1976 on BBC1

By Rhys Adrian. Tony Britton is a businessman hounded by the failing economy and his increasingly hazardous extra-marital affair, getting slowly drunk at a corporate buffet. A victim of the ‘last turkey in the shop’ syndrome that afflicted strands such as Play for Today, this play had to be produced on a shoestring, big productions such as Bar Mitzvah Boy having eaten substantial chunks of the season’s budget. Hence various locations are faked in studio, with a mix of Colour Separation Overlay onto static backgrounds, and highly unrealistic astroturfed sets – a bizarre and distracting treatment. With Amanda Barrie, Nigel Hawthorne, Robin Bailey and Phyllida Law.

Tags: Amanda Barrie, Drawn-in background sets, Marital strife, Nigel Hawthorne, Phyllida Law, Robin Bailey, Series editors failing to balance their budgets and look what happens, Tony Britton, Whimsical post-production jiggery-pokery