First Night

1 9 6 3 – 1 9 6 4 (UK)
33 x 80 minute episodes

This BBC drama series premiered on Sunday 22 September 1963.

Writers of the 33 plays included Alun Owen, Keith Waterhouse, Alan Plater, Nigel Kneale (who adapted George Orwell’s 1984 for television in 1954 and wrote several Quatermass TV series), Bernard Kops and Hugh Leonard.

Episodes

The Strain (22/9/63) – This taut and violent story introduced Italian-born Liverpudlian Frank Angelo (Ray Barrett), who used to be the king of the protection rackets around Liverpool until a trap was laid for him. When he eventually returns from prison, he wants his territory back again, no matter who stands in his way.

The man who blocks his path is his own second-in-command from the old days, Jack Christie (TP McKenna) and a battle of the giants begins between them. The power struggle is observed by wily Detective Sgt Michael (Peter Vaughan), whose lifelong war against crime is almost a religion. Also starring John Junkin.

The Road (29/9/63) – Queer happenings in a wood in the 18th century are investigated by the gentle and dedicated local squire Sir Timothy Hassall (James Maxwell), a man of science. His blasé friend, philosopher Gideon Cobb (John Phillips), joins him on an all-night vigil amongst the trees and spends most of the time sneering at his efforts.

But it is Cobb who learns the truth when he discovers the strange noises (“as if all the dead people were rising out of hell”) are not from the past but from the future. Also starring Ann Bell and Rodney Bewes.

The Initiation (6/10/63) –  16-year-old Jim (Derek Carpenter) was top of his class at carpentry and joinery and left school itching to put his skills to work. Now – on his first day at work on a housing estate building site alongside his father, Charlie (Derek Godfrey) – he discovers that school and life are entirely different, and his idealism puts his Dad in danger of dismissal. He eventually has to choose between ideals and personal loyalty.

Guilty (13/10/63) – Keith Palmer (Anthony Bate) is a glib but hard-working coward who cheats on his girlfriend and sleeps with his bosses girlfriend. Keith finds himself the sole witness of a murder – but he has plenty to hide himself, and his life will be turned upside down if he tries to take a stand.

Funny Noises with Their Mouths (20/10/63) – Johnny (Michael Caine) has just been demobbed and is relaxing back into civilian freedom. He’s a bright, easy-going chatterbox with a winning smile.

He meets Ruth (Caroline Mortimer), darkly beautiful in a pale, sad sort of way, a middle-class girl who has been bruised by previous experiences and is strangely withdrawn.

There follows a story of love and parting – and love again – beautifully acted and streaked with surprisingly tender lyricism.

The Youngest Profession (27/10/63) – David Potter (John Paul), a former government information officer, is an old-style public relations chap now working for a smart London PR firm run by the modern forward-looking Grieve Wishart (Marius Goring) who is very businesslike, very successful and an expert at building success for his clients. When uncouth Midlands businessman Alan Holmes (Anthony Bate) – who has inherited his father’s firm – comes to the agency for “the treatment”, Potter is given his first big commercial account and is soon in conflict with himself and those around him.

Veronica (3/11/63) – Veronica (Billie Whitelaw) is a famous actress and something of an enigma. She watches herself being interviewed on television, with platitudes falling easily from her lips. Watching with her are her husband, Richard (Emrys Jones) and her friend, Linda (Patsy Byrne) – who have both been with her from the beginning of her career – and are the only people who know the truth about her.

Do Me No Favours (10/11/63) – For ten years, former criminal Ray Saxon (Johnny Briggs) has gone straight, but his marriage to his discontented wife, Barbara (Lois Daine), is threatened. Now, he is confronted with an opportunity to swindle his ex-boss’s widow (Hazel Hughes). It seems he can quite safely cheat her out of the firm’s proceeds, and surely – morally – he’s entitled to the money. Also starring Arnold Ridley.

The Dawn (17/11/63) – Wayne Coty (Errol John, who also wrote the play) is a black American who feels at home neither in the US nor in Africa, where he is sent to write about black nationalism. There he meets Salena (Lelia Goldoni), a white American girl he loved in the past. Together they become involved in an atmosphere of growing racial tension.

The Way With Reggie (24/11/63) – Young East-End docker Reggie Downes (Michael Caine) tries to better himself and raise the level of thought and culture among his mates and relatives. The trouble is, they don’t want to be improved, and Reggie’s efforts drive his young pregnant wife, Jenny (Angela Douglas) to distraction. Also starring Jean Alexander and Dudley Foster.

Sticks (1/12/63) – A Royal Navy wireless operator is one of a naval boarding party intercepting Jewish refugees trying to get to Israel in 1948. He is the only member of the party to carry a revolver – and when he refuses to use it against defenceless Jews, he finds himself in danger of court-martial. Instead, his superiors decide to turn him into a fighter.

Menace (8/12/63) – Four lonely people living in separate bed-sits in one dingy London house – Garry (John Hurt), Harriet (Joanna Dunham), Sophie (Patience Collier) and (Maxie) Harry Landis – decide to spend an evening out together. The result is unsuccessful at first but becomes interesting as the evening progresses.

