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Walter

ONE OF those (now old chestnut) tales of a mentally handicapped kid experiencing the harsh realities of the world when his mum dies. Fifties period institution drama with a social point and lots of pigeon shit, handpicked by JEREMY ISAACS for the centrepiece of Channel 4’s opening night on 2nd November 1982. Immediately became archetypal example of Isaacs-era OTT gloom wallowing. IAN MCKELLAN was Walt, STEPHEN FREARS directed.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Applemask

    May 23, 2013 at 1:26 pm

    Made a great statement of intent for launch night. Had a sequel a year later in which Sabrina absconds with Sarah Miles, tries to exist in real world, fails, and fucks off back to the asylum. Second sequel in 2009 went out on Radio 4 and ploughed much the same depressing furrow.

  2. Tom Ronson

    March 31, 2022 at 5:05 pm

    Walter being tossed off in the middle of the night by a cackling paraplegic was pretty hard to shift from my eight-year-old mind. Memorably spoofed a couple of years later by Alas Smith and Jones, as ‘Trevor Nunn’s harrowing seven-hour epic, Walter and Smike Try To Make a Cup of Tea.’

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