"The Flipside of Dominick Hide" | |
---|---|
Play for Today episode | |
Episode no. | Series 11 Episode 8 |
Directed by | Alan Gibson |
Written by | Jeremy Paul, Alan Gibson, from an idea by Alan Gibson |
Original air date | 9 December 1980 |
Running time | 90 minutes |
"The Flipside of Dominick Hide" is a British television play first transmitted on BBC1 on 9 December 1980 as part of the Play for Today series.
Peter Firth stars in the title role as a time traveller from Earth's future who illegally visits the London of 1980 to search for an 'ancestor' and finds a world very different from the one he left behind. The story concludes with a plot twist involving a causal loop, a popular concept in time-travel fiction.
In 2130, Earth has attained a clean, safe and anaesthetised future. Dominick is a time traveller whose job is to observe transport systems on the 'flipside' – the era before the Time Barrier was broken. Dominick's 'Circuit' (the period in time and space he must observe) is London 1980, where he believes he may have an ancestor – his great-great-grandfather, also named Dominick Hide. Breaking the rules, Dominick lands on the flipside to search for his great-great-grandfather.
London of 1980 is a different place to London of 2130 and Dominick is unprepared for the amazing culture shock of Portobello Road. He has no money and almost no idea how to behave. He concocts a story about finding a 'distant relative' and to avoid suspicion, calls himself Gilbey, after a brand of Gin. While he is on the flipside, he relies on the kindness of strangers, including the owner of a clothes shop, Jane Winters.
After an unsuccessful visit to the flipside, Dominick returns to 2130 determined to try again. Dominick tells his wife, Ava, that he plans to visit the flipside. She is upset and confused and asks him not to go. Despite the risks involved and the promise of trouble from his superior, Caleb Line, Dominick visits the flipside again. While he is there and against all sense, Dominick begins a relationship with Jane.
Still Dominick has not found his great-great-grandfather but now his visits seem to be more concerned with seeing Jane than with finding the elusive 1980 Dominick. They spend a weekend together at a guest house in Herne Bay where his flying saucer has been taken. As a result, Jane becomes pregnant. When Dominick learns this, he goes to Caleb Line to own up.
Caleb reveals that he was aware, all the time, of what Dominick was doing. He sanctioned it because Dominick Hide is the victim of a "genetic time-slip" – he is his ancestor. The child Jane is carrying will be Dominick's great-grandfather.
Caleb tells Dominick that further landings on the flipside will not be permitted, officially, implying that he trusts Dominick enough to turn a blind eye to further landings. Having narrowly avoided causing a fatal accident on a previous landing, Dominick realises the danger involved, and decides to visit the flipside once more, where he provides for Jane and his son by fetching them the following week's newspaper, from which Jane can use the soccer results to win the football pools. He explains that this will be the last time he can visit the flipside and says a sad farewell to his great-great-grandmother. Jane watches Dominick take off in his flying saucer, convinced at last that his story is true. The closing scenes show Jane recording her son Dominick at Herne Bay in 1988 and Dominick and Ava walking and laughing in the surf at the Herne Bay of 2130 with their own baby. [1]
The play's theme, "You'd Better Believe It, Babe" was written by Rick Jones, and performed by his band, Meal Ticket. [2]
The play was successful enough for a sequel to be commissioned and Another Flip For Dominick was broadcast in 1982. [3] The original play was repeated the week before the sequel aired. Neither play was shown again on British television until 26 February 2006, when The Flipside of Dominick Hide was broadcast on BBC Four to tie in with a series of programmes about time. The two dramas were released as a double VHS video pack in 1991 and on region 2 DVD in 2005.
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her performance in Robert Siodmak's film noir The Killers. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in John Ford's Mogambo (1953), and for best actress for both a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for her performance in John Huston's The Night of the Iguana (1964). She was a part of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
In English folklore, Herne the Hunter is a ghost associated with Windsor Forest and Great Park in the English county of Berkshire. He is said to have antlers growing from his head, rides a horse, torments cattle, and rattles chains. The earliest mention of Herne comes from William Shakespeare's 1597 play The Merry Wives of Windsor, and it is impossible to know how accurately or to what degree Shakespeare may have incorporated a real local legend into his work, though there have been several later attempts to connect Herne to historical figures, pagan deities, or ancient archetypes.
