Shoulder To Shoulder DVD (1974) - Suffragette's - Pankhurst

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A fondly remembered studio-based drama, and an example of the sort of superb production that was regularly transmitted by BBC Television. 

When actress Georgia Brown complained to the BBC about the lack of meaningful roles for women in television drama their response was to tell her to go and find a series she would like to be in. Along with script editor Midge Mackenzie she discussed the possibility of doing a drama series based on the true story of the women's suffragette movement at the turn of the century. Reflecting the determination that would be illustrated by the women in the drama series, Brown then cornered high-profile producer Verity Lambert at an awards ceremony and together the trio of Brown, Mackenzie and Lambert were given the green light by BBC bosses and 'Shoulder to Shoulder,' the first realistic and non-condescending drama series to portray the movement aimed at winning the right to vote for women in Britain, was born. 

However, according to Brown, even some 60 years after the suffragette's were successful, there were still prejudices to overcome. Ideally, Brown and Mackenzie would have preferred the series to be written by women. But when they failed to secure anyone suitable, it was male writers they had to turn to. Each script was totally scrutinised and out went many popular held misconceptions, innuendos and untruths that Brown referred to as 'the male point of view'. 

What was left was a powerful drama that depicted the intolerance and hardship that the women had to endure to make themselves heard above a prejudiced society. Harrowing scenes of brutality by the powers that be were starkly portrayed -such as Lady Constance Lytton being held down by prison warders as she is force fed by doctors shoving a tube down her throat to pump food into her. Women being beaten by the police, arrested en masse and publicly ridiculed led their originally peaceful protestations to take on new tactics as they took to smashing windows, defacing a nude Venus in the National Gallery and -in the case of Emily Wilding Davison, making the ultimate sacrifice by flinging herself in front of the King's horse at Epsom racetrack and dying from her injuries. 

But the series also managed to cut a fine balance by also showing the private lives and the petty prejudices of the women involved, whilst acknowledging the brilliant speeches made and the unfailing courage that these women had. As Midge Mackenzie told 'TV Week,' "They were very gutsy ladies who were treated with enormous brutality and who have been blatantly ignored by historians. I find it hard to understand why I wasn't taught about this at school. The issues of the vote united women in a way that no issue had ever done before and is likely to again." 

The key players in the true-life (and televisual) drama are Emmeline Pankhurst, who forms the Women's Social and Political Union, the driving power behind the women's movement. Portrayed by Sian Phillips she is shown as a sensitive, caring, charismatic woman who was also responsible for an increasing militancy in the campaign, prompted by an occasion in 1905 when her daughter Christabel (Patricia Quinn), was ejected from a Liberal meeting in Manchester and then arrested and imprisoned for assaulting the police because she had dared ask the meeting about votes for women. Christabel, a trained lawyer eventually had to help the fight from exile in Paris. 
Sylvia Pankhurst (Angela Down), the middle daughter, who doesn't feel as though working women should have any part in their movement. She organises the women of London's East End as a way of leading them out of poverty. Annie Kenney (Georgia Brown), a mill worker who joins the cause and eventually becomes a dynamic speaker for the movement. 

'Shoulder to Shoulder' was shown on BBCTV in 1974, and also had an impressive supporting male cast including Michael Gough as Emmeline's husband, Dr Richard Pankhurst, Fulton MacKay as Keir Hardie, Robert Hardy as Asquith and an early role for Bob Hoskins as Jack Dunn. 

Sadly neglected by most television historians, books and websites, 'Shoulder to Shoulder' was a stirring piece of British televisual drama that portrayed one of the most important movements in the history of civil rights, and is therefore more than deserving of its place in Television Heaven. 

