No enemy but time

[thisbluespirit]

Following on from how much I got hung up on a 1984 radio production of Dangerous Corner, I did take some steps to continue by J B Priestley experience by listening to a 1994 production of Time and the Conways, another of his 'Time Plays'. I spotted this one on the wiki and managed to find it at Radio Echoes. It had Stella Gonet, Amanda Redman & Toby Stephens in it, and it was adapted and directed by Sue Wilson, who did at least two of the Christmas at the Wells installments I thought were so good.

(There's also a 1984 version here starring Zena Walker; and a 2014 version here with Harriet Walter. Apparently the BBC are only permitted to perform it in years ending with a -4?? ;-p)

Anyway, generally, I'm not regretting my decision to continue, but right at the end of the second third (Act?) of it, two characters had a conversation that included this:

"...it’s hideous and unbearable. Remember what we once were and what we thought we’d be... Every step we’ve taken, every tick of the clock — making everything worse. If this is all life is, what's the use? Better to die... before you find it out, before Time gets to work on you. I’ve felt it before, but never as I’ve done to-night. There’s a great devil in the universe, and we call it Time.... We've seen it to-night. Time beating us."

and: "No, they're real and existing, just as we two, here now, are real and existing. We're seeing another bit of the view – a bad bit, if you like – but the whole landscape's still there."

And I was just... omg, J B Priestley effectively laid out part of the premise of Sapphire and Steel right there in 1937.


I haven't stopped listening to Crown House; I was just interspersing the odd SNT in between. I am about to get back to it, as we left it at a point where Richard Pasco might even possibly be persuaded to leave the roses alone and have some plot, but I don't count on it. XD


(I did distract myself a bit because Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully s2 is now on BBC Sounds again, after them repeating s1 in the autumn. So a head's up, anyone listening to it that way and left hanging for s2. It's here! And obv. could not resist listening to "Tempting Fete" and now the next episode is up... and a person can't help but press that play button every now and then. (It's the pub quiz one now.) It is such a cheering thing. <3<3<3)

Comments

[persiflage_1]

(There's also a 1984 version here starring Zena Walker; and a 2014 version here with Harriet Walter. Apparently the BBC are only permitted to perform it in years ending with a -4?? ;-p)

So there should be another performance this year, then?!

Hooray for fascinating radio plays!

[thisbluespirit]

So there should be another performance this year, then?!

Idk if it's every year that ends in a -4 because they don't seem to have done one for 2004, but, clearly, if they feel like doing another one, this is the only year this decade they can do it! XD

<3

[theseatheseatheopensea]

And I was just... omg, J B Priestley effectively laid out part of the premise of Sapphire and Steel right there in 1937.

Ohh! Another author possibly involved in Elemental activities! Nice! Is it just authors with names starting with P, though? Because in this conversation, we were talking about Pessoa as someone who might also be Elementally inclined!

[thisbluespirit]

Yes! I am looking forward to hearing the rest (other?) of the Time plays now, as the two I've done so far have both been v interesting.

And, heh, idk, although Philippa Pearce on time and memory in Tom's Midnight Garden is another one! But then again, Alison Uttley handles a very similar premise in A Traveller in Time and she doesn't begin with a P. Possibly she had to get a non-P dispensation to be allowed to do it? XD

[theseatheseatheopensea]

And, heh, idk, although Philippa Pearce on time and memory in Tom's Midnight Garden is another one! But then again, Alison Uttley handles a very similar premise in A Traveller in Time and she doesn't begin with a P. Possibly she had to get a non-P dispensation to be allowed to do it? XD

XD XD XD And also Penelope Lively! Clearly, there's a time-related thing going on in children's literature too!

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, yes, Penelope Lively is very like that, too, isn't she? It's not at all surprising that S&S was originally conceived as children's TV, because it's very children's TV & lit 1970s in its concept, really.

ETA: Oh, and there is Penelope Farmer's Charlotte Sometimes to add to the collection.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

ETA: Oh, and there is Penelope Farmer's Charlotte Sometimes to add to the collection.

I haven't read that one, but now I want to!

[thisbluespirit]

It's one I think I probably would have enjoyed more as an adult, I think. I can't really remember why at this late date, but I feel like it was one of those books I came to at the wrong age.

[lurking_latinist]

In an (I think) similar vein, I recently read Nancy Bond's A String in the Harp (and was shocked and saddened that nobody had given it to me when I was a child).

