I've started watching these recently and am struck by the superior scripts and acting. There's a deeper sense of humanity in the actors performances. I think things have been dumbed down by technology leading to an erosion of people's sensibilities
I spend a great deal of my time making negative sarky remarks about what people write or say on youtube but in your case, why, I totally and vehemently agree with what you say!😃 Excellent acting excellent scripts and something to be leanred from these plays. I'm grateful to the person who has put these up on youtube (still dont understand how that works).
True but I'd suggest it's little to do with technology and everything to do with out of control corporatism. Art mined for profit rely on simple ideas and tropes to satisfy "investors" by enabling fast production and hewing close to the money making ethos plot wise.
I gave up alcohol 30yrs ago after spending a fun night on the local bar. On the way home I noticed it was a beautiful night, lots of stars and a brilliant moon. I decided to sit on a beach to enjoy the vision. After a while I lay down and fell asleep. I woke up later to find someone lying on top of me. I fought my way free and drove home. The next morning I decided that I could no longer drink alcohol and behave responsibly. I hv been alcohol free since. I had to admit to myself, first, my problem and to spend time forgiving myself for my lack of personal responsibility. I nhv never needed the company of AA members but I live as if I did. I understand that I cab never be cured but the isn't a day that I don'tI appreciate my return to full health and friends who, like me, hv also made similar decisions. Alcohol is insidious because it is the socially-acceptable drug. It is hard for many people but the fight is worth it.
Being "cured" from their mythical "disease" is nonsense, just start meditating & understanding yourself better, the need for that poison or need to self medicate will disappear. Try a Read of Allen Carrs "The Easy way to Control alcohol"
I'm so glad you were able to get away from your attacker. What a horrifying experience. I'm very fortunate. My mum was alcoholic and it seems to have put me off drinking to excess. I"m able to drink in moderation but not so my son who has a love-hate relationship with the stuff
So much talent in this episode!. Acting, writing, costumes , lighting , set.... All of it deserves an Oscar. My eyes are opened to the amateurish things I see on TV these days.
i love the audacity with which it spends all that time reaching no definitive conclusion .. thus leaving it all up to the audience to work out what it all may or may not be about.. none of the slick jump cut editing that we have today from america.. instead endlessly pregnant with the build up..
My word! What superb acting. The Plays for Today were often very good. Thank you for posting this one and the others . PS A smokers anonymous was perhaps needed in those days... smoking was just taken for granted.
There's should be an Oscar for this...writing. screenplay, acting. My parents and step parents all alcohols, at times violent im 53 now and it still affects me at times. But not this ..this was brilliant. And sadly all can be applied today. How can we get these back? Where are the writers now? I don't speak to my parents because I gave myself permission to be free, and my kids not to be tainted by them. If anyone is struggling or saw themselves here try AA meetings. Because your family & friends are probably at wits end and who better to know than a person in same boat. There should be a petition for bringing back play for a day, in this style and I feel that people are hungry for these thought provoking plays. We need them back.
Even giving up smoking can be one day at a time. I know even after 20 years of non smoking I could easily start again. It’s there at the back of your mind.
Brilliant. I didn't want this to stop. A few times I stopped it just to see how much of it was left. The old man crying after dropping his carrier bag and smashing his bottles would only hit home to a real drinker. I loved this so much.
I've always thought people at meetings or in rehab would make good drama, so finding this was a nice surprise, I've been watching a lot of old Plays for today recently 👍
Extraordinary performance by Derek Farr as the drunk. I couldn’t place him for a long time until his name appeared in the credits at the end. Derek Farr at the end of a brilliant career. RlP
From where alcoholics have been so far down AA members will go to any lengths to stay sober. Sharing with other alcoholics can be very powerful as well as working the 12 steps.
This is one perspective of course. Meetings are one way of getting help. And meeting vary among themselves as well. As with anything you have to find the right fit. Personally I think the things that scare people from quitting addiction the most are withdrawal & facing the damages & regret.
Agree with you. It's a drug which is treated as a tolerable social habit in the West. When I was studying in the UK, I saw that some people used to enter the pub first thing in the morning. How can people start the day with alcohol and not tea or coffee? Amazing! The amount of bodily and psychological diseases, home wrecks, street crimes, sexual misconduct and around 6pm downtown shutter downs we see across many smaller towns and cities in the UK is because of excessive drinking and the social chaos it creates.