PROGRAMME DETAILS 

Season 1, Episode 1: The Pankhursts 
Original Air Date—3 April 1974 

Directed by 
Waris Hussein 

Written by 
Ken Taylor 

Episode Cast 
Siân Phillips ... Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst 
Angela Down ... Sylvia Pankhurst 
Patricia Quinn ... Christabel Pankhurst 
Liz Ashley ... Mrs. Rose Hyland 
Pat Beckett ... Mrs. Morrissey 
Iona Christie ... Harry (aged 3) 
Michael Gough ... Dr. Richard Pankhurst 
Sheila Grant ... Teresa Billington 
Nicola Jacobs ... Adela (aged 6) 
Roy Jacobs ... Harry (aged 10) 
Sylvia Kay ... Ellen 
Jane Knowles ... Shop Assistant 
Rosemary Macvie ... Miss Roper 
Martin Matthews ... Philip Snowden 
Kenneth McClellan ... Returning Officer 
Antonia Pemberton ... Dr. Margaret Bell 
Louise Plank ... Adela (aged 12) 
Jenny Till ... Eva Gore-Booth 
Wendy Underwood ... Christabel (aged 12) 
Bill Ward ... Man in Hall 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Season 1, Episode 2: Annie Kenney 
Original Air Date—10 April 1974 

Directed by 
Waris Hussein 

Written by 
Alan Plater 

Episode Cast 
Siân Phillips ... Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst 
Angela Down ... Sylvia Pankhurst 
Patricia Quinn ... Christabel Pankhurst 
Sheila Allen ... Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence 
Georgia Brown ... Annie Kenney 
Suzan Cameron ... Jessie Kenney 
Gerald Case ... Chairman 
Dennis Chinnery ... Robert Bell 
Basil Clarke ... Halliday 
Hazel Coppen ... Mrs. Roe 
Jon Croft ... Charlie 
Anne Dyson ... Mrs. Kenney 
Sheila Grant ... Teresa Billington 
Robert Hardy ... Asquith 
Ronald Hines ... Mr. Pethick-Lawrence 
Philip Jackson ... Carrick 
Fulton Mackay ... Keir Hardie 
Sally Miles ... Flora Drummond 
Verne Morgan ... Butler 
James Taylor ... Chatterton 
Molly Urquhart ... Mary 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Season 1, Episode 3: Lady Constance Lytton 
Original Air Date—17 April 1974 

Directed by 
Waris Hussein 

Written by 
Douglas Livingstone 

Episode Cast 
Siân Phillips ... Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst 
Patricia Quinn ... Christabel Pankhurst 
Sheila Allen ... Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence 
Carrie Lee Baker ... Girl in Lincoln's Inn Hotel 
Christopher Banks ... Curtis Bennett 
Eve Belton ... Catherine Hogan 
James Bree ... Medical Officer 2 
Bridget Brice ... Ruth 
Georgia Brown ... Annie Kenney 
Suzan Cameron ... Jessie Kenney 
Elizabeth Cassidy ... Girl in Holloway 
Geoffrey Chater ... Prison Governor, Holloway 
Patience Collier ... Lady Lytton 
John Dunbar ... Sir Albert de Rutzen 
Margaret Ford ... Emily Lutyens 
Petronella Ford ... Elsa Gye 
Peter Geddis ... Lloyd George 
Susan Glanville ... Marie Brackenbury 
Jenny Laird ... Matron of Holloway 
Lala Lloyd ... Wardress 3 
Elisabeth Lynne ... Rogers 
Sally Miles ... Flora Drummond 
Jonathan Newth ... Lord Lytton 
Judy Parfitt ... Lady Constance Lytton 
Hilary Sesta ... Wardress 1 
Anthony Sharp ... Medical Officer 1, Walton 
Pam St. Clement ... Holloway Wardress 
Sally Travers ... Wardress 2 
Helen Weir ... Betty Balfour 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Season 1, Episode 4: Christabel Pankhurst 
Original Air Date—24 April 1974 

