CATHY COME HOME
BBC Four, 10pm
As a recession looms, homelessness soars and single mothers remain as much a political punchbag as ever, the currency of this still searingly powerful and affecting 1966 drama is what perhaps feels most grimly striking about it, along with Carol White’s commitment in the lead role and the thrilling marriage of verité documentary and kitchensink drama. A collaboration between director Ken Loach, producer Tony Garnett and writer Jeremy Sandford, it aired as part of the BBC’S Wednesday Play strand and, as such, is an impeccably fitting opener for BBC Four’s new season of archive Wednesday dramas showcasing a feast of pioneering brilliance.
Among the other dramas to be shown will be Peter Flannery’s excoriatingly bleak state-of-the-nation piece Our Friends in the North, Hanif Kureishi’s profoundly influential, Bowie-scored coming-ofager The Buddha of Suburbia, and The Billy Plays, a trilogy featuring Kenneth Branagh in his first major screen role using the Troubles as a backdrop for utterly compelling domestic strife. And tonight, Cillian Murphy also interviews Loach at 11.20pm – continuing an exchange that dates back to their excellent work together in 2006 on The Wind That Shakes the Barley.