michael_gothard_archive

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."

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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.

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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.

IMDB entry