James MacTaggart – Play for Today: Orkney (1971)

Short stories by George MacKay Brown, adapted for television by John McGrath

Three short-stories by Orcadian author Brown, adapted to create three short plays, running back-to-back, in an episode lasting just over 90-minutes. It explores the lives of islanders, past and present.

Brown won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and although ultimately unsuccessful he was shortlisted for a Booker Prize for fiction.

Take into consideration that there’s three stories with approx. 10 actors and actresses in each, then add in Scottish drama’s reputation for using the same tried-and-tested faces over and over again. That means, if you’re a Scot over 40, you’re bound to end up spending the evening guessing the other things they were in!

First we have Hannah Gordon, the Social Worker from the previous week’s episode, When the Bough Breaks. Then we have the magnificent Fulton MacKay, with this role being just a couple of years before the Prisoner & Escort Porridge pilot. And there’s Lex McLean’s moronic sidekick Walter Carr, along with a few other Vital Spark crew-members.

This is a good one, but it’s especially good if you’re as Scotch.

A TIME TO KEEP

“A Time to Keep” reflects Brown’s recent conversion five years earlier to Roman Catholicism, which is both reflected in the title and in the spiritual content of the tales.

THE WHALER’S RETURN

“The Whaler’s Return” is a self explanatory one, focusing on a whaler returning to his native Orkney after a lengthy and dangerous expedition.

CELIA

“Celia” portrays a woman who is shutting out the contemporary world, losing herself in an alcohol-fuelled haze which helps her rejects the horrors of Apartheid and the Vietnam War.

Play for Today S01E20 Orkney [576p] (13 May 1971) [WebRip x264].mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 31 min
Size: 	1.23 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	768x576 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 814 kb/s
BPP: 	0.164
Audio
#1:  	1.0ch AAC LC @ 113 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/AC869B199FF574A/Play_for_Today_S01E20_Orkney__576p__(13_May_1971)__WebRip_x264_.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/9F3994179007FE2/Play_for_Today_S01E20_Orkney_576p_(13_May_1971)_WebRip_x264.srt

https://rapidgator.net/file/94b6d28aef4f2380a41a037cb0fa2778/Play_for_Today_S01E20_Orkney_[576p]_(13_May_1971)_[WebRip_x264].mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English