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BBC - Play for Today ?


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Guest transit

I vaguely remember a BBC film crew sited on the car park on Cricket Inn Road (between St Johns Church and the recently built Park Gardeners WMC ) in the early seventies . Word had it that they were making a film . I heard a rumour Tony Booth was in it ( son in law in MASSIVE "Till Death Us Do Part" programme at the time) I remember running home from the Hydeaway (Hyde Park flats youthclub) to be home for the programme which was on Thursday at 9.25pm. I think some of the filming /locations were around the flats. Any more info?

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Trying to track down if Tony Booth was in "Play for Today", no success yet.

As S2 was my old stomping ground I will continue to see if I can track down the particular play.

Do you have any more details? What was the general story, who else was in the it etc.

I love doing a bit of research :)

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Tony Booth is the father of Cherie Blair and was the husband of Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner).

Speech Day was a BBC Play for Today first broadcast in March 1973, which was filmed in Sheffield. I can't remember the cast or much of the plot (being rather young at the time) but the school scenes were filmed at Ashleigh School, including several appearances by the school choir, several of whom were known to me and my family, which is why I remember watching it. I have a recollection that some of the other parts of the play werre filmed at either Park Hill or Hyde Park, but it is a long time ago.

A synopsis of the play is here, with a few stills:

http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?p=6929

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Speech Day was a BBC Play for Today first broadcast in March 1973, which was filmed in Sheffield. I can't remember the cast or much of the plot (being rather young at the time) but the school scenes were filmed at Ashleigh School, including several appearances by the school choir, several of whom were known to me and my family, which is why I remember watching it. I have a recollection that some of the other parts of the play werre filmed at either Park Hill or Hyde Park, but it is a long time ago.

A synopsis of the play is here, with a few stills:

http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?p=6929

I was at Ashleigh school at this time and I can remember it being filmed. Some of our A level maths class were asked to volunteer as "extras" for some scenes in the school. I didn't put myself forward for this but quite a few of my friends did. In the sixth form science students had a lot of free time during the day because practical laboratory classes were done 4pm - 7pm due to shortage of "lab hours" and that freed us up to volunteer for this production during the day.

Unfortunately I had other interests outside of school at the time.

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My wife was also at Ashleigh when Speech Day was filmed there & recalls seeing a brief shot of her head when broadcast!!!

About six years ago I contacted the both BFI and the BBC. The BFI gave me a little info on it but no response whatsoever from the BBC. Would love to recieve a copy of this should anyone have one or is able to put on DVD.

Much appreciated

HT

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My wife was also at Ashleigh when Speech Day was filmed there & recalls seeing a brief shot of her head when broadcast!!!

About six years ago I contacted the both BFI and the BBC. The BFI gave me a little info on it but no response whatsoever from the BBC. Would love to recieve a copy of this should anyone have one or is able to put on DVD.

Much appreciated

HT

Would like to see this again myself.

No response from the BBC. :(

I bet they no longer have a recording of it because they have lost it or erased it like they did with certain other of their classic programmes.

The BBC is financed by our licence fees and as such they are our servants in our employ so not to get a response at all is not acceptable.

Then again the BBC has been in a lot of trouble recently,

The vast unreasonable sums they pay their top celebrities (many of which are not worth employing in my opinion)

The scandals and fines imposes by the Broadcasting Standards Authority, the 2 most prominent of these being the "phone-in vote scam" and the "Ross - Brand scandal"

Finally the "executives expenses scandal", - it appears they have been wasting our licence money almost to the same extent that MP's have abused their expenses system and with the publication of BBC executives expenses they will be too worried about how they are going to get out of this one than to reply to HUGH TUBE's request for information about a programme they broadcast 36 years ago.

Bit of a sad state of affairs if you ask me.

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Guest tsavo

In the 1970s the accountants moved in and were horrified at the amount of used video tape stock the BBC had in store. As a "cost cutting" exercise, many old programmes (now considered classics) were simply wiped and over recorded. These programmes would have made millions for the BBC had they still been available.

Cast/info: http://www.memorabletv.com/bfs6.htm

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Guest transit

Speech Day was a BBC Play for Today first broadcast in March 1973, which was filmed in Sheffield. I can't remember the cast or much of the plot (being rather young at the time) but the school scenes were filmed at Ashleigh School, including several appearances by the school choir, several of whom were known to me and my family, which is why I remember watching it. I have a recollection that some of the other parts of the play werre filmed at either Park Hill or Hyde Park, but it is a long time ago.

A synopsis of the play is here, with a few stills:

http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?p=6929

....yes thats the one - i remember part was filmed on Hyde Park and remember someone running down the hill past the adventure playground on right and St Johns church on left - same route i ran home from "Hydeaway" youth club at the same time . I too would love to see a copy ?????? The "Play for Today" programmes were on Wed night ,9.25pm followed by "Sportsnight" with David Coleman !

