View source for Blue Remembered Hills

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2013}}
{{Infobox television episode
| series    = [[Play for Today]]
| image     = Blue Remembered Hills.gif
| image_alt =
| caption   = 
| series_no = 9
| episode   = 14
| director  = [[Brian Gibson (director)|Brian Gibson]]
| writer    = [[Dennis Potter]]
| narrator  = [[Dennis Potter]]
| airdate   = {{Start date|1979|01|30|df=y}}
| prev      = 
| next      =  
}}

"'''Blue Remembered Hills'''" is the 14th episode of the ninth season of the British [[BBC]] anthology TV series ''[[Play for Today]]''. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 30 January 1979. "Blue Remembered Hills" was written by [[Dennis Potter]], directed by [[Brian Gibson (director)|Brian Gibson]] and produced by [[Kenith Trodd]].

The play concerns a group of seven-year-olds playing in the [[Forest of Dean]] one summer afternoon in 1943.<ref>{{cite web |date=5 June 2008 |title=Dennis Potter's brutal children |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2008/jun/05/tvblogbypeterbradshaw |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250225171733/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2008/jun/05/tvblogbypeterbradshaw |archive-date=25 February 2025 |access-date=4 September 2025 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> It ends abruptly when the character Donald is burned to death, partly as a result of the other children's actions. Perhaps the most striking feature of the play is that, although the characters are children, they are played by adult actors.<ref>{{cite web |title=Review: Blue Remembered Hills |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2006/03/13/blue_remembered_hills_review_feature.shtml |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130419205218/http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2006/03/13/blue_remembered_hills_review_feature.shtml |archive-date=19 April 2013 |access-date=4 September 2025 |website=BBC}}</ref> Potter first used this device in ''[[The Nigel Barton Plays|Stand Up, Nigel Barton]]'' (1965) and returned to it in ''[[Cold Lazarus]]'' (1996).

The dialogue is written in a Forest of Dean [[dialect]], which Potter also uses extensively in other dramas incorporating a Forest of Dean setting, most notably ''[[A Beast with Two Backs]]'' (1968), ''[[Pennies from Heaven (TV series)|Pennies from Heaven]]'' (1978) and ''[[The Singing Detective]]'' (1986).

==Cast==
The stars of the original production were:<ref>{{cite web |title=Blue Remembered Hills (1979) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1052378/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121224095310/http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1052378/index.html |archive-date=24 December 2012 |access-date=4 September 2025 |website=BFI ScreenOnline}}</ref>

[[Robin Ellis]] (John), [[Michael Elphick]] (Peter), [[Colin Welland]] (Willie), [[John Bird (actor)|John Bird]] (Raymond), [[Helen Mirren]] (Angela), [[Janine Duvitski]] (Audrey), [[Colin Jeavons]] (Donald).

The [[screenplay]] has also been adapted for the [[theatre]]. The play is now a standard text for GCSE Drama in Great Britain.<ref>{{cite web |title=GCSE Drama set text notes |url=https://resource.download.wjec.co.uk/vtc/2021-22/wjec21-22_1-1/pdf/eng/blue-remembered-hills-set-text-notes.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250226080541/https://resource.download.wjec.co.uk/vtc/2021-22/wjec21-22_1-1/pdf/eng/blue-remembered-hills-set-text-notes.pdf |archive-date=26 February 2025 |access-date=26 February 2025 |website=WJEC CBAC}}</ref>

==Title==
The title comes from the [[Into my heart an air that kills|40th poem]] in [[Alfred Edward Housman|A.E. Housman's]] ''[[A Shropshire Lad]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.housman-society.co.uk/works/works-40.htm# |title=XL by A.E. Housman |access-date=1 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820011505/http://www.housman-society.co.uk/works/works-40.htm# |archive-date=20 August 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The poem is read by Potter himself at the end of the BBC version of the play.

{{Poem quote|text=
Into my heart an air that kills			
From yon far country blows:			
What are those blue remembered hills,			
What spires, what farms are those?			
			
That is the land of lost content,			
I see it shining plain,			
The happy highways where I went			
And cannot come again.
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb episode}}

{{Brian Gibson}}
{{Dennis Potter}}
{{Play for Today}}

[[Category:1979 British television episodes]]
[[Category:1979 television plays]]
[[Category:Films directed by Brian Gibson]]
[[Category:Play for Today]]