We return from our Christmas break for more of our second season of an A to Z of UK TV Drama...

We begin 2023 by looking back at the Granada mini-series Harry's Game. First broadcast in 1982, this hard-hitting drama is best remembered now for it famous end credits theme by Clannad, however, it has much more to recommend it. 

Set during the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the series follows British agent Harry Brown (Ray Lonnen) attempts to uncover and arrest an IRA gunman Billy Downs (Derek Thompson), while his nervy handler Davidson (Benjamin Whitrow) tries to keep him alive from back in England. 

Written by former journalist Gerald Seymour and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, Harry's Game covers a bleak period of recent history and is a stark reminder of the fragile peace reached through the Good Friday agreement, currently under threat due to the self-serving machinations of Brexiteer politicians. 

Andy & Martin find much to enjoy here but fail to resist the temptation to break into some 'Norn Irish', for which they can only apologise.

2.8 Harry's Game

Twenty-one years after their first recorded interview on the first Survivors DVDs back in 2003, Andy catches up with Carolyn Seymour who played Abby Grant in Survivors.

Carolyn reflects on her relationships with the key figures who made the show: Terry Nation, Terry Dudley and original director Pennant Roberts; how she and other women actors suffered at the hands of chauvinism in the 70s; and reveals how she got through the tough winter location filming.

She also responds to the criticism that Survivors was too white and middle-class (she heartily agrees), explains where the series sits in her wider career, and how it was never far from her mind during the COVID pandemic.

2.19b Interview with Carolyn Seymour

Archive television podcast in which Andy Priestner and Martin Holmes explore a new UK drama every episode, offering informal critique, insights and trivia. Join them every fortnight for televisual-based larks.

2.19b Interview with Carolyn Seymour

An A to Z of UK TV drama

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