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My wife was also at Ashleigh when Speech Day was filmed there & recalls seeing a brief shot of her head when broadcast!!!

About six years ago I contacted the both BFI and the BBC. The BFI gave me a little info on it but no response whatsoever from the BBC. Would love to recieve a copy of this should anyone have one or is able to put on DVD.

Much appreciated

HT

My cousin was at Ashleigh at the same time. The school in the play was called something like "Atley Comprehensive" so they could use the A on the school badge.

Anyway:

Sometimes, if you know where to look, some things can be found ;-)

Ashleigh

Herdings 13 storey flats in the background

School Choir as mentioned earlier

I'm currently converting the video to DVD, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll do my best to get a copy to you.

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Not quite a then & now but more of a then and then.

Two pictures, not quite from the same viewpoint, of Ashleigh lower school.

The top one, in long faded colours is from the film "speech day" which was filmed at the school in 1974

The bottom one in black and white is taken through the lens of my own camera while I was at the school and is dated January 1973.

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Guest 7752philip

My cousin was at Ashleigh at the same time. The school in the play was called something like "Atley Comprehensive" so they could use the A on the school badge.

Anyway:

Sometimes, if you know where to look, some things can be found

Ashleigh

Herdings 13 storey flats in the background

School Choir as mentioned earlier

I'm currently converting the video to DVD, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll do my best to get a copy to you.

To this above

hi i was ashleigh along with my ex wife when the film was made and can see my self and her in the photos. i would love a copy of the DVD if you have managed to download it

Thanks alot phil

p.hardwick217@btinternet.com

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http://www.4shared.com/video/jiv35tPQ/Play_For_Today_-_Speech_Day.html

I've upload a copy to 4shared

It's in .avi format but should play OK in either Windows Media Player or failing that VLC

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http://www.4shared.c...Speech_Day.html

I've upload a copy to 4shared

It's in .avi format but should play OK in either Windows Media Player or failing that VLC

Do I have to sign up to 4sheared to view or download this film?

At first I thought it was the same sharing site that SteveHB used at Christmas for the SheffieldHistory calendar but it doesn't seem to have the same access protocol.

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I don't use 4Shared very much, and I think it used to be open to anyone, but now it seems you have to "sign up"

It doesn't look like they need much info, just make up an email address and password.

I tried it with a fictional email addy and password off the top of my head and it worked (there's no verification check).

It let me start the download after a few seconds.

I think SteveHB used a different file hosting site.

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I tried it with a fictional email addy and password off the top of my head and it worked (there's no verification check).

It let me start the download after a few seconds.

OK Markbaby, as I don't intend using their service much I'll do just that and give it a try

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OK Markbaby, as I don't intend using their service much I'll do just that and give it a try

OK I've got it, a download of the full version of speech day from 4shared and it works!

Once I got past all the signing up / signing in / reject the premium offer / etc the download was impressively fast,

The film runs for 50 minutes, the file is just under 500Mb and the whole lot downloaded in about 5 and a half minutes, - just over the Internet and not on a torrent service.

Thanks Markbaby.

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OK I've got it, a download of the full version of speech day from 4shared and it works!

Once I got past all the signing up / signing in / reject the premium offer / etc the download was impressively fast,

The film runs for 50 minutes, the file is just under 500Mb and the whole lot downloaded in about 5 and a half minutes, - just over the Internet and not on a torrent service.

Thanks Markbaby.

I have commented before in other 1970's film related topics that films from this era have not kept well and speech day is no exception, the colours are awful.

Frequently in 1970's film the red colour dye layer deteriorates to a brownish or orange-ish shade and this affect the entire colour balance. This has clearly happened here, but to an extent worse than is often encountered such that in some scenes it is almost in black and white the colours have faded that much.

It looks as though the original was filmed on 16mm film (from the picture quality) which would have been ideal for a TV film, but not so good for big screen cinema, and was shot on one of the emulsions very popular at that time but which suffered from this colour fade problem as time went by. I think Kodak's own Eastman Colour suffered from this problem.

Never mind, better to have a copy with poor colour quality than no copy at all, and at least now transfered to digital media the remaining colour is now preserved.

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I've watched it all now

What a brilliant set of location shots showing Ashleigh School as it was in 1973, a fine record of the school, upper and lower school buildings, as they were.

Sadly now both gone :(

One interesting point about the film, it runs for 50 minutes and does not appear to be edited down or truncated (as witnessed by the timer in the lower left of the picture) but all the internet movie and TV databases quote the runtime of this film as 75 minutes.

Has 25 minutes of this film gone missing from this copy?

As far as i remember, "Play for Today" was a regular weekly programme which had a 1 hour timeslot so a 50 minute film makes much more sense than 75 minutes as it would fit the timeslot and allow a bit for the BBC logo ident / timecheck / announcements etc.

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Like 7752phllip I also have another motive for wanting to see this film again.

I attended Ashleigh School for the 6th form only between 1972 and 1974.

