Watching from an emotional rack

Press, 4 October 1985, Page 15

Watching from an emotional rack

FReviewl

Ken Strongman

Eh oop. We’re back there again, having our emotions pushed, pulled, prodded and generally harrowed by the working class England of the 19305. “The Gathering Seed” is about what “Coronation Street” was like before it became elevated to its present material heights. Cloth caps, waistcoats and long johns that are only chipped off for the few weeks or so of summer. Dinge, dinge and more dinge. Life centres round the steel works, the canal, and clothes constantly drying, or not, in front of the range. The day begins with the emptying of the po and rawboned, hunched hand-and-face-washing in the

scullery. The men are ever ready to fight; well, its one way of keeping warm. And there is always one woman whose job seems to be to sweep the cobblestones all day long, forever; well, its another way to keep warm. With the power of Jim Allen’s writing, the life is so accurately portrayed it seems like docu-drama. Of course, as is usual these days, the tale is told from the viewpoint of a 12-year-old lad trying to make sense of this vicious world. He thrusts his raw, blackheaded knees through life, coat collar turned up against the driving rain. “The Gathering Seed” is about all the ways in which tragedy could strike in those

days, either slowly and inexorably, or fast and unpredictably. Everything seemed to be there in the first of the six episodes, from the all-im-portant interchanges between grandparents and grandchildren, through unthinking anti-semitism to reluctant church-going. The start of the week depended very much on the mood of

the man who ran the pawn shop; it could make a difference of sixpence to the week. The hard but anxious looks of the women as they queued and tried to gauge this mood were compelling. The language was as well done as one has come to expect from this sort of production. It is of the sort that one could easily dismiss as no more than cliches until one realises it is accurate. “Ah’ve given oop mitherin’.” “Eyes like an ’awk.” “i’ll swing for you.” ‘“Ere, you’d better do something about them mice, an’ all.” Especially convincing were the touches that showed the dominating

force of religion, in this case Catholicism. The man of the house went shooting out of the back door into the privy as the “good father” came in the front, ready to speak sepulchrally of the confessional. This priest seemed to be everywhere, not unlike his own concept of Satan, or God, with a willing smile as a cloak for his constant concern to punish and hurt people for their own good. It was excellent, angerprovoking television to see the priest at the local school on Monday morning caning the lads. Once on the hands for missing mass and 12 on the buttocks for lying to him. “Imagine, if you can, what it is to burn in the

fires of Hell, for eternity.” If only they could have turned the cane round on him. To make one feel this is successful television writ--111 Meanwhile life in the real world outside school continued. Wives shook their mats in the streets and husbands were back feeding the furnaces. Suddenly, young Joe Henshaw’s dad had an accident and, badly burned, was trundled home on a handcart to die. And so it was back to religion, everyone involved as the last rites were spoken. Then there was nothing left other than the laying out, the search for insurance monies, and the wake. This is more than enough

to give the flavour of “The Gathering Seed.” It is very well done and will hurt every inch of the way. Not as badly as the “Black Stuff,” as it is more remote, but it won’t be easy. It has a genuine integrity which comes from depth of feeling, pathos, kindness and bemusement. This is tough serious television that makes one burn with anger that such conditions existed and are beginning to exist again. For those who have never experienced this type of world, Jim Allen has not made it far-fetched. Of course, whether one wishes to be hung, drawn and quartered emotionally on Sunday evenings is another matter.