Our Day Out
| Our day out | |
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| Directed by | Pedr James |
| Produced by | David Rose |
| Written by | Willy Russell |
| Starring |
Jean Heywood Alun Armstrong Elizabeth Estensen Lennox Greaves Robert Gillespie George Malpas Jill Richards Iona Banks Peter Tilbury |
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Release date
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Running time
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81 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Our Day Out is a television play about deprived children from Liverpool in the United Kingdom. It was written by Willy Russell and first aired on 28 December 1977, at 9pm on BBC2. It was later converted into a full length stage musical.
The television play "Our Day Out" was commissioned by the BBC and first broadcast in December 1977 as part of the BBC's Play of the Week series. Due to popular demand, it was shown again in February 1978 as part of the BBC's Play For Today series, and was also re-broadcast in 1979 and again in August 1990, and on BBC4 in 2008.
Willy Russell had taught at Dingle Vale School, one of the locations used in the film, and called on his experiences of school trips—as a teacher and as a child—when writing the screenplay, which he finished in five days. The film was shot on 16mm film by a first-time director in three weeks, and features a largely untrained cast.
The original television version was developed into a musical for the stage with songs by Willy Russell, Chris Mellor, and Bob Eaton. This production, directed by Bob Eaton, was first performed at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool in 1983.
The film centres on a school trip to Conwy Castle in North Wales. Mrs. Kay teaches a remedial class for illiterate children, called the "Progress Class". The whole class - along with Digga and Reilly, the slightly older class bullies who used to be in the Progress Class - are taken on a coach trip. In the original version, the headmaster, Mr Briggs makes the decision to go on the trip as an extra member of staff, emphasising his mistrust of the liberal values of Mrs Kay. However, in the shorter stage version the Headteacher commissions Mr. Briggs, the authoritarian Deputy Headmaster, to supervise the trip.
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