Four Seasons of Rosie Carr, The

1 9 6 4 (UK)
4 x 50 minute episodes

This enchanting though overly-sentimental series of four 50-minute Saturday night plays followed the life of an indomitable working-class Cockney woman, Rosie Carr (played by June Barry in the first story and then by Jane Hylton in the following three) from the Edwardian era to 1960.

The stories, scripted by Ted Willis (creator of Dixon of Dock Green) opened with Rosie, an 18-year-old orphan, working as a lowly tavern barmaid in the spring of 1907 (‘Spring at the Winged Horse’) and courted by street-trader Tommo (Kenneth J Warren).

The second play showed Rosie in her thirties, married to the unemployed Tommo and trying to bring up three children in a London slum during the Depression (‘Summer in Matlock Street’).

By the third play (‘Autumn Near the Angel’) she was in her fifties with World War II about to start, her husband working only occasionally, and her daughter Millie (played by June Barry) about to get married.

The final story (‘Long WInter Journey’) saw Rosie as a widow in her late sixties, trying to come to terms with life in the strange Welfare State of 1960 and deciding whether or not to live with her children.

Guest players included Sam Kydd, Madge Brindley, Elisabeth Wade, Bill Treacher, Rose Hiller, Nancy Nevinson and Rita Webb.

The series was produced by James MacTaggart and directed by Peter Graham Scott.

Rosie
June Barry (1)
Jane Hylton (2)
Tommo
Kenneth J Warren
Millie
June Barry
Frank Lambert
James Bolam
Dick
Jack Smethurst
Dave
Michael Robbins
Alec Farmer
Leslie Sands
Iris
Juliet Cooke
Clem
Alan Baulch
Eddie
Peter Craze
Jean
Fiona Walker
Mrs Quorn
Vanda Godsel
George Quorn
Barry Keegan
Nell Spring
Pamela Hewes
Nick Bristow
Terry Brooks
Amy Bennett
Gretchen Franklin