Blue Remembered Hills

The play activities of seven children living in the countryside during the summer of 1943 end in tragedy; the children were played by adults in childrens clothing. The title is taken from A.E. Housman's 1896 poem: "Into my heart an air that kills; From yon far country blows; What are those blue remembered hills..." It's 1943 on a summer's afternoon and 7 children play in the fields & woods of old England. The children's roles are all played by adults to act as "A magnifying glass to show what it's like to be a child." "When we dream of childhood," said Dennis Potter, "we take our present selves with us. It is not the adult world writ small; childhood is the adult world writ large." Since Potter viewed childhood as "adult society without all the conventions and the polite forms which overlay it," he repeated the device he had introduced 14 years earlier (in "Stand Up, Nigel Barton"); children's roles were cast with adult actors in this naturalistic memory drama of a "golden day" that turns to tragedy. On a sunny, summer afternoon in bucolic England of 1943, seven West Country children (two girls, five boys) play in the Forest of Dean. Their games and spontaneous actions (continuous and in real time) reflect their awareness of WWII, but no adults are present to intrude. As the group moves through the woods and back to the grassy hills, their words and actions illustrate how "childhood is not transparent with innocence." When the two girls push a pram into a barn to play house, the casting concept is heightened, doubling back on itself in a remarkable moment: adults are suddenly seen to be acting as children who are pretending to be adults, and lines from Housman echo across the years: "That is the land of lost content/I see it shining plain/The happy highways where I went/And cannot come again."

Writing:
  • Colin Welland

Stars:
Release Date: 1970-10-15
Seasons: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
TMDb: 5.9/10
  • Country: GB
  • Language: English
  • Runtime: 75

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Nina
Episode 1 - Nina
Victims of Apartheid
Episode 2 - Victims of Apartheid
A Touch of the Tiny Hacketts
Episode 3 - A Touch of the Tiny Hacke...
Dinner at the Sporting Club
Episode 4 - Dinner at the Sporting Cl...
Donal and Sally
Episode 5 - Donal and Sally
Sorry
Episode 6 - Sorry
Butterflies Don't Count
Episode 7 - Butterflies Don't Count
Soldiers Talking Cleanly
Episode 8 - Soldiers Talking Cleanly
One Bummer Newsday
Episode 9 - One Bummer Newsday
The Out of Town Boys
Episode 10 - The Out of Town Boys
Vampires
Episode 11 - Vampires
The Chief Mourner
Episode 12 - The Chief Mourner
Waterloo Sunset
Episode 13 - Waterloo Sunset
Blue Remembered Hills
Episode 14 - Blue Remembered Hills
Who's Who
Episode 15 - Who's Who
The Last Window Cleaner
Episode 16 - The Last Window Cleaner
Ploughman's Share
Episode 17 - Ploughman's Share
Degree of Uncertainty
Episode 18 - Degree of Uncertainty
Light
Episode 19 - Light
Coming Out
Episode 20 - Coming Out
Don't Be Silly
Episode 21 - Don't Be Silly