Tale of village tensions

Press, 15 July 1987, Page 19

Tale of village tensions

“The Wedding,” screened tonight on One at 10, is a rural tale which brings out into the open the emotional relationships and underlying tensions of a small village community. The focal point is the wedding of farmer Tom Fletcher’s elder daughter, Flo. But we are more involved with Tom himself and his fear at the possibility of being left a lone widower with a large country farm to maintain. It is this fear which leads Tom to forbid his younger daughter, Mary,

to take up a university place, as he believes she should be content to stay at home and look after him, help him run the farm and cope with the paperwork. Mrs Jackson, a sophisticated divorcee recently returned to her home town, tries to make Tom understand what a grave injustice he would be committing in forcing his daughter to stay at home. Tom’s thoughts turn more to Mrs Jackson as he realises that she may well prove the solution to his problem, and it is his crude attempts to woo

her with his rural manners and customs which provide the drama in the play. “The Wedding” is filmed on location in Northumbria, and taken from a short story by V. S. Pritchett As one reviewer noted, “Pritchett’s story shows a shrewd understanding of the quirks of human behaviour.” It stars Tom Bell (currently starring in “The Detective”) as the farmer, Tom Fletcher, and Meg Wynn Owen as the divorcee, Mrs Jackson.