Frederick Joseph Jones was a Canadian-born television presenter and folk musician, best known for his work in BBC children's television programmes Play School (1964–1973) and Fingerbobs in 1972.
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey, subsequently became television series in their own right.
Peter Macintosh Firth is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One programme Spooks; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the programme's ten-series lifespan. He has given many other television and film performances, most notably as Alan Strang in Equus (1977), earning both a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for the role.
Pride and Prejudice is a six-episode 1995 British television drama, adapted by Andrew Davies from Jane Austen's 1813 novel of the same name. Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth starred as Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, respectively. Produced by Sue Birtwistle and directed by Simon Langton, the serial was a BBC production with additional funding from the American A&E Network. BBC1 originally broadcast the 55-minute episodes from 24 September to 29 October 1995. The A&E Network aired the series in double episodes on three consecutive nights beginning 14 January 1996.
Thomas Scott "Flip" Phillips is an American musician. He is the drummer, percussionist, keyboardist and co-founder of the rock bands Creed, Alter Bridge, and Projected.
Patrick George Magee was a Northern Irish actor. He was noted for his collaborations with playwrights Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, sometimes called "Beckett's favourite actor," as well as creating the role of the Marquis de Sade in the original stage and screen productions of Marat/Sade.
Caroline Langrishe is an English actress.
Sebastian "Seb" Miller is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, played by Mitch Firth. He first appeared on 21 June 2001 and departed on 28 April 2004.
Sorrowful Jones, also known as Damon Runyon's Sorrowful Jones, is a 1949 American comedy-drama film directed by Sidney Lanfield. The film stars Lucille Ball and Bob Hope.
Ysanne Churchman was an English actress. She starred and narrated on British radio, television and film for over 50 years, from 1938 to 1993. Churchman gained prominence as Grace Archer, wife of Phil, in the long-running BBC radio drama series The Archers; the series attracted publicity when Grace died after a fire on the night that ITV launched in 1955.
Hawking is a 2004 biographical drama television film directed by Philip Martin and written by Peter Moffat. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, it chronicles Stephen Hawking's early years as a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, following his search for the beginning of time, and his struggle against motor neuron disease. It premiered in the UK in April 2004.
"The Flying Saucer" is a novelty record, the first of a series of break-in records released by Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman. The song is considered to be an early example of a mashup, featuring segments of popular songs intertwined with spoken "news" commentary to tell the story of a visit from a flying saucer.
Alfred Newman Gilbey (1901–1998) was a British Roman Catholic priest and monsignor. He was the longest-serving chaplain to the University of Cambridge, England. He has been described as the best-known Roman Catholic priest in England during the last quarter of the 20th century.
Meal Ticket were a country rock band who emerged from the London pub circuit during the 1970s and signed to Logo Records. They had several line ups which included Ray Flacke, Jack Brand, Andy Coulter, Rod Demick, Chris Hunt, Keith Nelson, Steve Simpson, Willy Finlayson and Rick Jones. Canadian born Jones, who was known for his television appearances on Play School and Fingerbobs, wrote many of their songs. The band performed the theme to the BBC's Play For Today, The Flipside of Dominick Hide (1980), also Another Flip for Dominick which was entitled "You'd Better Believe It Babe". They released three albums, Code Of The Road (1977), Three Times A Day (1977) and Take Away (1978).
Alan Gibson was a Canadian director active in British film and television.
Cora Cross is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Ann Mitchell. Cora is the mother of Tanya Branning, Rainie Cross and Ava Hartman and the grandmother of Lauren and Abi Branning. Cora initially appeared from 11 to 15 April 2011, and returned as a regular character on 28 July. Cora is described as having "a brash, outspoken attitude and does not care who she offends", deemed "an archetypal East End matriarch" and Inside Soap says that Cora is a "brash, loud lady who likes to tell everyone what she thinks and has absolutely no shame."
The Half Moon is a Grade II* listed public house at 10 Half Moon Lane, Herne Hill, London. It is one of only 270 pubs on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, was frequented by the poet and writer Dylan Thomas, and was a noteworthy live music venue for nearly 50 years, hosting three gigs by U2 in 1980. In 2015, The Half Moon Public House was listed by Southwark Council as an Asset of Community Value, and is described by Nikolaus Pevsner as, "a cheerful corner pub of 1896".
Jeremy Paul was a British film and television writer.