Very well done and very true to life in the rooms - EXCEPT it's rare to have interventions from aggrieved people harbouring resentments as outbursts, let alone having so many in one sitting. Yet, I understand that to give the most accurate depiction of a fellowship meeting, these will be the fundamental burning issues and reservations that most will have towards fellowship meetings - sex, belief in a higher power, or a resignation that a sober life begins in a cold and desolate place, and so be it for the rest of your sobriety. However, when the guy at the end admits to having a slip, I was surprised at Tom's reaction of "Silly buggar". Admissions of relapses are never reflected back to the person in judgement, rather it would have been met with empathy and understanding; it is spiritual values that are the way of life - and the woman slating her husband for lack of sexual prowess would have been shut down.
Brilliant story that shows the power and good of AA and the resistance to it. And when all is said and done there, AA people are still people, fallible humans, such as the chair Tom having had an affair with another woman in AA and his wife is in the same AA meeting group. Well acted and smart.
My Mother died of alcoholism, I turned to heroin for many years [long before she died]. I've been clean for 22 years. Some people knock these meetings, I tried to get my Mother to go, She used to say "why, I enjoy drinking" She died alone in misery. I wanted to break the chain so that my children would grow up with a sober parent. In A.A and N.A they say you can only do it for yourself that you can't get clean for someone else. I believe my kids were the catalyst, I didn't want them to feel confused and abandoned like I did, I didn't want history to keep repeating itself. For some people these meetings are all somebody has and all they actually need. I haven't been for years myself but I'll never forget the respite I felt in them even if just to listen and know that I'm not the only one to feel alone in my addiction that there are lots of people carrying those kinds of burdens or demons. I'm not sure I believe the "it's a disease" concept other than I felt a dis-ease and that it was my problem and that no one was to blame and that I had to deal with it, it was my responsibility but with the help of others that felt the same kind of dis-ease for whatever reason. It's possible to live a positive existence without the ball and chain called addiction.
You are a very brave and good soul thanks for sharing, not all parents are as responsible. People do try to convince themselves they enjoy it. My ex did just that. I stopped drinking on my own, I just didn't enjoy it anymore 😊
You have to remember these were different times unless you lived then you cant understand why things that are not permitted in 2023 were ok then smoking was everywhere and people enjoyed it so as the majority were smokers nobody complained its like mobile phones today nearly everyone has one the money thats spent On mobiles credit is like the money people used to spend on there cigarettes its becomes a neccessity for people
@@ttacking_you you may be right, but to have to endure it was absolutely disgusting. When places started enforcing no smoking policies it was wonderful.
You sound like you crave a drink and can’t bear the humiliation of it. Too much alcohol changes the brain in those who are susceptible. Those changes create an irresistible urge to drink. The alcoholic is helpless to resist the physical force of this, and will do anything, including betray his family and profession to pursue drinking. Failure to admit powerlessness and seek help can lead to death. Alcoholism is a disease of denial, recovery requires the strength of character to admit the truth of one’s helplessness. The comment above shows characteristic denial.
I do hope this play didn't put anyone off going to A.A. It would have put me off. The poor woman they kept trying to silence. The overriding feeling of tension. Fortunately people are, on the whole, just 'nicer' and kinder to one another nowadays. In the '70's I volunteered in a hospital ward. I look back in horror.
i don't think that AA is the best thing for all alcoholics.. some will benefit from deeper psychological therapy.. AA is good for those who need to rely on self-discipline alone..
@@executivedecision6141 makes sense to me.. english like to pretend to be sophisticated by using french sounding words.. americans prefer to simply flash the cash if you want to show off..
Well hadn't ehstch it yet I look at cement ti get a I dear of the movie it about poele over drinking by the right up, I hate drink , piele should only drink with a meal to go with the food thay eating , but just sip it and enjoy it not over like poele do ,you would drink water like that , and it better for you , alhol is pisoin and kill our brain sell by over using it , I don't miss it it Mack's me fill sick , when it interfears with my exasise , or my nit been able to fill grate in the morning, I don't miss it at all , 😊
A brilliant storyline and cast; I went to AA back in the early '80s but I didn't actually stop drinking till 2011. What intrigued me in this play was the highly desirable young lady stuck in a 12ft by 9ft room; Her story was never truly told. I've I'd been at that meeting I'd have been all over her like a rash. The next rhyming line is unprintable here.
