"Play for Today"
Kate the Good Neighbour (1980)

Director:

John Bruce

Writer:

Peter Ransley (writer)

TV Series:

"Play for Today" (1970)

Original Air Date:

6 March 1980 (Season 10, Episode 20)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

An elderly English spinster lady lives alone, is heartily disliked, and will not accept aid from anyone...

Plot Keywords:

Character Name In Title | Male Female Relationship

Cast

Rachel Kempson	...	Kate Dawson
John Vine	...	Jimmy
Penny Leatherbarrow	...	Mrs. Baker
John Price	...	Richard Preston
Dandy Nichols	...	Mrs. Druce
Sherrie Hewson	...	Young Kate
Larry Dann	...	Mr. Turner
Graham Fletcher-Cook	...	Boy in alley
Mark Monero	...	Boy in alley
Edwin Brown	...	Mr. Pritchard
Debbie Wheeler	...	Waitress
Chuck Julian	...	Greengrocer
Linda Robson	...	Ann
Cate Fowler	...	Girl in bathroom
Elizabeth Archer	...	Nurse in canteen

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Extraordinary, wrenching, and Kempson's finest work

This is one of a very few fully realized films that sticks in my memory. A mean, bloody-minded, self-hating and lonely old woman with a terrible secret kept hidden away in one of her annual diaries; about her tragic affair with a Royal Air Force pilot, killed in the Battle of Britain, who left her pregnant with a baby she self-aborts. There are flashback sequences where we see her lost beauty and the hugeness of her love. And near the end of her life, we see how the sympathetic caring of a social worker brings her to a new belief in herself, and a willingness to let go. Will this film ever be seen again? Come on, BBC, give us another showing! Rachel Kempson, the late Redgrave clan matriarch deserves this. Her crowning achievement. And the rest of a wonderful cast no slouches either.