ScreenPlay - Dread Poet's Society (1992)

Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephanieh takes an unusual train journey one night, along with what seems to be the only other passenger that night, car salesman Derek, as he goes to Cambridge to receive a Creatives Arts Fellowship from it's college. But while travelling the carriage is struck by an electrical storm, which transports legendary poets Lord Byron, John Keats and Percy Shelley and his wife Mary from a seance they are conducting to the present day of 1987 - something neither of the two passengers are expecting, or indeed the poets themselves! Starring Benjamin Zephaniah, Tim Spall, Alex Jennings, Alan Cumming, Dexter Fletcher and Emma Fielding in what was her acting screen debut in 1992. This was from the anthology series ScreenPlay and is from a recording that was recently repeated on BBC4. It is certainly unusual to say the least, and the political comments is somewhat amusing considering that the old poets themselves were from the rich upper classes. But the cast give it a certain energy, in particular Cummings and Fielding as husband and wife Percy and Mary Shelley, who easily outshine both Jennings and Dexter Fletcher, halfway through his run in Press Gang but given little to do. This was originally broadcast on September 23rd 1992, so it is unusual to hear a couple of times mention that it is 1987. Presumably this is to fit in with when Zephaniah went to pick up his degree in real life. All in all, a curio, but a rarely repeated one at that. Enjoy.