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1969
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Moonlight on the Highway
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Title: Moonlight on the Highway
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Transmission Info: First transmitted on 12 April 1969 for ITV Saturday Night Theatre at 9.30 p.m. Lasted 52 mins. Produced by Kestrel Productions/London Weekend Television. |
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Source: Gilbert 1995: 336
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As
the patients in the hospital waiting area sit ready to be called for
their appointments, each of them shares a silent memory with the camera.
The final such recollection is David Peters'. "I do NOT remember being
sexually assaulted by a man with spiky hair and eyes the colour of phlegm.
When I was ten. I do NOT remember. NO." Peters is waiting to see the
psychiatrist, Dr. Chiltern. He engages in a fruitless discussion with
an old man in the waiting room about the identity of Al Bowlly - whose
version - with the Lew Stone Band - of the song Moonlight on the
Highway has been playing in the background. When he is called in
to see the psychiatrist, he is still churning inside about the lack
of appreciation of Al Bowlly. Peters is, in fact, the editor of the
magazine of the Al Bowlly Appreciation Society.
He explains to Chiltern that he is having trouble sleeping because he is "wicked" and goes on to recount the incident of child abuse referred to earlier. Chiltern prescribes anti-depressant tablets and sends Peters away, asking "Who is Al Bowlly?". Later, at the 35th annual meeting of the Al Bowlly Appreciation Society, Peters takes the stage to present his talk. He (or Potter?) uses it as an opportunity to rail against the worst amoral features of contemporary culture (in contrast to the pure and innocent values represented by the songs of Bowlly). But, against his psychiatrist's advice he has been mixing his anti-depressants with alcohol, and he loses control and makes a public and shocking confession. Not this time about his experience of sexual abuse as a child but rather that he has slept with 136 prostitutes.
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Moonlight
on the Highway
was the first Potter play to be produced by Kenith Trodd as part of the
initiative known as Kestrel - Britain's first independent drama production
company. As Cook points out (1995: 64) it was also a watershed in that
it articulated a number of themes which proved central to Potter's ongoing
interest and concern in later works. It possesses many of the characteristic
features of Potter's dramatic work - extensive use of flashback, a central
concern with understanding what goes on inside people's heads, a concern
for a sense of loss of innocence, exploration of the relationships between
sexuality and guilt and the regularly featured interest (some might say
obsession) with prostitutes. It also offers us an early foretaste of what
came to be a hallmark of later Potter work - the use of popular music
(here specifically the 1930s music of Al Bowlly) - in casting light on
contemporary culture and emotions.
Similarly there is an exploration of power relations within the play. At the outset David Peters appears bereft as he struggles with his own internal turmoil, his guilt at having been the victim of another's sexual avarice, to the point where, helpless almost, he seeks psychiatric help. But the image of psychiatry does not fare well in Potter's hands and by the end of the play Peters has taken his problems into his own hands and engages in a full, public confession of his use of prostitutes. As Cook indicates, (Cook 1995: 66) "each person has the power to take control over their own life - to cope with their own problems in their own way and as best they can." In this regard there are many resonances between Moonlight on the Highway and The Singing Detective. Creeber's
analysis (1998:125-7) accurately points to a shift in Potter's view
of popular culture (a shift which continues to be evident in Pennies
from Heaven) whereby popular culture (in this case the nostalgic
music of the 1930s) can be seen as providing a base from which moral
and cultural values can be identified and grasped hold of. Peters, it
is true, rejects the value of the contemporary pop music of the 1960s
but holds on to Bowlly as representing a source of grace, innocence
and even spirituality. |
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Dave Evans 1994 - 2005