A Local Boy (15/12/63) – A local political party committee has a problem – how to persuade their MP – who has represented the constituency for 26 years – that the time has come to retire gracefully.

Evan Lloyd (Clifford Evans) is crafty as a fox and has no intention of making way for a younger man. Meanwhile, young barrister David Owen (Jack Hedley) fancies himself as Lloyd’s successor.

It’s All Lovely (22/12/63) – Charlie (Tony Tanner) isn’t interested in any of the eager and eligible girls his matchmaking sister-in-law lines up for him. He is smitten with an image on television – Janet (Sally Smith), the star of Dear Viewer, an advice-to-the-lovelorn show.

He writes to Janet under the pseudonym. ‘Bachelor of Bayswater’ to ask her opinion on the best way to get the girl he wants. She offers him (and several million other viewers) advice on her show. The complications which follow when Charlie dutifully applies Janet’s instructions to his pursuit of . . . Janet, are the core of the comedy. Also starring Dilys Laye and Leonard Rossiter.

The One Night of the Year (29/12/63) – Shy, retiring 18-year-old Andreas (Leonard Monaghan), a Cockney Cypriot, makes a bet with his lady-killing friend Johnny (Kenneth Cope). He will meet his pal in Trafalgar Square for the New Year’s celebrations; with him, he’ll have a girl of his own. But as New Year’s Eve starts, Andreas is still looking for a girl. Also starring Warren Mitchell as Uncle Nick and Wendy Richard as Carol.

Day of the Drongo (4/1/64) – The story of Bluey (John Meillon), the show-struck barman of a lonely Australian sheep station. Bluey eventually has a day of riotous glory when the showmen come to town, and at last, he sees a chance to fulfil a lifelong ambition. Also starring Ed Devereaux.

Stray Cats and Empty Bottles (11/1/64) – Amidst the tumbledown buildings of a Wapping bomb site live a strange trio of human derelicts: Jack (Ronald Fraser), who prowls the streets at night looking for stray cats; Iris (Miriam Karlin), a collector of old bottles, and the dandified Newton (James Booth), a connoisseur of dustbins.

When they meet the eccentric White Lady of Wapping (Irene Worth), their three grasping minds have a single thought – the word is that she’s wealthy! And if the White Lady has it, the three villains are determined to part her from it.

All Things Bright and Beautiful (18/1/64) – Albert Hesseltine (Peter Vaughan) works in a pub and pays himself a nightly bonus by short-changing the landlord.

His eldest sons, Charlie (Jack Smethurst) and Harry (Brian Rawlinson), are experts in the gentle art of fiddling – whether it be a sack of nails, 15 gallons of paint, or a side of bacon.

Young Rory (Robert Gregory), a chip off the old block, spends his 3d-a-week subscription to the Cubs on riotous living. At the centre of it all is Queenie (Thora Hird), in a perpetual state of strife with her raucous brood of light-fintered layabouts.

Maggie (25/1/64) – East-End housewife Maggie Proud (Vanessa Redgrave) has two demanding children, a selfish mother-in-law, and an amiable but uncomprehending husband in Norman (Joss Ackland). When Christopher Shearway (Jonathan Cecil), the welfare officer at the factory where Norman Proud works, begins to take Maggie to theatres and art galleries as a “social experiment” it works too well.

Once Maggie breaks away from the kitchen sink, the neighbours strike a rich vein of gossip while Norman is catapulted out of his usual lethargy. Also starring Joan Hickson and Mollie Sugden.

The Bedmakers (1/2/64) – Bill Summers (George Devine) has worked for 60 years in the Adams bed factory in a northern industrial town.

Once a valued craftsman, now long overdue for retirement – but kept on out of sentiment by Herbert Adams (Edward Chapman) – Bill decides to give his grandson a wedding gift which will be both a magnificent surprise and a lasting memorial to his skill as an ironworker.

The gift becomes the obsession of an old man unable to accept that times have changed, but well aware that his own time is running out. Also starring Noel Dyson.

Land of My Dreams (8/2/64) – Blinkered by his nostalgia for the past and unable to come to terms with the present, Arthur Walmer (Michael Hordern) lives in a world which he increasingly despises. To him, it is dominated by “beardies and weirdies . . . blacks, Jews and niminy-piminy intellectuals”, and the country’s salvation lies in a campaign by his movement, the League of Colonialists.

He has alienated his wife, Margaret (Clare Kelly), and the only support he can count on comes from a fawning Irishman, Lynch (JG Devlin).

The Scapegoat (15/2/64) – When Major Colum Fitzgerald (Kenneth More) convenes a Court of Enquiry – as regulations demand – it is without much hope of discovering why anyone should slit the throat of the regimental mascot, an inoffensive goat called Tiberius.

As witness after witness is called, what initially seemed a pointless crime begins to take on a more sinister aspect. For Fitzgerald, the enquiry becomes an intellectual exercise in finding out the truth – which brings tragic consequences.