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, wow, it's set in Borth!!

[sovay]

It's not at all surprising that S&S was originally conceived as children's TV, because it's very children's TV & lit 1970s in its concept, really.

Lucy Boston's The Stones of Green Knowe (1976), whose protagonist slips back not only farther into the past, but into the future which is the rest of the series.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, and while I hate to bring up William Mayne (because of what he turned out to be later), Earthfasts and its 70s TV adaptations would certainly go in the same box with the rest of these.

[sovay]

Yes, and while I hate to bring up William Mayne (because of what he turned out to be later), Earthfasts and its 70s TV adaptations would certainly go in the same box with the rest of these.

Reservations understood. I read him as a child; I read all of these books. They were the sort of thing I liked. It happens.

(I actually didn't read Uttley's A Traveller in Time, but everything else mentioned in this conversation, even if not for some years now. Ruth Park's Playing Beatie Bow. Perfect training for Sapphire & Steel.)

[thisbluespirit]

I actually didn't read Uttley's A Traveller in Time, but everything else mentioned in this conversation, even if not for some years now. Ruth Park's Playing Beatie Bow. Perfect training for Sapphire & Steel.

Oh, yes, Beattie Bow is certainly another. A Traveller in Time is a lovely one! I read it so many times growing up. It's also quite curious - it seems to be by far the first of these sorts of books, and I don't think Uttley even wrote another book for older readers, let alone anything else like it. She just... had this one in her? And, of course, it had such a vibe with the others, it was the 70s that televised it (with Sophie Thompson in, I believe). I'm curious, but I loved the book too much to want to see it, if you know what I mean.

[luthien]

JB Priestley is an interesting writer with a very specific perspective on time and place - but apparently also time more generally, going by that quote!

I just happened to get hold of the TV production of Lost Empires the other day. I watched it when it aired in the 80s, and remembered it for more than just its cast, which included a very old Laurence Olivier and a very young Colin Firth.

Re-visiting it after all this time will be quite the experience.

[thisbluespirit]

I've watched and listened to a handful of adaptations of his plays now (Laburnum Grove, An Inspector Calls & Dangerous Corner), but haven't ever read any of his books. The TV Lost Empires looks v good, though! I may have to put it on my list.

but apparently also time more generally, going by that quote!

He apparently wrote 7 Time Plays, of which I've now done 3 (DC, T&tC, & Inspector Calls), so I should be able to have some fun trying to find adaptations of the rest now, so he clearly did have a fascination with the concept! Dangerous Corner is a play where a BBC Radio play triggers off a host of confessions that end in the destruction of relationships and a life, but then the play cycles back to a point in time to diverge to a version where they all keep their secrets and carry on, while Time and the Conways takes place in two time periods, where one of the characters is sort of in both at once. They're very odd - v much the sort of sitting room drama the 50s would hate on, but with this interesting conceptual added ingredient.

I also very much enjoyed the film of Laburnum Grove, it was v funny and Edmund Gwenn was particularly great.

I've downloaded another radio adaptation of I Have Been Here Before, as it starred Alun Armstrong, which seemed like a plan to me - so I'll look forward to seeing what that one gets up to.

[luthien]

Alun Armstrong would be very good casting for something like that. I hope you enjoy it.

I read Lost Empires and also The Good Companions, but a long time back. I've always liked the Alistair Sim film of An Inspector Calls, and I saw a pretty major stage revival of it in Sydney in the mid-90s that might have been a touring British production (the big reappraisal of Priestley started around then beginning with the Stephen Daldry interpretation of An Inspector Calls, anyway). Can't remember for sure now, but it was really interesting to see a modern interpretation of a work like that.

[thisbluespirit]

I hope so too!

The version of An Inspector Calls I saw was a modern one, too - it was a v good BBC 2015 version, when they had a sudden wild flashback to the years when they used to make one off plays all the time and had a theatre season. Unfortunately, I was still very ill then & only caught this one, but it was great.

[sovay]

I just happened to get hold of the TV production of Lost Empires the other day. I watched it when it aired in the 80s, and remembered it for more than just its cast, which included a very old Laurence Olivier and a very young Colin Firth.

Whoa.

(I second the Alastair Sim An Inspector Calls.)

[liadt]

Heh, very S&S! Sounds like you're getting lots of audio listening done.

[thisbluespirit]

Not really all that much, just stuff worth talking about, and a bit less TV watching, I suppose! But I hit Time, the enemy. XD