Jul 25, 2024
Play for Today: Under the Hammer (BBC, 1984)
"So. Tell me what happened."
"Well. It was me. I kicked it."
"Any particular reason?"
"I lost my temper."
"Who with?"
"I was having a... discussion about the painting and things to do with the painting with McClaren, sir, and, uh... it got out of hand."
"And you kicked the painting?"
"Yes, sir."
"Instead of kicking McClaren?"
"Yes, sir."
"I wish you'd kicked McClaren."
"So do I, sir."
#under the hammer#play for today#single play#bbc#1984#richard wilson#stephen fagan#classic tv#peter vaughan#michael aldridge#james maxwell#peter bayliss#stanley lebor#robert putt#bernard gallagher#david cardy#christopher fulford#harry ditson#john tallents#jill meager#delightfully drily witty play that's a sort of comedy of manners concerning the people involved in the upcoming sale of a potentially fake#van gogh at an auction house. at the beginning it seems like this might be a kind of upstairs downstairs piece‚ contrasting the lowly#porters who arrange and prepare the exhibition of sale contents with the posh managers and experts who float around inbetween them#that element remains but is sidelined a little to focus more on Vaughan's head porter and one moment of lost control which has far reaching#consequences for everyone. Vaughan is as excellent as he always was‚ a tragic portrait of quiet dignity meeting sheer pigheadedness and#unbending yet naturally servile nature. Aldridge and Maxwell‚ tho‚ are the scene stealers as the owner (?) and head expert of the auction#house respectively‚ a pair of upper class grotesques who nevertheless display surprising nuance and depth as the plot develops#(particularly Maxwell). less politically motivated than many PfTs (not that it is at all apolitical: communism‚ the soviet union‚ wartime#looting and princess Diana all figure into the story) but a genuinely very compellingly told and entertaining play that manages moments#of real sharp comic dialogue alongside a gloomier slant on the inevitability of dishonest dealings at every level