Jessica Harris watches a TV play revived for the stage.
Opening with a long shot over bucolic countryside, the Malvern Hills rising steeply in the distance, Penda’s Fen makes its focus clear from the start. This peaceful scene is suddenly interrupted: across the screen, barbed wire appears, and then a hand with deep lacerations.
It is middle England in 1955. Stephen, the central character and son of a pastor, lives in this rural idyll. As a child, his world has largely been black and white. His upbringing has been conventional, his Christian faith strong, and classical music his passion. But there is a fly in the ointment. He is an outsider – different from his peers who see unconventional tendencies within him, and he is bullied as a result.
As he approaches his 18th birthday, so his world starts to unravel. What was straightforward now becomes complex. At home in the rectory, he studies The Dream of Gerontius by Elgar, and contemplates its theme: What will happen to my soul after death? So begins a narrative in which the subliminal takes hold, and multi-layered ideas are explored: the struggle between a good and spiritual world and an evil world of darkness; the conflict between the Christian faith with its single god and old pagan religions which encompassed a plurality of divine beings; the clash between conservatism and a more radical politics.
The film shifts from shots of a cottage garden in full flower to images of demons and angels, and from shots of country lanes to images of cracking flagstones in the local church. Throughout, there is ambiguity about where the menace lies – in the material world or within Stephen’s sub-conscious? As Stephen reaches his own conclusions, the Malvern Hills appear once more, their steep rises on either side facing both West and East.
Slow-moving and in some ways dated (women scarcely get a look-in and the rural setting feels far more remote than it does today), Penda’s Fen is yet totally absorbing. Its conflicting forces are recognisable in today’s world, and still have the power to raise questions. It is fascinating to think of the impact it must have had on those who first saw it on televisions in their living rooms in 1974.
Spencer Banks played the lead role of Stephen and the film was directed by Alan Clarke. It was screened at MAC to mark the 50th anniversary of its first broadcast in a Play for Today on BBC1, and was followed by a Q&A session with Spencer Banks. Originally commissioned by Birmingham studios Pebble Mill, it was part of the Square Eyes TV Festival which is now in its fourth year.
Billed as A Big Celebration of the Small Screen, the festival takes place across the Midlands Arts Centre, The Mockingbird Cinema and The Heath Bookshop. It has a particular focus on work from the Midlands, including work commissioned by the former Pebble Mill studios.
For further information visit macbirmingham.co.uk.
