Carol White as Cathy at the beginning of the play.

Cathy Come Home is a British television play, originally broadcast on December 16, 1966 on BBC1. Running to eighty minutes, the play was shown in the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology strand, which was well known for tackling sensitive social issues, and Cathy Come Home was no exception. It remains one of the most famous one-off dramas in UK television history. Image File history File links Cathycomehome. ... Image File history File links Cathycomehome. ... Carol White (1941-1991) was a British actress best known for her role in the film Poor Cow (1967). ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the primary channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... The Wednesday Play was a British television drama anthology series, which ran on BBC ONE from 1964 to 1970. ...

Filmed in a grittily realistic drama documentary style, the play tells the story of a young couple, Cathy (played by Carol White) and Reg (Ray Brooks). Initially their relationship flourishes, they have a child and move into a happy modern home, but when Reg loses his job and they are evicted, their lives spiral downwards through a process of unemployment, squatting, eviction and care homes. Finally, in a gripping final sequence filmed as-real with the cameras out of view on a suburban street in front of astonished passers-by, Cathy has her children forcibly taken away from her by the social services. A drama documentary is a relatively new form of drama. ... Carol White (1941-1991) was a British actress best known for her role in the film Poor Cow (1967). ... Ray Brooks is a British actor, born 20 April 1939 in Brighton, East Sussex. ... An 1837 political cartoon about unemployment in the United States. ... The Chien Rouge in Lausanne, a squat held in the old hospital. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A social worker is a person employed in the administration of charity, social service, welfare, and poverty agencies, advocacy, or religious outreach programs. ...

The play was watched by 12 million people — a quarter of the British population at the time — on its first broadcast and proved to be hugely significant, alerting a mass audience to everyday problems faced by thousands of people in the UK and bringing attention to subjects that had not previously been widely discussed in the popular media. It provoked a wide-ranging debate on the issues of homelessness and unemployment, and the rights of mothers to keep their own children, and is often cited as one of the major factors behind changes in law and social trends in the UK regarding these issues. It also helped raise the profile of the new homeless charity Shelter, which was coincidentally launched just days after the film was first broadcast. Shelter, National Campaign for Homeless People Limited (working as Shelter) is a UK charity registered in England that campaigns to end homelessness and bad housing. ...

The play was written by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach, who went on to become a major figure in British film. Loach employed a realistic documentary style, using predominantly 16mm film on location, which contrasted with the vast amount of BBC drama of the time which was commonly shot in studios on videotape. This realistic style very much helped heighten the impact of the piece, particularly the scene in which Cathy and Reg are forcibly evicted with their children by bailiffs from the home in which they have been unable to keep up rent payments. This powerful sequence, largely improvised, is often repeated in the UK in documentaries both about television history and the 1960s in general. Jeremy Sandford (December 5, 1930 – May 12, 2003) was a British television writer. ... Tony Garnett (born 3 April 1936) is a film producer who has worked in feature films and on British television. ... Ken Loach (born June 17, 1936) is a British television and film director, known for his social realist style and socialist themes. ... (Redirected from 16mm film) 16mm film was initially created in the 1920s as an inexpensive amateur alternative to the conventional 35 mm film format. ... Cathy Come Home, a 1966 entry into The Wednesday Play anthology series, voted the best drama and second highest programme overall in the British Film Institutes 2000 survey of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century. ... Bottom view of VHS videotape cassette with magnetic tape exposed Videotape is a means of recording television pictures and accompanying sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. ... Bailiff (from Late Latin bajulivus, adjectival form of bajulus) is a governor or custodian (cf. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ...

In a 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute to determine the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, Cathy Come Home was voted into second position, the highest-placed drama on the list, behind only Fawlty Towers overall. In 2003, it was released on VHS and DVD by the BFI as part of their Archive Television range. This article is about the year 2000. ... The British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and... 100 Greatest British Television Programmes was a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI) chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Fawlty Towers was a British sitcom made by the BBC and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Top view of VHS cassette with U.S. 25c coin for scale Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed Top view of VHS cassette with front casing removed The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard for video cassette recorders... This article is becoming very long. ... The British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and...

External links

• British Film Institute Screen Online
• Encyclopedia of Television
• Cathy Come Home at the Internet Movie Database