Made in 1980 for the third series of BBC2's 'Leap in the Dark' and written by poet Peter Redgrove 'Jack Be Nimble' is a curious story of witchcraft and female empowerment.
Jackie - played by future 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' cast member, Lisa Vanderpump - is the latest in a line of empowered women and is coming into her abilties much to the fear of her family and friends as her growing abilities to predict such diverse things as maths, menstruation and motorbike crashes are increasingly alienating her from all those around her. Fortunately she has Grannie (sympathetically portrayed Audrey Noble) on her side who has a heartbreaking insight into what's going and can guide her to a resolution.
It is in parts a little incoherent and towards the end it trends towards amateurish pretensions, as does some of the acting, but it makes a valiant stab at highlighting the changing times for women and acknowledging the distance still to travel couched in a tale of witchcraft and magic that avoids many of the cliches of the genre and at it's end finds it's way to an open ended conclusion on the nature and use of Jackie's abilities.
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
'Leap in the Dark' was a long running BBC2 series that ran from 1973 to 1980 which over it's 4 series morphed from documentaries to dramas all with a supernatural theme. 'Room for an Inward Light' was the penultimate episode of the 4th series from which we've featured several episodes before - Alan Garner's 'To Kill A King', David Rudkin's 'The Living Grave' and Russell Hoban's 'Come and Find Me' - and was written by the playwright / novelist David Pownall.
Here we find struggling novelist Thomas Myers (Brian Blessed) who contacts critic Bernard Charlton (Christopher Strauli) for help after reading an article he'd written about how there were great authors working away in anonymity. Realising that the cranky, eccentric and prolific Myers is exactly the type of undiscovered genius he'd been searching for Charlton takes on the role of agent and begins his quest to find him a publisher.
The cast of three - the two men are joined by 'Carry On' actress Carol Hawkins in the third act - are pretty solid with Strauli playing the slightly
bemused critic very well and Blessed for whom subtlety is never the most
obvious attribute actually displaying some here amidst the characteristic bluster. Pownall's script is significantly more straightforward than those others mentioned above but certainly surprised when it didn't go in the time-worn direction I was half expecting but I was left with the feeling that the entire script was written in order to crowbar in one particular pun. The end result though I have to say isn't wonderful but it is certainly watchable.
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
'Leap in the Dark' was a supernatural BBC series shown in the late 70s into 1980. Over it's 4 seasons it morphed from documentaries to docudramas to, in it's 4th season, pure drama. This episode is taken from that final season which included episodes written by Alan Garner, Fay Weldon, David Rudkin and, in this instance, Russell Hoban who is perhaps best known around these parts as the author of the post-apocalypse novel 'Riddley Walker'.
Hoban's story gives a writer, Quilling (Alan Dobie - also to be seen in the 1987 adaptation of Robert Aickman's 'The Hospice'), a comission from the producer of a series called, funnily enough 'A Leap in the Dark', to write about a supernatural experience of his own or one from their files., We're never sure which he chooses but presumably it's the latter as he's soon seen chatting with a widowed woman, Mrs Anders (Penelope Lee), haunted by her husband who talks about how it's the very bricks and clay of the house that holds the ghosts. In line with this idea for Quilling a ghost is "It's what's left behind when you go away and you haven't the strength to take all of yourself with you." But it's left ambiguous here whether that 'leaving' is entirely connected to death as the widow seems as much haunted by the absence of her ... possibly ... still living daughter as she was by the husband and is by the spirits of the young girl and the roundhead soldier that she sees potentially with the aid of spirits of a differnent kind.
With it's very intrusive music, Hoban's purple prose and it's disjointed time hopping narrative 'Come and Find Me' makes for a bit of a frustrating watch and I was glad of it's concise run time but with it's echoes of Nigel Kneale's masterful 'The Stone Tape' and an effectively creepy atmosphere - brought on, at east in part, by the poor quality of the copy - makes it an intriguing one too.
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
'The Living Grave' was made for 'Leap in the Dark' a TV series with supernatural themes throughout the 1970s and into 1980 that featured stories that were a mix of fact and fiction. This episode from 9th Sep 1980 was written by David Rudkin (of Penda's Fen fame) and is based on the legend of 'Jay's Grave' (also 'Kitty Jay's Grave') on Dartmoor that legend says is the last resting place of someone who had died by suicide where fresh yellow flowers are mysteriously laid by unknown hand every morning.
Rudkin's approach, as would be expected from anyone familiar with his work, is anything but typical. He makes no real attempt to examine, explore or explain the legend an instead bases his narrative around the 'memories' of a nurse regressed through hypnosis which he intersperses with a tour of the locale by both an investigator and through the eyes of Kitty herself as she approaches her end.
It's a bit of an oddity and stylistically feels very much of it's time but that's no bad thing as shows (and writers) as narratively uncompromising as this are few and far between and whilst this isn't, perhaps, Rudkin in full flight it's certainly a very watchable example of his work and an intriguing take on the retelling of a folktale.
BTW - You can find another episode from 'Leap in the Dark' in the form of Alan Garner's 'To Kill a King' here.
If
you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us
continue then we would very much appreciate a donation towards keeping
the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Alan Garner's 'To Kill A King' was the final episode of the supernatural anthology series 'Leap In The Dark' that ran for 4 series on BBC2 between 1973 and 1980. Whilst the early series were documentaries the latter two consisted of various dramas written by the likes of Garner, Fay Weldon (author of 'The Life and Loves of a She-Devil') and (the writer of 'Penda's Fen') David Rudkin.
In 'To Kill A King' Garner tells an autobiographically tinged story of an author, Harry (Anthony Bate, Oliver Lacon in 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'), haunted by a disconnect with his restless muse as he battles against writer's block or of man rapidly descending into depression and madness as he rages against the turmoil of his mind.
Garner has spoken in the past of his struggles with depression and in many ways this seem like an exploration of its causes as Harry is pressured from all sides - by colleagues, family, fans but most of all by himself - and as a result 'his head' is submerged in muddy water unable to see the light, a terrifying prospect that throws him into even deeper water.
As you may have inferred the play is heavy on symbolism with Harry reaching a decision as he emerges from a dark tunnel and the idea of inspiration as a transmission from elsewhere embodied by the presence of Jodrell Bank Observatory at the end of his garden and the plethora of communications technology - typewriter, telephone, television - that haunts him and it's not until he uses 'his head' to break their hold that his muse settles and his block lifts.
The finished piece is an oddly compelling collision of supernatural tale with psychodrama that offers an interestingly ambiguous take on both.
If
you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us
continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the
blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
