Evacuees, The (1975)

This television play was broadcast on BBC2 on 5 March 1975. It was written by Jack Rosenthal (he won a BAFTA for it) and directed by Alan Parker (his first full-length feature).

A group of Jewish boys from a working-class area of Manchester are evacuated to Lytham St Annes near Blackpool during the early years of WWII.

Neville (Steven Serember) and Danny (Gary Carp) Miller are billeted with the middle-aged Graham’s and are badly treated from the outset – Mrs Graham (Margery Mason) steals the kosher food which their mother (Maureen Lipman) sends to them and the boys are forced to eat pork sausages.

The two boys resolve to keep their unhappiness from their put-upon mother but when she eventually discovers how they are being treated she takes them both home.

The story is told largely through the eyes of the boys, meaning we also get several scenes based around the older boy’s picture of a woman in a swimsuit and an escape sequence set to the strains of the Dick Barton theme, in which the boys wear one roller-skate and one shoe each.

A restored print was broadcast on BBC4 on 16 September 2020.

Grandma Miller
Margery Withers
Neville Miller
Steven Serember
Danny Miller
Gary Carp
Sarah Miller
Maureen Lipman
Louis Miller
Ray Mort
Mrs Graham
Margery Mason
Mr Goldstone
Ian East
Wilhelm Schwartz
Aubrey Edwards
Cyril Winkler
Michael Marcus
Sidney Zuckerman
Paul Besterman
Merton
Laurence Cohen
Workman
Bob West

Director
Alan Parker