Tickets for the Titanic

1 9 8 7 – 1 9 8 8 (UK)
6 x 60 minute episodes

Channel 4 presented this short anthology series of hour-long standalone black comedies set in 1980s Britain.

‘Keeping Score’ (4/3/87) featured a punk rocker named Banks (Martyn Hesford) whose appearance and poor background appeal to Penelope (Tessa Peake-Jones) – the daughter of the Earl of Albany (Charles Gray), who meets him when he is signing on for the dole (she’s a DHSS clerk).

Nicknaming themselves ‘The Dread Brigade’, the pair keep a note of the insults hurled at them and, ultimately, present this to the Thatcher-esque Prime Minister (Gaye Brown), who happens to be keeping a list of her own.

‘The Way, The Truth, The Video’ (11/3/87) concerned a 1980s-style charismatic TV evangelist named Michael (Peter Firth), who informs his audiences that “God is an increasingly viable grass-roots option”.

Seeking to revive Puritanism, he enlists the aid of one Mrs Pollard (Annette Crosbie), a campaigner for decent morals, and Inspector Crocker (Ian Bannen), a corrupt law enforcer, and – seeking a ban on pornography – goes to the lengths of embarrassing the Queen (Jeannette Charles ) when she unveils what she believes to be a portrait of President Reagan.

In ‘Checkpoint Chiswick’ (18/3/87), Brian Stebbings (Hywel Bennett) believes that anarchy is just around the corner and may, indeed, be knocking on his door at any moment. Developing a siege mentality, he barricades himself and his family (Gil Brailey and Simon Nash) in an attempt to keep it at bay . . . only inviting a great deal of trouble for himself in the process.

‘Pastoral Care’ (24/2/88) starred Tony Robinson as a vicar whose employment in the quiet parish of St Peter’s, in the village of Wandlesham, is abruptly overtaken by events after he pays a visit to a nearby nuclear-missile base and meets up with the Greenham Common-style campaigners camped outside the fence.

Suddenly, the unassuming man of the cloth finds himself under intelligence surveillance.

‘Incident on the Line’ (2/3/88) featured Warren Mitchell as George, a man for whom everything ought to be going right, but for whom it’s actually all going wrong.

Due to his wife’s penchant for fur coats and holidays in Bermuda, George has found himself drowning in debt. Trying to solve the situation, he embezzles £15,000 from his employers but is caught and summarily dismissed.

Attempting suicide, he is interrupted by a bizarre woman, Zina (Alexandra Pigg), who introduces him to her life of crime and anti-authoritarianism, wherein George discovers latent aspects of his character.

Warren Mitchell’s real-life son, Daniel, was also among the cast.

‘Everyone a Winner’ (9/3/88) took a wry look at Britain’s 1980s decline, depicting a vicar (Jonathan Pryce) and his wife (Anna Carteret) struggling against the tide to make their community-caring cost-effective.

Then their twin children, Josh (Steven Mackintosh) and Polly (Emily Lloyd), reach the school-leaving age, at which point they must enter employment and come up with a startlingly different idea.

Episodes

Keeping Score | The Way, the Truth, the Video | Checkpoint Chiswick || Pastoral Care | Incident on the Line | Everyone a Winner