On the High Road [extract]

Summary: 1973 BBC production of On the High Road by Anton Chekhov, presented in the context of the Full House series.
Theatre play: On the High Road by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) [more information]
Play synopsis: 'The action takes place in an inn on a high road. Among various tramps and scoundrels...is a gentleman who has gone to the bad and begs the barman to give him a drink on credit. It turns out in conversation that this gentleman took to drowning his sorrows after his wife had deserted him on their wedding day. In search of shelter from the bad weather, a lady, in whom the unhappy drunk recognises his faithless wife, happens to come into the inn. One of the customers brandishes an axe at her out of sympathy with the unhappy squire, and the dramatic sketch ends with this attempted murder.' (Source: Report of the Russian censor Keyzer von Nilkeim in 1885, who refused to pass the pay; quoted in Vera Gottlieb, Chekhov and the Vaudeville: a Study of Chekhov’s One-act Plays, Cambridge University Press, 1982, p. 110)
Production history: Written and submitted to the censor in 1885, but neither performed nor published during Chekhov’s lifetime.
Date of transmission: Saturday 14 April 1973
Time: 10.40-11.25pm
Series: Full House
Channel: BBC2
Production company: BBC

Directors

Vernon Lawrence, Karel Reisz

Producers

Naomi Capon, Tony Cash, Michael Macintyre

Playwright

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

Musician

Bibs

Musician

Peter Preston

Musician

Vanya

Singer

Ksenia de Berner ('traditional Russian ballads’)

Editor

Bill Morton

Assistant Editor

Tony Staveacre

Cast

Title: On the High Road (BBC, 1973) [extract]
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Title: Spaces of Television Researchers Uncover ‘Lost’ Ken Loach Film (Blog article)
Author/creator: Billy Smart (Author)
Reference: http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/spaces-of-television/2013/07/29/spaces-of-television-researchers-discover-lost-ken-loach-film/comment-page-1, published 29 July 2013
Linking notes: brief mention

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