Blade on the Feather
| Blade on the Feather | |
|---|---|
Deep Cover U.S. VHS cover
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| Written by | Dennis Potter |
| Directed by | Richard Loncraine |
| Starring |
Tom Conti Donald Pleasence Denholm Elliott Kika Markham Phoebe Nicholls |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Kenith Trodd Tony Wharmby |
| Running time | 82 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Original release | 19 October 1980 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Blue Remembered Hills (1979) |
| Followed by | Rain on the Roof (1980) |
Blade on the Feather is a television drama by Dennis Potter, broadcast by ITV on 19 October 1980 as the first in a loosely connected trilogy of plays exploring language and betrayal. A pastiche of the John Le Carré spy thriller and transmitted eleven months after Anthony Blunt was exposed as the 'fourth man', the drama combines two of Potter's major themes: the visitation motif and political disillusionment. The play's title is taken from "The Eton Boating Song".
Professor Jason Cavendish is the septuagenarian author of Cloud Cape, a children's fantasy novel. He lives in a secluded cliff-top mansion with his second wife Linda, his 18-year-old daughter Christabel and Mr Hill, his butler and personal secretary. They are visited one day by Daniel Young, who claims to be writing a thesis on political allegory in children's literature. After saving Cavendish's life when the old man has a seizure, Daniel is invited to stay by Linda and Christabel who fight for his affections. Mr Hill, meanwhile, is suspicious of Daniel's motives and concerned by Cavendish's reluctance to show him what he is writing.
Daniel seduces Christabel and, unknown to the others, murders Linda. Daniel reveals to Cavendish that his true name is Daniel Cartwright, and that his father Andrew was a British intelligence officer who was murdered by Cavendish while escorting a Soviet defector to the British embassy. Cavendish leads Daniel to a summer house at the bottom of the garden where the author reveals he has been writing his memoirs, implicating himself and Mr Hill, as well as several high-profile MPs, as Soviet sympathizers. Daniel convinces Cavendish to surrender the papers and shoot himself; the old man obliges, having grown weary of the enforced secrecy of his final years.
Having discovered Linda's body, Hill arrives at the summer house to execute Daniel. The young man reveals that he has been sent by the KGB at Hill's request to prevent Cavendish blowing their cover, and that Linda was a sleeper agent for MI6. Daniel leaves Hill to clean up the mess and leaves. The remorseful Hill approaches the summer house to attend his beloved friend's body.
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