‘Cathy Come Home’ and ‘Accuracy’ in British Television Drama

Abstract

When, back in 1971, the originalTheatre Quarterlydevoted one of its earliest issues (TQ6, 1972) to television drama, the strongest reactions were to remarks by Tony Garnett concerning the recently developed form already being dubbed documentary drama. Subsequent issues featured both an attack on the form from Paul Ableman, and a vigorous defence from its leading practitioner, Jeremy Sandford, author of the seminalCathy Come Home(1966). As this article bears witness, the debate still rages, and here its leading historian, Derek Paget – author ofTrue Stories: Documentary Drama on Radio, Stage, and Television(Manchester University Press, 1990) – explores some of the ways in which myth has contributed as much as analysis to the argument. He goes back to contemporary documentation to explore the nature of the BBC's own sometimes timorous attitude to the creature it had spawned, its context within the developing aesthetics and technology of television drama, the reactions of politicians and local government agencies – and the way in which repeat transmissions were (and were not) hedged about with paranoia.