19th episode of the 8th season of The Wednesday Play
"The Big Flame"
The Wednesday Play episode
Episode no.
Season 8 Episode 19
Directed by
Ken Loach
Written by
Jim Allen
Produced by
Tony Garnett
Editing by
Roy Watts
Original air date
19 February 1969 (1969-02-19)
Running time
85 mins
"The Big Flame" is a 1969 BBC television play by socialist playwright Jim Allen, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach.[1] The play tells the story of 10,000 dockworkers occupying the Liverpool docks in a "work-in".[2] Filmed in a gritty, realistic drama documentary style, it was first broadcast on 19 February 1969 on BBC1, at a time when unemployment was rising in Britain. The play was shown in the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology strand, which was noted for tackling social issues.
Following its broadcast, Mary Whitehouse, president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, wrote to both Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Leader of the Opposition Edward Heath, demanding that they review the charter of the BBC in light of its transmission of "a blueprint for the communist takeover of the docks."[3] Unofficial strikes were the subject of political debate at the time, and the government had proposed a ban on unofficial strikes the previous month in the paper In Place of Strife. The last broadcast was on 26 August 1971.
The name of the play was later used by a revolutionary socialist organisation founded in Liverpool in 1970.[4]
Jim Allen and Ken Loach, along with many of the same cast, also collaborated on the 1971 film The Rank and File. The two films have been noted as being similar in many ways.[5][6]
In September 2011, the play was released on DVD as part of the 6-disc box set, Ken Loach at the BBC.[7]
^Hattenstone, Simon (17 May 1999). "Jim Allen: Days of Hope". The Guardian. London. p. 4.
^Milne, Seumas (19 December 1996). "TV review: Loach keeps the fires burning". The Guardian. Manchester. p. 2.
^"News in Brief: BBC charter plea". The Times. London. 21 February 1969. p. 2.
^"Big Flame". Working Class Movement Library. Salford. 2 November 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
^Williams, John (2003–14). "Rank and File, The (1971)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
^"The Rank and File (1971) – British Television Drama". Britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk. 4 November 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
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