Play for Today - Edna, the Inebriate Woman - 1971

Play for Today - Edna, the Inebriate Woman - 1971

Edna, the Inebriate Woman is a British television drama written by Jeremy
Sandford which was transmitted on BBC 1 as part of the Play for Today series
on 21 October 1971. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, Irene Shubik produced it.

The play deals with an elderly woman, Edna (Patricia Hayes), who wanders
through life in an alcoholic haze without a home, a job or any money. A
rambling, pathetic yet defiant woman, Edna sleeps rough and begs for food
and shelter and the drama follows her progress as she moves from hostel to
hostel, going to a psychiatric ward and then prison along the way. At the end a
small home for homeless women run by Josie Quinn (Barbara Jefford) of a
Christian charity 'Jesus Saves' is closed down after an inquiry following the
complaints of neighbours. Edna and the other women are on the road again.

Jeremy Sandford, who had previously written Cathy Come Home, researched
the play by living rough himself for two weeks. A great deal of the dialogue and
the incidents in the play come from the book, Down and Out in Britain
published by Jeremy Sandford in 1971; although the majority of the speakers in the book are male, Jeremy Sandford puts much of their speech into the
mouth of the female character.

The filmed drama features one of the few acting roles (as a tramp) of British
actor Vivian MacKerrell, the real-life inspiration for the character Withnail in
Withnail and I.

At the 1972 British Academy Television Awards, the play won the Best Drama
Production category, with Patricia Hayes receiving the award for Best Actress.

Cast

Patricia Hayes as Edna
Barbara Jefford as Josie Quinn of 'Jesus Saves'
Geraldine Sherman as Trudi
Cheryl Hall as Vangi
Kate Williams as Teresa
Peggy Aitchison as Lil
Freda Dowie as Mother Superior
Roger Hammond as Victor
John Trigger as Graham
Walter Sparrow as Common Lodging House Proprietor
June Watson as Attendant (at The Spike)
Denis Carey as Doctor
Jerry Verno as Old Man (at The Spike)
Rex Rashley as Old Man (at The Spike)
Amelia Bayntun as Jessie - Tramp
Talfryn Thomas as Tramp
Charles Farrell as Tramp
Vivian MacKerrell as Tramp
Jenny Logan as Doris, on the Road
June Brown as Clara
Norman Lumsden as Magistrate
Pat Nye as Irene at Common Lodging House