Blue Remembered Hills
(The title has also been used for the autobiography of Rosemary Sutcliff)
| Blue Remembered Hills | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Comedy drama |
| Written by | Dennis Potter |
| Directed by | Brian Gibson |
| Starring | Michael Elphick Robin Ellis Colin Welland Helen Mirren Janine Duvitski Colin Jeavons John Bird |
| Narrated by | Dennis Potter |
| Theme music composer | Marc Wilkinson |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producer | Kenith Trodd |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC1 |
| Release | 30 January 1979 |
Blue Remembered Hills is a British television play by Dennis Potter, originally broadcast on 30 January 1979 as part of the BBC's Play for Today series.
The play concerns a group of seven-year-olds playing in the Forest of Dean 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, 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).
Cast
The stars of the original production were:
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. The play is now a standard text for GCSE Drama in Great Britain.
Title
The title comes from the 40th poem (XL in Roman numerals ) in A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad.[1] 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.
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 IMDb
