michael_gothard_archive: (Default)
Despite the fact that it was 55 years since she had appeared in "The Excavation", Natasha Pyne very kindly responded to a request for any memories of the production.

This is what she said:

"‘The Excavation’ was a play for BBC TV, producer Graeme McDonald, director James Ferman, that was transmitted live in the Thirty Minute Theatre slot in 1966.

Michael and I had a good, mutually supportive working relationship which helped hugely during the rigours and unpredictability of live television.

I remember that we had the amazing Bessie Love as voice coach which gave us the confidence to play with the Southern States accent of the young couple of dubious reputation that we were playing. We both enjoyed working with David Bauer.

The play was a three-hander and as far as I recall we all three survived... but I couldn't swear to that!!

And that’s about all I can remember about the job which happened a long time ago during a very busy period in my young career.

Best wishes, NP"
michael_gothard_archive: (Default)
WARNING: the transcriber has retained all the dialogue present in the original story, including the racist and sexist language, which was in common use when the story was published in 1961.

Act 2

Twenty minutes later.  Justin, carrying a quart bottle of rye in a brown paper bag, knocks on the door of Grady and Jackie’s flat, and enters.

Jackie:  He took Rex out for a walk.

Justin takes off his coat and puts it on a chair.

Jackie:  Is it colder out?

Jackie goes to the window and draws down the blind, then returns to the bed and sits down.  Justin takes the bottle of rye out of the bag.

Justin:  What did you decide?

Jackie:  Grady’s thinking about it.

Justin:  Does he always take the dog for a walk when he wants to think?

Jackie:  Sometimes.

Justin:  Shall I open this?

Jackie:  Yeah.

Justin:  There’s something I want you to understand, Jackie.

Jackie:  What’s that?

Justin:  I’m not here to judge you.  We do what life’s made us do.  We’re all, in a way, victims.

Jackie:  How do you mean, victims?

Read more... )
michael_gothard_archive: (Default)
WARNING: the transcriber has retained all the dialogue present in the original story, including the racist and sexist language, which was in common use when the story was published in 1961.

Act 1

A low rent part of town.  A lawyer mounts the stairs to a flat, and knocks on the door.  When no one answers, he knocks more insistently.  The door opens a crack, and Grady’s blue eye looks out suspiciously.

Grady:  Who is it?  What do you want?

Justin:  Grady Boland?

Grady:  Boland?

Justin:  Yes, Boland; because you’re Grady Boland, aren’t you?

Grady:  Boland … Ain’t nobody here called Boland.

Justin:  Except yourself; yourself and Jackie.

Grady:  Jackie?

Justin:  Yes, Jackie.  Jackie Tarr.

Grady:  Boland ... Boland?  Boland …

Justin:  The hall’s uncomfortable.  Do you mind?

Grady admits Justin to the flat.  A dog is present in the room.  A female voice comes from the bathroom.

Jackie:  Grady, who is it?

Read more... )
michael_gothard_archive: (Kuno)
In 1966, Michael Gothard appeared in a TV play, "The Excavation." This story was adapted by James Ferman, from a novella called "The Gondola", which appears in "The Temptation of Don Volpi" by Alfred Hayes, published in 1961.

In this psychological drama, a wealthy civil rights lawyer tries to get the truth from two witnesses, who perjured themselves at a murder trial.

Michael, one of a cast of three, took the role of one of the witnesses, Grady. The other witness, Grady's partner Jackie, was played by Natasha Pyne, and David Bauer was the lawyer, Justin.

The half-hour episode was broadcast on BBC2 at 8:35 pm on Monday 31 October 1966.

The Radio Times plot synopsis reads:

"'The jury gave a verdict, mister. But you came here. Why? Because I was off a chain gang and Jackie used to hustle.'

An American lawyer challenges the evidence given by a young couple, which has led to the conviction of two boys for rape and murder."

~~

Plot synopsis based on reading of the source material

Louis Justin, a lawyer who works pro bono for a few weeks of the year, trying to save the lives of those condemned through miscarriages of justice, arrives in a low rent neighbourhood. He is admitted to a boarding house. He goes upstairs, knocks, and is grudgingly admitted by Grady Bolland - who has recently come off a chain gang, and gets by as a street entertainer. Grady has a dog, Rex. Jackie Tarr, his traveling companion - a former prostitute - emerges from the bedroom.

The case about which Justin is concerned occurred when Jackie and Grady were travelling in an open-topped container forming part of a train, a "gondola". Jackie was raped; the train's brakeman and a black youngster fell from the top of a boxcar and were killed, and two remaining black youths were convicted of the rape and murders. Jackie and Grady said that one of the black youths raped her, while another held a gun on Grady - but no gun was found at the scene.

The whole story consists of Justin trying to understand what really happened, digging away at Jackie and Grady to get to the truth, hence the title of the TV play, "The Excavation."

Justin suspects that Grady and Jackie have been browbeaten or bribed by local law enforcement officers to give the testimony they did. He offers them protection, and money to start afresh, if they will return to the town where it happened, and tell the truth.

At first, both Grady and Jackie refuse to admit to having lied, but eventually, while Grady is out walking Rex, Justin manages to get under Jackie's skin.

When Grady returns, Jackie mocks him. She admits that it was the brakeman who raped her. There was no gun, but Grady had done nothing to defend her, because he was afraid of anyone with any kind of authority. The black youths happened to see what was happening, and stayed to watch. The brakeman had gone up on top of the boxcar after them, and when he and one of the youths struggled together, both had fallen off the train.

The local law enforcement officers and politicians had made it clear to Jackie and Grady that they were to blame the surviving black youths for the rape, and the deaths; neither Jackie nor Grady had had the power or the incentive to resist that narrative. Justin needs more than a confession of the truth - he needs a sworn testimony.

Angry at having had his weakness exposed, Grady becomes violent towards Jackie, and when Justin intervenes, he is knocked unconscious. When he comes around, Grady and Jackie have fled.

The story looks at the powerlessness of the poor - both black and white - in the face of a crooked and racist system of law enforcement.

~~

It is not known whether a recording of this episode exists. Per Wolf Solent on IMDB, 11 December 2011: “This has now at least been found, and was recently shown as part of one of the BFI's Missing Believed Wiped events.” However, Lisa Kerrigan at the BFI has found no trace of it.

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