@@justinebourke9449 I've forgotten what the next rhyming line would have been, tho' 'gash' might have been a strong contender; which rhymes with 'bell ender' She was highly desirable tho' and we could've been hopeless alcoholics together maybe.
I've started watching these recently and am struck by the superior scripts and acting. There's a deeper sense of humanity in the actors performances. I think things have been dumbed down by technology leading to an erosion of people's sensibilities
I spend a great deal of my time making negative sarky remarks about what people write or say on youtube but in your case, why, I totally and vehemently agree with what you say!😃 Excellent acting excellent scripts and something to be leanred from these plays. I'm grateful to the person who has put these up on youtube (still dont understand how that works).
True but I'd suggest it's little to do with technology and everything to do with out of control corporatism. Art mined for profit rely on simple ideas and tropes to satisfy "investors" by enabling fast production and hewing close to the money making ethos plot wise.
You’re easily satisfied
I’m blown away by this!
Humanity witnessed in all its variety.
Wonderful writing and acting.
Empathy sublime.
My mum died from alcohol 24 years ago. Nothing we ever did or said could stop her. She was still my mum though, and i miss her every single day 😢😢
I gave up alcohol 30yrs ago after spending a fun night on the local bar. On the way home I noticed it was a beautiful night, lots of stars and a brilliant moon. I decided to sit on a beach to enjoy the vision. After a while I lay down and fell asleep. I woke up later to find someone lying on top of me. I fought my way free and drove home.
The next morning I decided that I could no longer drink alcohol and behave responsibly. I hv been alcohol free since. I had to admit to myself, first, my problem and to spend time forgiving myself for my lack of personal responsibility.
I nhv never needed the company of AA members but I live as if I did. I understand that I cab never be cured but the isn't a day that I don'tI appreciate my return to full health and friends who, like me, hv also made similar decisions.
Alcohol is insidious because it is the socially-acceptable drug. It is hard for many people but the fight is worth it.
Proud to be a grateful recovering alcoholic, nearly 9 years back!
Being "cured" from their mythical "disease" is nonsense, just start meditating & understanding yourself better, the need for that poison or need to self medicate will disappear. Try a Read of Allen Carrs "The Easy way to Control alcohol"
I'm so glad you were able to get away from your attacker. What a horrifying experience. I'm very fortunate. My mum was alcoholic and it seems to have put me off drinking to excess. I"m able to drink in moderation but not so my son who has a love-hate relationship with the stuff
Absolutely brilliant gathering of actors on a expose of a problem many people share
So much talent in this episode!. Acting, writing, costumes , lighting , set.... All of it deserves an Oscar. My eyes are opened to the amateurish things I see on TV these days.
i love the audacity with which it spends all that time reaching no definitive conclusion .. thus leaving it all up to the audience to work out what it all may or may not be about..
none of the slick jump cut editing that we have today from america.. instead endlessly pregnant with the build up..
My word! What superb acting. The Plays for Today were often very good. Thank you for posting this one and the others . PS A smokers anonymous was perhaps needed in those days... smoking was just taken for granted.
There's should be an Oscar for this...writing. screenplay, acting. My parents and step parents all alcohols, at times violent im 53 now and it still affects me at times. But not this ..this was brilliant. And sadly all can be applied today. How can we get these back? Where are the writers now? I don't speak to my parents because I gave myself permission to be free, and my kids not to be tainted by them. If anyone is struggling or saw themselves here try AA meetings. Because your family & friends are probably at wits end and who better to know than a person in same boat. There should be a petition for bringing back play for a day, in this style and I feel that people are hungry for these thought provoking plays. We need them back.
Even giving up smoking can be one day at a time. I know even after 20 years of non smoking I could easily start again. It’s there at the back of your mind.
Brilliant. I didn't want this to stop. A few times I stopped it just to see how much of it was left. The old man crying after dropping his carrier bag and smashing his bottles would only hit home to a real drinker. I loved this so much.
I've always thought people at meetings or in rehab would make good drama, so finding this was a nice surprise, I've been watching a lot of old Plays for today recently 👍
If you like this I can thoroughly recommend the 1979 drama Instant Enlightenment with Vat.
