Play for Today - Brimstone & Treacle (1976, Shown 1987) - Dennis Potter

Play for Today - Brimstone & Treacle (1976, Shown 1987)

‘Why can’t people accept evil when they are offered it?’

Brimstone & Treacle is probably one of Dennis Potter’s most well-known
titles, not least because of the ban it received directly before its
originally scheduled transmission date of 6 April 1976. It took a full
eleven years, with different BBC executives, before the play was finally
broadcast for the first time.

Written as part of an informal trilogy, Brimstone & Treacle was intended
to be viewed alongside two other Potter plays that also challenged
aspects of spirituality and explored conventional ways of thinking,
Double Dare and Where Adam Stood. Instead, as John R. Cook notes in
his book, ‘having been commissioned and recorded by the BBC it was
“pulled” from the schedules on the orders of Alasdair Milne, then
Director of TV Programmes within the Corporation’.

Denholm Elliott ... Mr. Tom Bates

Michael Kitchen ... Martin Taylor

Patricia Lawrence ... Mrs. Amy Bates

Michelle Newell ... Pattie Bates

Paul Williamson ... Businessman

Esmond Webb ... Man with dog

Patricia Quayle ... Woman in street

James Greene ... Man in street


Writer: Dennis Potter;
Director: Barry Davis;
Producer: Kenith Trodd