Fantastic story line. Wonderful acting. True to life.

Synopsis. Out of the blue the Lesters are offered the rare treat of a holiday in the South of France and, with it, the unlikely opportunity of escape to happiness. The dour Philip, of course, has no time for such flim-flammery and, with this attitude at the helm, the adventure is destined to end in tears.

Very well thought out - the conflicts are so real. The inferiority complexes and the rest do not change, they just manifest differently in different generations.

I admired Philip and Mary. And I think, ' there is only one free nation, the nation of the rich' is a marvellous quote. The old fashioned idea that fulfilment can be had not from things but from dedication to principles is a painful loss to an old idealist like me.

@Tinyflydeposit

2 жыл бұрын

It's a painful loss to humanity. Thanks for your wise comment

Lovely drama.. perfect Sunday morning easy listening.. thank you ❤

More pertinent today than ever .

Well done.. Got all ingredients.. Love, comedy. Emotions, thoroughly melodrama.... Had very essance of phenomenal story

Wonderful thought-provoking stuff. Totally absorbing. Many thanks for posting.

Very,Very NICE!!!! I definitely need to listen to this Again! Well, Done!!!

Just so enjoyed the quality of acting and story great stuff

Superb play and acting . ❤

Enjoyed the premise, the characters and the performance. Cheers from Saigon

A sad but true story. Thank you.

This was absolutely brilliant.Thank you

@mrbazzabee4013

3 жыл бұрын

That's our Chesterton for you ....!

Excellent play, many thanks for posting and the additional news at the end !👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍😊

@roysimpson1344

3 жыл бұрын

Excellent play

A great thought provoking play. Certainly leaves much to contemplate. Some wonderful quotes. Excellent acting by some great stars. Hi from Oz 👇💜🙃

@juliatranter6868

2 жыл бұрын

It looks

This was truly brilliant and this is how most of us lived in the 70's (even tho I was only a kiddy)

Loved it. Thank you!🎉❤😂😢😮😅😊🎉

True and real thank you .

A real trustworthy Bread and Butter Radio play with more than a Soupçon of humour .......A real 'Ilfracombe' of a play for sure--Thanx Chessie you old Stonker you.

@katieclarke1352

3 жыл бұрын

Lol. 🤩

I do love these old plays. Very interesting thank you for sharing.

£40 for a holiday to Austria in 1958,we went to Austria for our honeymoon in 1965 at the cost of £14 each.

I do like a happy ending 😀

Boy! I learned a lot of life lessons from this.

Very good entertainment

Brilliant

A quarter of a minute feels like 5 minutes!

@Brian.001

3 жыл бұрын

old minutes

@mrbazzabee4013

3 жыл бұрын

I once went out with a woman that had that effect on me.

Broadcast February 1964

Good story. Good audio

Impossible to listen to with an advert every 2 minutes.

@celiacoyle7218

2 жыл бұрын

I would agree, but no ads as I listen here in Nov '21.

It is still the case that you enter a profession like teaching or nursing as a vocation and not totally for monetary gain.

@magsmaher

3 жыл бұрын

Having worked for the NHS most of my life I can guarantee that there is no monetary gain and that it is a vocation.

@patricka.crawley6572

2 жыл бұрын

Knowing many people in the health industry, 'image', self-congratulatory smugness, and 'aren't I wonderful' is the biggest single motivation for recruits.

Q: is “hackneyed phrase” a hackneyed phrase?

@hawthornetree646

3 жыл бұрын

No because no one would understand the word hackneyed any other way.

Excellent play. Illustrated the conflict that some us feel between money and the lack of it. I think it is possible to be comfortably off and still care about the welfare of those less fortunate. However, the father needed a good dose of reality from Philip and told to behave more considerately or go to an aged care home. Mary puts up with too much and sometimes acts the martyr.

A slice of life, with the elderly claiming wisdom from the standpoint of their vanished world. it is always difficult to communicate to one's parents and children. They were missing a local pub to find some objective opinions, to cope with their relatives.

@TheSuperHarrygeorge

3 жыл бұрын

😨

That was very depressing.

Although this is about principles, money v duty etc the absolute boorishness and selfishness of both the teacher and his father caused me to scream at the radio.

Funny. That actor isn't American. We wouldn't say "bathe", but we'd say "swim".

@stellamariayates3776

17 күн бұрын

My mother in law always said bathe and bathing suit. She was of a certain age and class so I think it was the usual term from her earlier days.

We are all prisoners in one way or another………prisoners of life itself perhaps. Some longing to escape - others just content to make do……

Thought provoking.....

"backward" children...thank goodness we have changed our attitudes...this play made me depressed

@mrbazzabee4013

3 жыл бұрын

I do feel that - that comment is intended to say something about the depravity of the Central character ...that said it !!! But-I could be wrong.

@kikibalden7462

3 жыл бұрын

@@mrbazzabee4013 yes I think you are right! But that was the way people spoke about mentally challenged people they were called backwards or retarded sadly

Posh home life. About poor schoolteacher.

You fine folks are getting more out of this play than I did. I found it to be terribly tedious. It Was Written in 1958 and apparently very well received at the time, but I don't think it holds up too well today. Being as the playwright was British as well all the actors in this play, I have to let you know this is just not my *cup of tea.* ☕

@jonathanveale119

3 жыл бұрын

So agree. Some of the acting is atrocious.

