Just Another Saturday

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"Just Another Saturday"
Play for Today episode
Just Another Saturday.jpg
Poster featuring Jon Morrison
Episode no.Series 5
Episode 15
Directed by John Mackenzie
Written by Peter McDougall
Original air date13 March 1975 (1975-03-13)
Episode chronology
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"Goodbye"
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"Child Of Hope"

"Just Another Saturday" is the 15th episode of fifth season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today . The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 13 March 1975. [1] "Just Another Saturday" was written by Peter McDougall, directed by John Mackenzie, produced by Graeme MacDonald, and starred Jon Morrison and Billy Connolly. [2]

Contents

"Just Another Saturday" is about the Orange walk culture. The episode won the Prix Italia for Best Drama. [3]

Synopsis

John looks forward with nervous excitement to the annual Orange order march in Glasgow, in which he will lead his local Orange Lodge band as mace-swinger. However, as the day progresses he begins to become disillusioned with the day and his colleagues, as he witnesses their growing drunkenness and unwarranted violence against Catholic homes on the march's route. Events of the day lead him to question his involvement with the band, which also threatens his own safety.

Cast

Critical reception

The BFI's Screenonline website comments: "Beyond the political issues, it is McDougall's mastery not only of the gallows humour of Glasgow's working class but of the hidden motives of parental kindness that make the drama, in Jeremy Isaacs's words, 'a masterpiece' and won the play the Prix Italia." [4]

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References

  1. "BBC One - Play For Today, Series 5, Just Another Saturday". BBC. 13 March 1975.
  2. "Just Another Saturday (1975)". BFI. Archived from the original on 3 March 2017.
  3. "BBC One - Watching Ourselves: 60 Years of TV in Scotland - Peter McDougall". BBC.
  4. "BFI Screenonline: McDougall, Peter (1947-) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk.