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Should anyone be in London tomorrow with time on their hands tomorrow evening, I\u2019d recommend a trip to the British Film Institute Southbank<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Film and Television producer Tony Garnett will be discussing his work.\u00a0 <\/span>For those unfamiliar, this includes such ground-breaking dramas as Cathy come home<\/em>, the Play for Today television production that lead to debates in Parliament and the setting up of Crisis<\/strong>, Kes<\/em>, Cardiac Arrest<\/em> and This life<\/em>.<\/p>\n I was nine when Cathy come home<\/em> was first broadcast.\u00a0 <\/span>A quarter of the UK\u2019s population watched it (a play; a social commentary, one cannot imagine such a thing happening now) including our household.\u00a0 <\/span>Despite my youth it was simply electrifying.\u00a0 <\/span>Shot on hand held 16mm cameras, mostly on location and often using members of the public, a naturalistic style that typifies director Ken Loach\u2019s films.\u00a0 <\/span>I year or so back I bought the DVD of Cathy come home<\/em>.\u00a0 At first I was reluctant to watch it, fearing that the passage of time and the antiquated technology used to shoot and record it would deaden the impact.\u00a0 <\/span>I was wrong.\u00a0 <\/span>It is still electrifying 46 years on.\u00a0 Not only that, it would be surprising for such an overtly political play to be allowed on a mainstream tv channel today; one only has to look at the way political documentary makers such as John Pilger, long broadcast on British television, are now independently producing documentaries for cinema and web broadcast instead. \u00a0Up the junction<\/em> is another of Tony Garnett and Ken Loach\u2019s controversial collaborations likely to be discussed, this one dealing with back street abortions.\u00a0 <\/span>Later made in to a film, it was Garnett and Loach\u2019s television play that was the inspiration behind Chris Difford\u2019s lyrics for the Squeeze song of the same name.\u00a0 <\/span>If you haven\u2019t yet seen Cathy come home<\/em>, check it out at Ken Loach\u2019s YouTube channel. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n