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A television adaptation, for the BBC’s Play for Today strand, of David Storey’s acclaimed play about four aging inmates reflecting on life.

  • Director

    Lindsay Anderson

  • With

    John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Dandy Nichols, Mona Washbourne, Warren Clarke

  • Educational Broadcasting Corporation 1972. 86min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    12A

‘As despairingly funny and as despairingly human as Waiting for Godot,’ was writer Gavin Lambert’s verdict of David Storey’s play, which Anderson first directed at the Royal Court in 1970; this adaptation, originally made for the US Educational Broadcasting Corporation, retains that production’s illustrious cast. Only gradually during the opening exchange between Gielgud and Richardson do we realise that they are, in fact, inmates at a mental institution. But are their delusions really any different from those in mainstream society?