Robin Redbreast (TV play)

Play for Today: Robin Redbreast
Written by John Griffith Bowen
Starring
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
Production
Producer(s) Graeme MacDonald
Cinematography Brian Tufano (film inserts)
Camera setup multi-camera (video)/film inserts
Running time 77 minutes
Production company(s) British Broadcasting Corporation
Release
Original release 10 December 1970

Robin Redbreast is a Play for Today (BBC) about pagan rural customs and their interaction with modern society, transmitted on 10 December 1970 on BBC1. It was directed by James MacTaggart.

Synopsis

After she's dumped by her boyfriend, BBC script editor Norah Palmer (Anna Cropper) leaves her friends Jake (Julian Holloway) and Madge (Amanda Walker) in London and rents a cabin in Southern England. Norah finds the townspeople strange but endearing, notably Mrs. Vigo (Freda Bamford), a busybody housekeeper; Mr. Fisher (Bernard Hepton), a historian; Mr. Wellbeloved, the butcher; and Peter, an old man who compulsively chops wood. After she discovers an infestation of rats at her cabin, the townspeople suggest she seek out someone named Rob, whom they tell her lives in the woods.

Norah finds "Rob," who turns out to be a young, handsome exterminator named Edgar, who spends his spare time practicing karate nude in the forest. Edgar successfully clears Norah's cabin of the infestation. Although she finds him personally unpleasant, Norah is nonetheless attracted to him. After an incident in which he kills a bird that someone drops down her chimney, Norah sleeps with him, despite having misplaced her diaphragm.

Soon after, Norah discovers that she's pregnant. She returns home to London for an abortion, but decides against the procedure at the last minute and goes back to the cabin. As Easter approaches, she discovers that she's slowly being cut off from the outside world: her phone lines are cut, her car is tampered with, and the local bus driver refuses to stop for her. Norah begins to believe that she's the victim of a town-wide conspiracy and that the town plans to sacrifice her and take her child.

Norah summons Edgar to her cabin, as he seems to be the only townsperson not involved in the conspiracy. While they discuss what's been happening, the townspeople converge on in the cabin in a lynch mob. Against her expectations, the townspeople leave Norah alone, instead attacking and dismembering Edgar with axes.

Mr. Fisher explains that the nickname "Rob" came from "Robin" and that "Robin redbreast" is a special totem in the pagan religion of the town. Edgar/Robin was raised from birth by the townspeople with the purpose of becoming a sacrificial lamb. [1] Fisher explains that Norah's child will be the next Robin, and offers to raise the child for her so that she can return to a normal life in London. Norah refuses, but is allowed to leave nonetheless. As she departs the village, she turns back for one last look and sees that the townspeople have all transformed into pagan deities led by Fisher as Herne the Hunter.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ bfi.org.uk/publications: Robin Redbreast


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