Directed by 
Moira Armstrong 

Written by 
Ken Taylor 

Episode Cast 
Siân Phillips ... Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst 
Angela Down ... Sylvia Pankhurst 
Patricia Quinn ... Christabel Pankhurst 
Sheila Allen ... Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence 
Rosalind Bailey ... Woman on train 
John Boxer ... Judge 
Georgia Brown ... Annie Kenney 
Claire Davenport ... Nurse Pine 
Robert Hardy ... Asquith 
Ronald Hines ... Mr. Pethick-Lawrence 
Lorna Kilner ... Wardress 
John Lawrence ... Doctor 
Fulton Mackay ... Keir Hardie 
Ronald Mayer ... Constable on Platform 
Sally Miles ... Flora Drummond 
Natasha Morgan ... Muriel Delahaye 
Maureen Morris ... Adela Pankhurst 
Maureen Pryor ... Dr. Ethel Smyth 
Michael Rose ... Magistrate 
Stuart Saunders ... Detective Inspector 
Frank Sieman ... Bailiff 
Joy Turpin ... Evelyn Sharp 
Bruce White ... Constable in court 
Lewis Wilson ... Detective Inspector 
Marguerite Young ... Lady Blessey 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Season 1, Episode 5: Outrage 
Original Air Date—1 May 1974 

Directed by 
Moira Armstrong 

Written by 
Hugh Whitemore 

Episode Cast 
Siân Phillips ... Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst 
Angela Down ... Sylvia Pankhurst 
Patricia Quinn ... Christabel Pankhurst 
James Appleby ... Warder 
Rosalind Ayres ... Maisie Dunn 
Sheila Ballantine ... Emily Wilding Davison 
Irene Barnett ... East End girl #1 
Ray Barron ... Labourer #1 
Georgia Brown ... Annie Kenney 
Tricia Clarke ... Ida Kittell 
Valerie Colgan ... Mary Richardson 
Clifford Cox ... Labourer #2 
Claire Davenport ... Nurse Pine 
Harry Davis ... Workman 
Hazel Douglas ... Alice Marlowe 
John Garvin ... Prison Doctor 
Bob Hoskins ... Jack Dunn 
Richard Hurndall ... Reader 
Andonia Katsaros ... Melvina Walker 
Tom Macaulay ... Junior Minister 
Lucinda MacDonald ... May Kittell 
Ray Marioni ... Waiter 
Sally Miles ... Flora Drummond 
Beryl Nesbitt ... Woman at Bazaar 
Maureen Pryor ... Dr. Ethel Smyth 
Pamela Saire ... East End girl #2 
Nickola Sterne ... Wardress 
Lans Traverse ... Zellie Emerson 
Anne-Louise Wakefield ... Stella Kittell 
Shelagh Wilcocks ... Woman Prisoner 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Season 1, Episode 6: Sylvia Pankhurst 
Original Air Date—8 May 1974 

Directed by 
Waris Hussein 

Written by 
Ken Taylor 

Episode Cast 
Siân Phillips ... Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst 
Angela Down ... Sylvia Pankhurst 
Patricia Quinn ... Christabel Pankhurst 
Peggy Aitchison ... Mrs. Payne 
Cyril Appleton ... Insp. Riley 
Georgia Brown ... Annie Kenney 
Christine Edmunds ... Marthe 
David Ellison ... Policeman 
Mark Elwes ... Asquith's Secretary 
Margaret Flint ... Mrs. Savoy (as Maggie Flint) 
Myra Frances ... Norah Smyth 
Peter Geddis ... Lloyd George 
Melanie Gibson ... Sylvia (aged 10) 
Michael Gough ... Dr. Richard Pankhurst 
Andonia Katsaros ... Melvina Walker 
Fulton Mackay ... Keir Hardie 
Pamela Manson ... Woman at the London Pavilion 
Sally Miles ... Flora Drummond 
Arnold Peters ... George Lansbury 
Maureen Pryor ... Dr. Ethel Smyth 
Donald Tandy ... Inspector 
Lans Traverse ... Zellie Emerson 
 

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