@54onions

5 ай бұрын

Loved this it gave me something to chew on about being a adult in the 70s now I must listen to 10cc and the like

Success with women? Flash the cash- she will flash her tash. And that is not a growth on the face. Below the navel- surrounding the Beef Curtains is more to the point.😅😅😅

The bankrupt father going on about drinking and gambling 😂

The pervasive sexism of the 1950's showed strongly in the unthinkingly prejudiced script. Poor, martyred mother... giving her all for the benefit of the dominant male. I laughed a great deal at first, then thought soberly of women who were never given any choice but this. Saddest of all is the expectation that Mother must be virtually a saint while being inhumanly self-sacrificing. What a clever trap -- for no woman could live up to this ideal. And if she failed it was a perfect excuse to further excoriate her.

@mtsenskmtsensk5113

3 жыл бұрын

Jessa Rain You notice also of the life expectation of the children being mapped out before them. I'm not sure if the school is in fact a borstal ( a Yob being derived from 'backward Boy' i.e. boy spelt backwards)with the talk of an attack with a bicycle chain by one of the pupils. Also in this period women were expected (society not the law) to surrender their job on marriage, to allow a man to bring up a family on that wage and Britain was quite a military society then. Rationing had only finished in 1955, and a school master was notoriously poorly paid, so it is not an average working class family, that is perhaps more literate and able to express themselves. What I'm trying to put into context is that both men and women had a poorer life but it was improving dramatically with the NHS and nearly full employment making the future look promising, and optimistic compared to pre-war.

@neilfoddering921

2 жыл бұрын

What an ignorant and biased comment, implying that there was some male conspiracy to keep women down. If you’re going to use the word “trap”, then you should also apply it to most men of the time, who were expected to provide for the family, often to the inevitable detriment to their health and risk of injury or death. Who was it working down coal mines and sewers, on building sites, in steel works, in farming, conscripted into the armed forces, and suffering from job-related diseases like asbestosis, miner’s lung and the like? No legal protection against unfair dismissal, discrimination and the like. There certainly was male domination, but most of it was domination of males by other males in positions of power. To suggest that there was some male conspiracy just waiting for another opportunity to “excoriate” women is ludicrous. Social expectations of the time were different from now, and yes there was gender-based prejudice and discrimination then, just as your comments reveal that it still exists now.

@dshe8637

9 ай бұрын

And the daughter not allowed to get a job to let her afford travel, because she was going to be working at home, unpaid. And 'timber importing' would have been a dreadful task. Destroying tropical rainforests and abusing locals. So much of the wealth of this class came from unethical means

@dshe8637

9 ай бұрын

​@neilfoddering921 you are regurgitating incel propaganda instead of thinking for yourself. Try considering the role of Class in society and wirk

@mareeschollum2986

3 ай бұрын

@@neilfoddering921 don’t judge so harshly, particularly coming from a male perspective. You forget that women too worked in those roles you mentioned and made sacrifices during the war.

I found this play thoroughly depressing. The selfishness of the central character (the father) is simply deplorable and the language used to describe mentally challenged children just unacceptable. The way that the mother just gave in to her husband’s selfish demands is very upsetting and the churlish behaviour of the grandfather left me speechless! I do hope that as a society we have moved on.

Fairy depressing play with the characters trapped in unpleasant circumstances of their own making. Enjoyed the craftsmanship in the writing but hope no one embraces martyrdom as the mother character did or would be as obnoxious as the father in law knew himself to be.

Terrible Fake American/Canadian accent🧐

@ggray1180

3 жыл бұрын

And pronunciation of Muskoka as "Muskota" interesting. Could never have foreseen the international broadcast of these plays in years to come. No great pressure to get the details correct.

@mrbazzabee4013

3 жыл бұрын

Yes-You yourself would have been far better-I feel sure.

@ggray1180

3 жыл бұрын

@@mrbazzabee4013 Not really; I'm English.

@mrbazzabee4013

3 жыл бұрын

@@ggray1180 ...actually-my comment was aimed at Penny Cartoulis

@ggray1180

3 жыл бұрын

@@mrbazzabee4013 my apologies.

Depressing ending (although the writer tried to wrap it up in a pretty bow of naive idealistic words to justify the husband's philosophy of life). But you couldn't convince me that this way of life is fulfilling because of the fact the Wife is completely subjugated & merely exists to prop up her husband's idea of utopia! Her needs & feelings & comfort are secondary to his egocentric life's purpose. Who cares as long as HIS " spiritual growth" is nourished? What an insufferable husband - prefers his family to scrimp & suffer financial hardship just so he can pompously adhere to his "socialist' principles ? Very hypocritical when you live in a country with democratic capitalism. What a virtue signalling prig ! He voluntarily works for a pittance in a career ( being used by the Head Master ) but that's ok because he is in "service" for the greater good of society. Meanwhile his wife is mostly stressed & looking older than her years from all the strain. Happy marriage indeed!

If Strindberg had written this there would have been murder and a Krakatoa like explosion . Instead it's all terribly well mannered and upper lips remain stiff ! Coward would have made it a Comedy . Rattigan a styl!ish tragedy . But Hunter was a thoroughly competent playwright in his own style. It does rather fizzle out but then....so does Life.?

Father, grandfather awful. Complaining, bickering all the time. Gave up after 10 minutes.