Unique

Not enough posts on this remarkable film: it possibly comes apart in the second half, but with writing this strong who cares?

I especially like the scene where Gwen, Gideon's girlfriend, turns on him for the kind of books he writes, she says:

"You always need a supernatural intelligence in your books step in to save man from his folly. Why? Because in your world man is not mature enough. In your stories that are only stories, man is a moral child, because you who tell them are yourself a moral child. Those who so love your books are moral children too - for them the world's too much, so crave instead some angel supernatural to intervene. Your works are a Satanic force: you hobble us, appease us with maps - not of the world we're truly in - you diminish our responsibility: in your own writing you endanger the earth - the globe rolls over into the dark and we bleat "no angel came". There is no angel, only our own powers, from our own inner space. By our thwarting and waste of these comes death into the world."

Take that Harry Potter!

This is not anti-religion as such, in the audio-commentary Rudkin says that the Bishop of London, I think it was, thought it one of the most religious plays he'd seen on TV. Rudkin is rather having a go at all the quick-fix escapist stuff like Erich von Daniken (who used to claim aliens had designed the pyramids, presumably because we weren't smart enough.)

The whole play is about taking responsibility for our lives and using our inner space.