BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE - The original D Potter tele-play. Its grim tableau offers a glimpse into claustrophobic Brit suburbia in the 70s, where a repressed couple attempt to care for their daughter, left brain damaged in the aftermath of a hit and run. Enter the Devil, who causes enough controversy to get this banned from the benighted living rooms of its audience for over ten years. It remains an uncomfortable viewing experience and looms with the anxieties of that particular epoch, which are mostly to do with the dissolution of the social fabric and the emergence of dark right-wing agendas. Not so different to now, with the collapse of the economy and the tory revival - I hope I'm wrong in thinking the whole 70s/80s thing was a rehearsal for The New Dark Age.
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