest at the local chapel during Sunday communion. Meanwhile Joe's ostracised son Bobby ( Dennis Waterman), a touring comedian with a tawdry act, is contacted at Lucy's insistence by John, an Oxford contemporary who loves her, but Lucy is much more interested in being reunited with her brother. Bobby though, returns to the pet shop moments after Lucy has died.

Production and reception

"Joe's Ark" was commissioned by ''

'' script editor Ann Scott in January 1971, with the brief outline "a suburban Noah prepares for the end of the world". The play which emerged Potter described as: "it's simply that ordinary feeling of being abandoned and betrayed and left to endure". Potter was only able to attend one rehearsal, an experience of which he observed that "almost everyone concerned seemed intent on excavating the solemnity rather than the intrinsic comedy of the piece, but I was at that time either too ill or too diffident to do much about it". The production was directed by

. John R. Cook in his book about Potter notes that "the play does not so much come down on one side or the other" in the debate about the validity of a faith in God "as hold both possibilities in taut suspension". It was the last of the six Potter plays produced by

Graeme MacDonald Graeme Patrick David MacDonald (30 July 1930 – 30 September 1997), sometimes credited as Graeme McDonald or Graham McDonald, was a British television producer and executive. Early life MacDonald was educated at St Paul's School, London an ...

. "That's the one I was most proud of", MacDonald told Potter biographer W. Stephen Gilbert.Gilbert, p. 213, 213n. For unknown reasons, production of the play was delayed. The BBC's two-year copyright window had expired, and had to be reacquired before the project could be completed.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Play for Today 1974 British television episodes 1974 television plays British television plays Play for Today Television shows written by Dennis Potter