Days of Hope

I have searched high and low in video stores for this. I think it is the most memorable TV drama I have seen, even though it is now almost 30 years since I saw it. I kept waiting for replays. I was gratified to read a couple of years ago that Phillip Adams, a prominent Australian commentator on movies and everything else (and heavily involved in Oz film and advertising) placed this #1 on his list of TV shows. You want reasons? All I remember now is the emotional power, the deep sense of injustice, the face of the CO given white feathers in England, later in France taken out to be wired to a post in No Man's Land. Why is this not shown again? Or did the BBC destroy the tapes, like they did with most of 'Not only, but also'?

Four film's following three young members of a Yorkshire farming family. Spanning the period from the First World War to the General Strike. Left wing working class history of a superior sort. Broadcast in 1975 (the 70s were a very radical cultural decade) Covers conscientious objectors, Durham miners strike and rise of the Labour Party. Excellent acting and very engaging script. I still found it a brilliant bit of social history so missing these days. Caused an absolute stink when broadcast lots of criticism from the usual right wing parties. It was felt that the series was too critical of the army Soviet and police etc. A landmark series. The best of loach (director) Tony Garnett ( Producer) and Jim Allen (Writer)

TV doesn't get any better than this. During the 1970's there was a golden age of TV drama which produced some magnificent series. I Claudius, Fall of Eagles, the Glittering Prizes and the very naturalistic Days of Hope which was more of a fly-on-the wall style of drama. For the first time regional accents were not confined to the lower working class, simpletons, maids, char ladies and criminals, but were spoken by real people. The class struggle of the working class to obtain a better life and not be used as cheap labor and serfs by the upper classes, who seemed to think that they had a right to superiority and that the underclass should be grateful for their guidance, and the ultimate betrayal of their struggle is shown in this drama which begins in WWI where the poor were cannon fodder, and ends with the general strike of 1926. It may seem shocking to modern audiences, but the men returning from WWI faced wage cuts combined with longer hours as their wages were tied to the commodity price of their production. For many there was only unemployment. There was no national health care. Wages were subsistence. Housing was tied to employment, lose your job and out on the street you go. There was no further education for the children of the poor, in fact at 12 they went on half time, half the day at school and the other half in the mine or the mill.

It would not be until after the second world war that they would begin to rise above poverty and inferiority and be treated as individuals. Just as the returning soldiers from WWI were betrayed by the politicians, as were the countries of the middle east and far east which were divided up as spoils of war, the working men and their families were treated as a disposable commodity by the ruling class. Even in the 60's a regional accent was a barrier to advancement in employment or society, and the class system definitely still existed.

The sad thing today is seeing how the descendants and beneficiaries of the labor movement have abused and taken for granted the fruits of the struggle.

this was a great bbc tv series by ken loach directing ,jim allen writing and tony garnett producing but I can`t find a copy anywhere ,has anyone got one ,please? It seems the bbc are not going to rebroadcast which is a shame as it was a classic like so many Ken Loach films,so it`s a faint hope that someone videod it in 1974/5 slim but worth a try

Okay, let's give credit where it's due: As in other Loach productions, the actors in this grim, earnest series look and sound relatively real. And as for one of the issues raised in the first installment -- whether Britain was wise to have entered the Great War -- I'd probably side, thanks to 20-20 hindsight, with those who wanted to stay out... which is certainly the point of view Loach is advocating.

But throughout his career, every film he's made is meant to convey some sort of heavy-duty left-wing political message - in this case, a numbingly predictable one about how the working class has been duped, screwed, and exploited. And because his movies are less interested in entertaining us than they are about Teaching Us a Lesson, I find myself tuning out. Granted, some lefty friends of mine revere Loach, because his films reflect and confirm their political beliefs. But for me, they're just skillfully made propaganda.