Joss Ackland plays a reluctant divorcee, pondering chances of reuniting with his wife while taking his kids on a day trip to the zoo in another William Trevor character study. Ackland later mused that his roles in the Play for Today strand always saw him as a man on the point of collapse – whether in drag (The Lie), talking to worms (The Bankrupt) or communing with other wildlife, as here. Sadly he stopped short of offering any possible reasons for this emotional typecasting.