Tremendous ensemble acting, writing and direction. Sadly, nothing as quietly riveting as this on TV now.
Extraordinary performance by Derek Farr as the drunk. I couldn’t place him for a long time until his name appeared in the credits at the end. Derek Farr at the end of a brilliant career. RlP
WOW ! That was profoundly Intense👍👍
When the BBC was worth watching
And worth paying for.
I am sober 29 years 9 months through AA . I have attended hundreds of meetings like these .
The bloke on probation was great .
This is so true...addiction makes everyone else suffer.
Attending any meeting in a room as dreary and depressing as that would have me immediately reaching for the bottle.
From where alcoholics have been so far down AA members will go to any lengths to stay sober. Sharing with other alcoholics can be very powerful as well as working the 12 steps.
So many stories to tell in that one play and eye opening.
This is one perspective of course. Meetings are one way of getting help. And meeting vary among themselves as well. As with anything you have to find the right fit. Personally I think the things that scare people from quitting addiction the most are withdrawal & facing the damages & regret.
We need to remember that alcohol is a class A drug, up there with heroin, except it's legal.
Agree with you.
It's a drug which is treated as a tolerable social habit in the West.
When I was studying in the UK, I saw that some people used to enter the pub first thing in the morning.
How can people start the day with alcohol and not tea or coffee?
Amazing!
The amount of bodily and psychological diseases, home wrecks, street crimes, sexual misconduct and around 6pm downtown shutter downs we see across many smaller towns and cities in the UK is because of excessive drinking and the social chaos it creates.
yes
a clean supply of heroin is safer than regularly relying on alcohol to cope with life or trying to get high..
Very well done and very true to life in the rooms - EXCEPT it's rare to have interventions from aggrieved people harbouring resentments as outbursts, let alone having so many in one sitting. Yet, I understand that to give the most accurate depiction of a fellowship meeting, these will be the fundamental burning issues and reservations that most will have towards fellowship meetings - sex, belief in a higher power, or a resignation that a sober life begins in a cold and desolate place, and so be it for the rest of your sobriety. However, when the guy at the end admits to having a slip, I was surprised at Tom's reaction of "Silly buggar". Admissions of relapses are never reflected back to the person in judgement, rather it would have been met with empathy and understanding; it is spiritual values that are the way of life - and the woman slating her husband for lack of sexual prowess would have been shut down.
Brilliant story that shows the power and good of AA and the resistance to it. And when all is said and done there, AA people are still people, fallible humans, such as the chair Tom having had an affair with another woman in AA and his wife is in the same AA meeting group. Well acted and smart.
This is pretty depressing, but I'm glad this organization has helped so many people.
I revenge drank. 20 years an alcoholic now.
Very sad - let go and let God. I hope you recover
My Mother died of alcoholism, I turned to heroin for many years [long before she died]. I've been clean for 22 years. Some people knock these meetings, I tried to get my Mother to go, She used to say "why, I enjoy drinking" She died alone in misery. I wanted to break the chain so that my children would grow up with a sober parent. In A.A and N.A they say you can only do it for yourself that you can't get clean for someone else. I believe my kids were the catalyst, I didn't want them to feel confused and abandoned like I did, I didn't want history to keep repeating itself. For some people these meetings are all somebody has and all they actually need. I haven't been for years myself but I'll never forget the respite I felt in them even if just to listen and know that I'm not the only one to feel alone in my addiction that there are lots of people carrying those kinds of burdens or demons. I'm not sure I believe the "it's a disease" concept other than I felt a dis-ease and that it was my problem and that no one was to blame and that I had to deal with it, it was my responsibility but with the help of others that felt the same kind of dis-ease for whatever reason. It's possible to live a positive existence without the ball and chain called addiction.
You are a very brave and good soul thanks for sharing, not all parents are as responsible. People do try to convince themselves they enjoy it. My ex did just that. I stopped drinking on my own, I just didn't enjoy it anymore 😊
My mum also died of alcoholism. I drank alot, still do in a way. Somehow it never deterred me, I don't know why?
good topic. thanks
magic
Yea Bob I asked too in CODA ( & Church). I got fck all as well. When you don't ask why, no answer for why there is a problem.
If only meetings were a quarter as interesting as that 😒
Hear, hear. There's always somebody who likes the sound of their own voice, and drone on and on!
Stephanie Cole!
