The Nigel Barton Plays
| Stand Up, Nigel Barton | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Dennis Potter |
| Directed by | Gareth Davies |
| Starring |
Keith Barron Jack Woolgar Janet Henfrey Vickery Turner Johnnie Wade |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Graeme MacDonald James MacTaggart |
| Running time | 75 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Original release | 8 December 1965 |
| Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Dennis Potter |
| Directed by | Gareth Davies |
| Starring |
Keith Barron John Bailey Valerie Gearon Cyril Luckham |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Graeme MacDonald James MacTaggart |
| Running time | 80 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Original release | 15 December 1965 |
The Nigel Barton Plays are two semi-autobiographical television dramas by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on BBC1 in 1965 as part of The Wednesday Play strand. The first play, Stand Up, Nigel Barton, follows the eponymous character's journey from his childhood in a small mining community to winning a scholarship for Oxford, while the second play, Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton, sees him standing for Parliament as the Labour Party candidate in a by-election. Both plays develop themes and use dramatic devices that became hallmarks of Potter's later plays for television.
The play opens with Nigel (Keith Barron) following his father (Jack Woolgar) to work at the local colliery, questioning why his father walks in the middle of the road instead of using the pavement, and laughing at his assertion that it is an old miners' tradition. As his father rushes to clock in, Nigel muses on the very different paths their lives have taken.
The scene shifts to Nigel at school, in a scene in which, as in all the school scenes in the play, the children, including Nigel, are played by adults, a technique that Potter used again in Blue Remembered Hills. Then, in a brief montage, we are carried to Nigel's arrival at Oxford in his first year. Nigel is introduced to the college scout, who embarrasses him by calling him "sir". We then return to Nigel at school, watching the class bully/clown Georgie Pringle (Johnnie Wade) being called up to the front of the class to read a passage from the Bible. He chooses a passage from the Book of Ezekiel that he and the children find amusing, but the teacher (Janet Henfrey) finds his behaviour blasphemous and canes him. She then calls Nigel, much to his embarrassment and the chagrin of the class, to read another passage. The teacher praises Nigel for the clarity of his reading, for which he earns the contempt of his peers. After school the other children, with Georgie as the ringleader, bully Nigel, leaving him upset and frustrated.
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