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Days of Hope is a BBC television drama serial produced in 1975. The series dealt with the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926. It was written by Jim Allen, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach.

Cast

• Paul Copley as Ben Matthews
• Pamela Brighton as Sarah Hargreaves
• Nikolas Simmonds as Philip Hargreaves
• Alun Armstrong as Billy Shepherd
• Clifford Kershaw as Tom Matthews
• Helene Palmer as Martha Matthews
• Gary Roberts as Joel Barnett
• Jean Spence as May Barnett
• Christine Anderson as Jenny Barnett
• John Phillips as Josiah Wedgwood
• Stephen Rea as Reporter

Development

The original plan was to make a feature film centred on the 1921 part of the series. Following problems with finance for a cinematic release, the project was moved to the BBC, and the decision was then made to expand from one film to four parts with characters' views changing over time.

Episodes

Box-set and certification

Days of Hope is included on the Ken Loach at the BBC DVD box-set released in 2011.

The first two episodes of the series were given 15 certificates: the first episode for strong language, and the second for strong language and moderate violence. Episodes 3 and 4 were given PG certificates.

Reception

The first episode of Days of Hope caused considerable controversy in the British media owing to its critical depiction of the military in World War I, and particularly over a scene where conscientious objectors were tied up to stakes outside trenches in view of enemy fire after refusing to obey orders. An ex-serviceman subsequently contacted The Times newspaper with an illustration from the time of a similar scene. In an interview, Loach said that numerous letters were written to newspapers about small inaccuracies (e.g. the soldiers' marching formations) but relatively few challenging the main narrative of events.

In contrast, the Marxist historian John Newsinger has argued that the final episode of Days of Hope was so concerned with historical accuracy about the General Strike that it had become "boring" and "a heroic failure". He contrasts this with "the magnificent socialist dramas" in the first episodes, which were less concerned with historical accuracy.

Winston Churchill is portrayed relatively negatively in the series, which highlights his attitude towards the coal miners during the strikes of 1921 and 1926. Ken Loach said in an interview that the media were particularly offended by a line that compared Churchill to a vulture and Lenin to an eagle.

In an editorial entitled Does the bias run both ways?, The Times defended the decision of the BBC to broadcast the plays against calls for censorship but also questioned whether the BBC would have broadcast a play "with equal dramatic merit, but with a right-wing bias".

A lengthy review in Freedom anarchist fortnightly praised the "painstaking" research, the evolution in character of Sarah Hargreaves and the space given for different points of view in the second episode, but criticised the lengthy dialogue, the forced references to Trotsky and the overuse of slow fade-to-black sequences.

References

1. "Days of Hope". Sight and Sound: 160. Summer 1975.
2. BBFC: Days of Hope, Episode 1
3. BBFC: Days of Hope, Episode 2
4. BBFC: Days of Hope, Episode 3
5. BBFC: Days of Hope, Episode 4
6. BFI Screen Online – Days of Hope (1975)
7. Ken Loach – the controversies
8. ^ Days of Hope, Tony Williams, Cinémathèque Annotations on Film, Issue 31, April 2004
9. ^ Interview on Disc 6 of the box-set Ken Loach at the BBC
10. Newsinger, John (Summer 1999). "Scenes from the class war: Ken Loach and socialist cinema". International Socialism. 2:83. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
11. "Does the bias run both ways?". The Times. London. 30 September 1975. p. 13.
12. "Days of Betrayal". Freedom anarchist fortnightly. 36 (42–43). London: Freedom Press. 25 October 1975.

Further reading

• Morris, Margaret. "The General Strike: A Television Documentary," History 60#199, (1975), pp. 224–27. online

External links

• Days of Hope at IMDb
• BFI Film & TV Database
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• Senses of Cinema review and history

• 1975 British television series debuts
• 1975 British television series endings
• 1975 television plays
• 1970s British drama television series
• Plays by Jim Allen
• BBC television dramas
• 1970s British television miniseries
• Films about Quakers
• Television series set in the 1910s
• Television series set in the 1920s
• British English-language television shows
• Television controversies in the United Kingdom