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Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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David Waller | ... | Shuttleworth |
James Cossins | ... | Shorter | |
John Normington | ... | Ackroyd | |
Philip Locke | ... | Wilkins | |
Dave Hill | ... | Gibson (as David Hill) | |
Brian Glover | ... | Boothroyd | |
Paul Shane | ... | Baldring | |
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Don McKillop | ... | Mr. Tetley |
Bernard Wrigley | ... | Ernest | |
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Paul Greenwood | ... | Edgar Appleton |
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Paul Rosebury | ... | Cross |
Dorothy Reynolds | ... | Mother | |
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Virginia Nicholson | ... | Florence (as Virginia Bell) |
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Helen Fraser | ... | Mrs. Ackroyd |
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Maggie Jones | ... | Mrs. Shorter |
Alan Bennett's debut play for television follows the members of a Halifax cycling club, on an outing from Halifax to the ruins of Fountains Abbey. Set in the summer of 1911 and projects an idyllic vision of Edwardian England.
Alan Bennett's first work for television is a beautiful, simple picture of a Halifax cycling club's outing to Bolton Abbey in the summer of 1911. It is a hot summer day, and not much happens - but the play is packed with incident as the club members from across the social spectrum interact with each other and the locals they meet. the naive optimism is countered by a brief epitaph in 1919, as the survivors of the World War commemorate the dead.
The black and white drama is doubly nostalgic, not only with the near perfect portrait of 1911 Yorkshire, but also of the high-quality early efforts of Bennett and Stephen Frears at the beginning of their careers over 30 years ago. Well worth watching.