Play For Today - Clay, Smeddum and Greeden (1976)

A trio of Scottish period plays in one episode of Play For Today from 1976. In "Clay", a daughter's hero worshipping of her hard working farmer father becomes disillusioned when his obsession with work becomes such that he has no time for his family, even when his wife falls ill. In "Smeddum", a matriarch runs both her farm and family with an iron grip after the death of her husband, but her children struggle to break free of her control. And in "Greenden", a young couple move to the country for the sake of the wife's health, but her feckless husband fails to notice how the eerie isolation begins to affect his wife's fragile mental state. Starring Victor Carin, Anne Kirsten, Gerda Stevenson, Fulton Mackay, Bill Fraser, Joan Fitzpatrick, Eileen McCallum, Bill Gavin, Leonard Maguire, Maeve Alexander, Paul Young, Robert Trotter, Billy Riddoch, Fiona Knowles, Terry Cavers, Angus Lennie, Grahame Greenowe, Paul Kelly, Denis Agnew, Pauline Rae, Ruth Murray, Neal Fidelo, Claire Nielson, Brian Cox and Isobel Gardner. This is an adaptation of stories by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, who also wrote Sunset Song, which was adapted in 1971. This is from a recording I did when it was repeated on BBC4 a couple of weeks ago, so please note that any glitches are due to the age of the programme and nothing to do with me. I always try to save and upload any anthology stories, as I know that there are fans of these out there, so hopefully you will enjoy these. Keep your eyes peeled for a young Brian Cox.