Stand Up Nigel Barton / Vote, Vote, Vote, For Nigel Barton ( The Wednesday: Play Stand Up, Nigel Barton / Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton )

Stand Up Nigel Barton / Vote, Vote, Vote, For Nigel Barton (DVD) (*)

~~$33.99~~ $27.97

Original Title: The Wednesday: Play Stand Up, Nigel Barton / Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton
Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Mono )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2&4 )

Running Time:
148 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1965 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Gareth Davies

Written By:
Dennis Potter

Actors:
Keith Barron ..... Nigel Barton
Jack Woolgar ..... Harry Barton
Katherine Parr ..... Mrs. Barton
Vickery Turner ..... Jill Blakeney
Robert Mill ..... Adrian
Janet Henfrey ..... Miss Tillings
P.J. Kavanagh ..... Reporter
Johnnie Wade ..... Georgie
Godfrey James ..... Bert
Llewellyn Rees ..... Senior Proctor
Brian Badcoe ..... Junior Proctor
Brian Hankins ..... Conrad
Terence Soall ..... Scout
Barbara Keogh ..... Mrs. Taylor
Peter Madden ..... Jordan
Valerie Gearon ..... Anne Barton
John Bailey ..... Jack Hay
Cyril Luckham ..... Hugh Archibald-Lake
Barbara Atkinson ..... 1st Hunting Woman
Agatha Carroll ..... 2nd Hunting Woman
Donald Hewlett ..... 1st Hunting Man
Russell Forehead ..... Sir Harry Blakerswood
Huw Thomas ..... Newsreader
Betty Bowden ..... Lady Chairman
Margaret Diamond ..... Lady Secretary
Madge Brindley ..... Mrs. Thompson
Michael Segal ..... 1st Questioner
Raymond Witch ..... 2nd Questioner
Charles Rea ..... Pedestrian

Synopsis:

A semi-autobiographical double-bill from the mind of playwright, Dennis Potter; taken from the 'Wednesday Play' series of BBC films.
The Wednesday: Play Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965):: Nigel is very clever lad and desperately eager to succeed. He's aware of the fashionable potency of being both brilliant and working class. New glamorous experiences aren't enough, maybe politics is the answer.
The Wednesday: Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (1965): After a successful Oxford education, Nigel is a successful journalist. An important by-election looms, which could put him on road to Cabinet post. Front page publicity causes problems.

The Wednesday: Play Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965)
Dennis Potter mined his own Oxford-educated, working-class origins for this drama of miner's son Nigel Barton, intercutting between Nigel's relationship with his family, his grade-school isolation in a rural mining community and his encounter at Oxford with class prejudice. Nigel's Oxford Union debating skills lead to an interview on a BBC program, "Class in Britain," where he states, "Yes. Class does matter to me. It matters intensely ... I travel between two utterly different worlds ... yet I find my own father looking oddly at me sometimes ... Watching me like a hawk. I don't feel at home in either place. I don't belong. It's like a tightrope between two worlds, and I'm walking it." But the frankness of the interview causes father and son to be "separated by a mutual anxiety." Potter stated, "I wanted, needed! to be able to dramatize a young man who by accident and examination, has been dragged so far up the education ladder that he fetched up that medieval enclave called Oxford." To link past and present, the adult Nigel and the child Nigel were portrayed by the same actor (Keith Barron), and Potter avoided familiar flashback conventions by structuring scenes so that the "present was not the norm out of which one lurched cumbrously back into previous times."

The Wednesday: Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (1965)
Seven million people watched "Stand Up, Nigel Barton," and this audience increased to 8.75 million viewers when "Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton" was shown the following week (December 15, 1965). Dennis Potter ran in the 1964 General Election as a Labour Party candidate, and this experience was the springboard for the play. The political idealism of Oxford graduate Nigel Barton sets him campaigning as a Labour candidate, but he becomes disillusioned and disenchanted by empty political rhetoric, prompting him to speak his true thoughts. Potter added a sardonic sidebar by having politico Jack Hay speak a counterpoint commentary directly into the camera. The two plays were written in a reverse order from the sequence as aired. Commissioned by the BBC in the summer of 1964, "Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton," went before the cameras in April 1965 and was scheduled for June transmission. However, the play's political implications prompted the BBC to withdraw it on the scheduled air date. It was postponed for six months. During that time, Potter wrote the prequel, "Stand Up, Nigel Barton."

The Wednesday: Play Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965)
Semi-autobiographical TV play by Dennis Potter, from the BBC's 'Wednesday Play' series. It deals with the experiences of Nigel Barton, a young man from a poor mining community who wins a scholarship to Oxford University. The villagers accuse him of snobbery, while the rich University students treat him like a peasant. Uncertain of which sphere he should be moving in, Nigel tries to reconcile himself with his proud but stubborn father, and also succeed at University, despite its pretentions which apall him.

The Wednesday: Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (1965)
Candidate Nigel Barton goes from idealism to cynicism as he becomes disillusioned and suspicious of hollow campaign promises.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 02 October, 2013.