The film was made in 1973 and at the time the sixth formers were asked to volunteer to come into school to play extras in this film and so get to appear on TV.

At the time I had a girlfriend who still attended my previous school, Norfolk, and so on the day of filming I had other things to do and didn't go to the filming, but several of my friends did and they do appear in the film.

At about 5 minutes into the film my friend Steven Munn appeared in the school assembly scene

On the left is Steve in a still taken from the film (without his usual glasses) and on the right is one of my own personal photos of him from the same school year.

Stood in front of him but out of shot is his twin brother Phillip.

The Munn twins were well known as their uncle, Reg Munn was a local Councillor and at one time had been Mayor of Sheffield. Their cousin is Meg Munn, better known in local politics in more recent years.

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Ar about 10 minutes into the film a maths class is seen with several of my sixth form aquaintances in it

I will identify who I can using a tagged version of the picture.

A is Dominic Sanovasci, an Italian-English student who lived at Abbeydale. He was a very good guitar player. His family seem to be connected with the original Mamma's Pizza Parlour which has been on Norfolk Street since 1968, either that or he just ate a lot of pizza!

B is Tony Marples, he lived out at Totley somewhere and was one of our science group. I got to know him from another student called Rod Dalton who got himself smashed up in a motorcycle accident at the end of the lower sixth and so did not attend much for the upper sixth and so did not do as well as expected at A level.

C is Steven Munn, see previous post. The Munn's lived at Gleadless and Steven had previously attended Hurlfield Boys just as I had attended Norfolk so we both only spent 2 years at Ashleigh.

D is *name unknown*, a long haired youth who was well into rock groups like Yes, Cream, Led Zepplin and Hawkwind

E is Phillip Munn, see previous post. Unlike his brother he had spent the previous 5 years at Ashleigh so could very quickly show us new boys the ropes on how the system worked at Ashleigh.

So, anyone else recognise or know anyone in the film?

Can we pick out Markbabys cousin?

Can we pick out 7752Philip? or his ex-wife?

How many of the large number of Ashleigh extras can we actually identify?

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Previously in another topic I have posted this picture of Ashleigh school sixth form 1973-4

In light of my previous post perhaps now is the time to identify a few people in it, some of them have alredy been named in the previous post.

A to E are as identified in the previous picture and post

A is Dominic Sandivasci

B is Tony Marples

C is Steven Munn

D is the long haired rocker kid

E is Philip Munn

There is no F, I decided instead to actually name student F on the photo, it is actually, well, err, me

G is Stephen Frost, he lived close to the school and was always nipping home. He also liked rock music and insisted and having all his records on quarter inch reel to reel magnetic recording tape. His long time girlfriend is one of the girls on the front row but I can't remember which one, I think it's the girl on the extreme right.

H is Malcolm Flude. he had come from Norfolk like me but being a year old had moved up a year earlier. Malcolm lived on the Park Hill Flats, sadly he died in the year 2000 aged only 45.

I is *name unknown*, a friend of the long haired rocker, also into music and also into art. Many of the middle row of this photo are art students so I don't know them that well but I am familiar with their works as they could characature just about every kid in the sixth form and all the teachers better than Giles the cartoonist and every one of their cartoon works had a screaming skull racing across the sky as a sort of "tag" of theirs. In the film the painting of the Jarrow Crusade which is shown is one of this teams examination piece of work.

J is Janet Clarke, she was one of the students who had come to Ashleigh from Norfolk with me and we had been in the same form at Norfolk for the previous 5 years. The girl to herleft in the picture is her friend Jacqueline Hill. One of the girls to the right of the staff, I think the second one after the teacher is a girl called Hillary something or other, who, although she had always been at Ashleigh was related in some way to Man Tanza, the music teacher at Norfolk.

Anybody know anyone else in this picture?

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Guest RichardT

http://www.4shared.com/video/jiv35tPQ/Play_For_Today_-_Speech_Day.html I've upload a copy to 4shared It's in .avi format but should play OK in either Windows Media Player or failing that VLC

Downloaded it easily, many thanks for putting it up, I never thought I'd see Ashleigh again!

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Downloaded it easily, many thanks for putting it up, I never thought I'd see Ashleigh again!

No, neither did I

Only spent 2 years there for 6th form but I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it, a great school in its day.

Welcome to Sheffield History RichardT and thank you for posting, I see we have similar tastes in artwork for our avitars as well as attending the same school.

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I is *name unknown*, a friend of the long haired rocker, also into music and also into art. Many of the middle row of this photo are art students so I don't know them that well but I am familiar with their works as they could characature just about every kid in the sixth form and all the teachers better than Giles the cartoonist and every one of their cartoon works had a screaming skull racing across the sky as a sort of "tag" of theirs. In the film the painting of the Jarrow Crusade which is shown is one of this teams examination piece of work.

Here he is in the film, sat in front of the master and slightly to the right

..and also the examination piece of art produced by either him or one of his contemporaries

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