Thursday 11 April 2019

A Comedy On This Day: Not In Front Of The Children - Change Of Policy (12 April 1968)



 Both Not In Front Of The Children and Marriage Lines do turn up occasional intriguing insights into middle class life of the 1960s as ordinary people might have experienced it.

 This week one of the daughter’s school friend’s parents gets divorced, and the Corner family make a point of inviting her to dinner with them (some other families are ostracizing the girl). The Corner children end up envious of the new freedoms that their friend is now experiencing, relieved from the threat of "Wait until your father gets home". This makes the parents self-conscious of how they might be restricting their children, so they allow them more autonomy and less structure... I'm sure that Richard Waring wasn't setting out to create a work of social history when he wrote these, but he did indirectly achieve it.

 These some good costume work this week when the Corner parents dress themselves for a school concert. Jennifer chooses a quaint hat with no brim and a wobbly bow on the crown, while Henry ties a large 19th century-style bow around his neck. Then the children are appalled by these old-fashioned items, and ask their parents to change them. Their response was exactly what this viewer had been thinking when he watched the parents getting dressed, which demonstrates - fifty years on from the details of 1968 clothing - that the BBC costume designers knew what would register as looking a bit wrong.

 It's nice to see John Scott Martin holding a door open for Wendy Craig at the school concert.

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