"BBC2 Play of the Week" Langrishe Go Down (1978)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

David Hugh Jones

Writers:

Aidan Higgins (novel)
Harold Pinter (screenplay)

TV Series:

"BBC2 Play of the Week" (1977)

Original Air Date:

20 September 1978 (Season 2, Episode 1)

Plot:

In the late 1930s, three reclusive middle-aged spinster sisters live on their run down family estate in Ireland...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Judi Dench	...	Imogen Langrishe
Jeremy Irons	...	Otto Beck
Annette Crosbie	...	Helen Langrishe
Susan Williamson	...	Lily Langrishe
Margaret Whiting	...	Maureen Layde
Harold Pinter	...	Barry Shannon
John Molloy	...	1st man on bus
Niall O'Brien	...	2nd man on bus
Arthur O'Sullivan	...	Joseph Feeney
Michael O'Brian	...	Priest (as Michael O'Briain)
Liam O'Callaghan	...	Mr. Langrishe
Joan O'Hara	...	Mrs. Langrishe

Directed by
David Hugh Jones		(as David Jones)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Aidan Higgins		novel
Harold Pinter		screenplay

Produced by
Max Rosenberg	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Carl Davis

Cinematography by
Elmer Cossey

Film Editing by
Chris Wimble

Production Design by
Roger Murray-Leach

Costume Design by
Colin Lavers

Makeup Department
Elizabeth Moss	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Liz Small	....	unit production manager

Sound Department
Graham Hare	....	sound recordist
Anthony Wornum	....	boom operator (uncredited)

Other crew
Raymond Day	....	production assistant
Stuart Griffiths	....	script editor
Michael Jackley	....	production assistant
Victor Glynn	....	trainee (uncredited)

Production Companies

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ)

Distributors

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (1978) (UK) (TV)
• Castle Hill Productions (2002) (USA)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Ferrybank, Waterford, Ireland

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Quotes:

Helen Langrishe: [speaking to herself, alone in bed] Poking about again. Poking about as usual. I've eyes in my head. I won't go out again. I won't go down again. I'll stay where I am. I'll stay here, in my bed.
[takes letter from behind pillow]
Helen Langrishe: I'm no good without you. Your lovely body. Love of all my life and all my senses. Days are passing, years could go by. Oh, my love, the happiness we had. Your lovely body. Love of all my life and all my senses.

Good acting is not enough.

Yes, the acting was fine with every cast member turning in an honest and convincing performance. And there was plenty of atmosphere--the genteel poverty of the sisters, the rustic cottage of the scholar, the Dublin scene. But even Judy Dench and Jeremy Irons couldn't make it matter. The screenplay was so understated as to be incomprehensible. I never did figure out the business with the letters or the problem with the older sister.

Dame Judy was quite a sexy number back in the day,and the young Jeremy was--as ever--terrifically appealing and gifted (although his nose looked a lot different than it did a few years later in Brideshead Revisited!). But as hard as they work to draw us in, we keep thinking, "Why?" Why are these characters doing what they're doing, and, most of all, why are we spending two hours of our lives watching a drama that is giving us back absolutely nothing?"