Shoulder to Shoulder

When the actress Georgia Brown accused the BBC of not providing worthwhile roles for women she was challenged to provide a format which did. The result was this epic telling of the story of women's struggle to earn the right to vote.

With a superb cast, excellent writing and top notch production the BBC produced a series which should stand alongside other high points from the 1970's such as 'I, Claudius' and 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'. For some reason it is neglected and I seem to remember it was undervalued on its first transmission.

Perhaps there are those who don't care to be reminded that less than a century ago women were imprisoned, went on hunger strike and were force-fed simply because they wanted to be part of a democratic society. It was only ten years after the First World War that British women were given the same rights as men.

The programmes don't simply glorify the Suffragettes. Christabel Pankhurst in particular is shown enjoying a comfortable exile in Paris and organising an increasingly militant campaign while her followers are being tortured in prison.

The story of the Suffragettes ranks alongside the Civil Rights movement in the US and should be recognised as such. Even though they are now 30 years old these programmes would easily bear repeating on cable as an important lesson in social history.

Perhaps the powers that be are happier for us to take democracy for granted than remember its true value by showing how it was fought for.

I watched this avidly when it was broadcast in the 1970s. Why, I wonder, has this excellent series been allowed to gather dust? It had brilliant acting and was both informative and moving. The song, The March of the Women, always moves me to tears.

I have a nasty suspicion that it's to do with sexism at the BBC. It's about women, and by women, and deals with women as people, not decorative fluff. Given programming costs, I would have thought they'd welcome the chance to air all those well-made episodes at no cost. And a re-broadcast would stimulate DVD sales, assuming they ever made the effort to put it out in DVD format.

Of course, if the BBC felt like it, there is a great deal of gold that could be mined on the subject of the struggle for women's rights: the fight for married women's property rights; the fight for equal rights in marriage and divorce; the fights for education against medical advice that it would bring on brain fever or interfere with women's reproductive capabilities; the fights for admission to various professions.

I love this series (introduced to me by my mother when repeated in the late 1980s when it was 70 years of the vote) and often use our old worn out video copy in the classroom. The episode on Emily Davison I always found particularly hard hitting. Its a shame its never been released on DVD. Perhaps this is the year to push for it. If we are lucky, it might even get a repeat as its 90 years in 2008 since women were given the vote in the UK I've contacted the BBC to ask about release to DVD and have been told to write to BBC worldwide to suggest it. Maybe if we all write and get everyone we know to write, there might just be enough demand for its release. I'm happy to post the address they gave me if anyone wants it.

The BBC IS Tto repeat this wonderful series starting this week on BBC4, they have shown some fantastic gems over last year including THE ROADS TO FREEDOM, SUNSET SONG, HOTEL DU LAC , MOMETI MORI dare we hope for CAKES AND ALE with Michael Hordern and Judy Cornwall and THE BELL with Ian Holm and VILLETTE it is becoming increasingly obvious these still exist and have not been shredded as were told to believe! A bonus is an introduction to the series with Sian Phillips and two of the directors Moira Armstrong and Waris Hussein. Essentially these are six separate plays giving individual movements of key figures . It shows the internal squabbles within the Pankhurst family and how they would drop people who no longer agreed with their viewpoint. It's a fascinating warts and all intelligent series well worth this new viewingfifty years since first broadcast!

This series really impacted me as a young girl. At 13 years old it was an amazing program that shed so much light on what was experienced by the brave women before me. I was riveted and would really like my girls to see what the women before them went through especially today when we have lost sight of the womens movement in this day of bare bellies and shaking rear ends! The young women of today do not seem to realize what their sisters before them went through just to get the vote and how many years afterward that women continued to fight for equality!!! The acting was exceptional and I really agree this is one of the best series of all time. I see that Brideshead Revisited in on DVD why not this one!!