It bothers me that no-one recognizes the addiction to cigarettes.
Yeah well.... it's just how it was back then. People were allowed to smoke in public buildings. It was disgusting.
You have to remember these were different times unless you lived then you cant understand why things that are not permitted in 2023 were ok then smoking was everywhere and people enjoyed it so as the majority were smokers nobody complained its like mobile phones today nearly everyone has one the money thats spent
On mobiles credit is like the money people used to spend on there cigarettes its becomes a neccessity for people
@@lizdoyle7158 I DID LIVE IN THOSE TIMES!!! I am 83 yrs old
@@lizdoyle7158 OK..... Big difference though : Smartphones don't kill people, not even from overuse!
@@ttacking_you you may be right, but to have to endure it was absolutely disgusting. When places started enforcing no smoking policies it was wonderful.
The thing about AA and alcoholics is most alcoholics do not want to talk and certainly do not want to listen to others talking.
If one assmits there powerless they shall rmain as so.
You sound like you crave a drink and can’t bear the humiliation of it. Too much alcohol changes the brain in those who are susceptible. Those changes create an irresistible urge to drink. The alcoholic is helpless to resist the physical force of this, and will do anything, including betray his family and profession to pursue drinking. Failure to admit powerlessness and seek help can lead to death.
Alcoholism is a disease of denial, recovery requires the strength of character to admit the truth of one’s helplessness. The comment above shows characteristic denial.
I do hope this play didn't put anyone off going to A.A. It would have put me off. The poor woman they kept trying to silence. The overriding feeling of tension. Fortunately people are, on the whole, just 'nicer' and kinder to one another nowadays. In the '70's I volunteered in a hospital ward. I look back in horror.
A.a has only a 1 per cent sucess rate per year...
@@tracisundari1950 Where did you get that statistic? Can you lead me to the study..I’d like to read it?
i don't think that AA is the best thing for all alcoholics.. some will benefit from deeper psychological therapy..
AA is good for those who need to rely on self-discipline alone..
@@tracisundari1950
depending on exactly how you define your terms ??
But just for the briefest of moments, So brief you'd hardly not see, In drink I quite liked the world, And briefer I quite liked me.
Marvellous s ript. Cruel alcohol,!, 1:12:53
My comment has been distorted. My spelling and grammar was altered by google.
The emphasis on drinking is greater now than ever before. Its the downfall of a civilized and prosperous society.
What makes an alcoholic become an alcoholic, aside from genetics?
Loneliness.
She makes her appearance 32.46 minutes in.
who is she?
17:44 the language is shocking: an american woud say "Sofa" - not "Settee" ..
We Americans have been saying sofa for at least 200 years! We also say "couch" and "seat". But never "settee" which makes no sense.
@@executivedecision6141
makes sense to me.. english like to pretend to be sophisticated by using french sounding words.. americans prefer to simply flash the cash if you want to show off..
A VERY YOUNG MRS F-F-F-F-F-F-F- FEATHERSTONE THE BLACK WIDOW😆 IN OPEN AND STILL OPEN ALL HOURS
😊
Well hadn't ehstch it yet I look at cement ti get a I dear of the movie it about poele over drinking by the right up, I hate drink , piele should only drink with a meal to go with the food thay eating , but just sip it and enjoy it not over like poele do ,you would drink water like that , and it better for you , alhol is pisoin and kill our brain sell by over using it , I don't miss it it Mack's me fill sick , when it interfears with my exasise , or my nit been able to fill grate in the morning, I don't miss it at all , 😊
A brilliant storyline and cast; I went to AA back in the early '80s but I didn't actually stop drinking till 2011. What intrigued me in this play was the highly desirable young lady stuck in a 12ft by 9ft room; Her story was never truly told. I've I'd been at that meeting I'd have been all over her like a rash. The next rhyming line is unprintable here.
Haven't heard or thought of the word gash in years, thanks 😅
@@justinebourke9449 I've forgotten what the next rhyming line would have been, tho' 'gash' might have been a strong contender; which rhymes with 'bell ender' She was highly desirable tho' and we could've been hopeless alcoholics together maybe.
@@philfletcher3434 risking ruining your fantasy here but consider the chance of a bell-ender had she turned out a cross-gender... Gay for today maybe
@@justinebourke9449 !!!!!!
@@philfletcher3434 😉