#Franchise holder for London Birmingham and Manchester. Towards the end of his tenure (this would be one of his last plays as producer)

[mariocki]

Armchair Theatre: The Fishing Match (ABC, 1962)

"How old are you?"

"Nineteen."

"Same as me. It's a smashing age, isn't it?"

"Well, I... haven't given it much thought."

"Oh, well, it is! Sixteen or seventeen, you don't know whether you're coming or going; twenty-five, thirty, you've been. But nineteen... Ah, it's just the job!"

#Armchair Theatre #The fishing match #classic tv #1962 #Single play #Kenneth Griffith #Peter butterworth #Edward Evans #yootha joyce #Colin Campbell #derek jacobi #Brian coburn #Jo rowbottom #Gordon waine #Alan Cooke #Norman King #Part of Armchair Theatre's mandate from its conception in 1956 was to reflect the interests and concerns of the entire nation #Creator Howard Thomas had gone as far as to compare contemporary modern drama to TV journalism. Gradually however the series had #Perhaps inevitably come to represent mainly the interests and the settings of its largest audience share in London. ABC after all was the #Franchise holder for London Birmingham and Manchester. Towards the end of his tenure (this would be one of his last plays as producer) #Sydney Newman started to widen the scope of the anthology to cover more northern stories in northern settings by northern writers #So we get this little tragi comic tale of a group of men who drive out into the country for a fishing contest only to see a sudden downpour #Force them into the local pub for shelter. It's a simple enough tale with a secondary thread running through it about Campbell's unhappy #Relationship with his father and his inexperience both with the opposite sex and in life generally. Rowbottom is sweet as the more worldly #Girl who starts to get underneath his tough shell and a baby Jacobi turns up as a sneering love rival but it is unsurprisingly the older #Cast members who make the biggest impact. Yootha Joyce in particular very early in her career displays the fine comic timing and ability to #Get a laugh with just a look or a pause that would make her a household name in later years #Griffith is unusually subdued while Evans is the steady centre the whole thing hangs on #Not the most inspiring or exciting play but an interesting cast keep it compelling