The Happy Ones (7/3/64) – Roger Metcalfe (John Gregson) has built up a successful air freight company, but when one of his aircraft crashes, he loses his pilot’s licence. With a big new charter contract at stake, reinstatement is vital to him, and he sets about it with characteristic tenacity – and tactlessness.

Among those who try to help him is Stephen Russell (Donald Sinden), a barrister with a bright future, who was concerned in the crash enquiry and has now become involved in the private life of Metcalfe and his attractive wife, Laura (Elizabeth Sellars). Also starring Michael Robbins.

My One True Love (14/3/64) – Benjy Spillane (Milo O’Shea) is a Dublin bank clerk who is still attached firmly to Mammy’s apron strings at the age of 41. Angela (Maureen Toal), a colleague at the bank with whom Benjy has enjoyed a surreptitious romp on the Costa Brave, is unhappy with this situation.

But Mrs Spillane (Eileen Crowe) will not be ousted without a struggle, and she lays elaborate plans to keep her ‘Childybawn’ out of the scheming hands of this jezebel.

Ted’s Cathedral (28/3/64) – An urgent phone call from London and Joe the builder (Bert Palmer), and Anderson the architect (Dudley Foster), find themselves on a building site in Commonwealth Avenue early on Sunday morning with a rush job on their hands. Newly widowed Mrs Venables (Pauline Yates) wants a memorial to her husband – and quickly. Foundation stone to be laid by noon, with – if possible – brass band and speeches.

But things begin to get out of hand when cheerful young layabout Ted (Alan Rothwell) is hired to help. He has his own views on what should be built on Commonwealth Avenue, and once those views are reported by an enterprising newspaperman, they capture the nation’s imagination. Also starring Angela Douglas and Bryan Pringle.

Goodbye, Gloria, Goodbye (4/4/64) – “Worms, Mr Hopgood, worms. Getting big ideas into their heads and wanting to crawl upwards” – so says the callous, domineering Gloria Bunt (Mavis Villiers) to her smarmy lodger (Edward Dentith).

She speaks of her timid husband, Clive (Clifford Parrish), and her cowed sister, Ada Churnley (Annette Crosbie). Two china dogs and a canary eventually inspire the cowardly pair to an act of criminal courage.

The Second Wall (11/4/64) – Alfred Schmidt (Paul Hansard) is a border guard on the East Berlin side of the Berlin Wall. He is one of the type who always turns up uninvited at parties and can never believe he is not wanted.

Those he likes best suffer most from his friendliness – especially Karl and Ilse Muller (James Maxwell and Jeanne Moody).

When the Mullers decide to try escaping to the West, Alfred is desolate. He also plans to run for it. But for him, there is always a second wall. Also starring Michael Ripper and Gerald Harper.

How Many Angels (18/4/64) – The Reverend Richard Beeston (James Maxwell), the vigorous young vicar of a new parish, is determined that his church will be “with it”. In his modern approach to “selling” Christianity, he has the support of an influential local businessman (John Cowley).

When a local girl (Charlotte Selwyn) has an illegitimate baby, Richard persuades her – against her better judgment – to keep it rather than put it up for adoption. The consequences bring home to him that he has lost touch with compassion and understanding in his pursuit of streamlined efficiency.

Hunt the Man (25/4/64) – Northern television writer James Trent (Anthony Bate) has made his name with tough, gritty plays. But his producer, Max (Geoffrey Bayldon), is dissatisfied with the latest Trent script and feels it could be improved.

Working on the play, Max realises that it is partly autobiographical and begins to discover something of the truth about James’s own life.

The fiction of the script and the facts about the people involved develop side by side toward the climactic truth, which Max – so busy in his search for authenticity – has completely overlooked.

Captain Rubian (2/5/64) – A happily unambitious soldier, Captain Rubian (Ronald Fraser) has been the commander of the remote mountain outpost of Labata for ten years. He likes it there and has plenty of time to pursue his birdwatching hobby.

But his ambitious sister (Vivian Pickles) is constantly egging him to seek promotion, and when – to keep the peace – he entrusts an application letter to his new clerk, Private Rica (Donal Donnelly), his whole life is turned upside down.

For the private is as efficient as the bumbling captain is incompetent and soon plunges his superior into a course of events which tear him out of retirement and make him – if only for a brief moment – a national hero.

The Improbable Mr Claybill (9/5/64) – Arnold Claybill (Robert Stephens) – the Michelangelo of Crabdleton – is a genius. He is also a millionaire who has devoted his talents to horticulture. Arnold dreams of startling the world through the local horticultural show, but he is surrounded by enemies – his housekeeper ‘Aunty’ Ester (Alison Leggatt), Will Dent (Joss Ackland) and his four sons, and even his solicitor, Henry (John Sharp) and the local vicar (David Stoll). But he also has allies in Will Dent’s daughter, Jenny (Susan Hampshire), and the old gardener Silas Nosworthy (Clive Dunn).