Most "Plays for Today" only told a single story, but "Clay, Smeddum and Greenden" is what might be called a "portmanteau", combining three stories in a single film. In this it is similar to another "Play for Today" from 1971, "Orkney". Both plays are based upon short stories by Scottish writers, Lewis Grassic Gibbon here and George Mackay Brown in the case of "Orkney". Both are set in rural parts of northern Scotland, "Orkney" as the title suggests in the Orkney Islands and "Clay, Smeddum and Greenden" in Gibbon's native Kincardineshire. In 1971 the BBC also broadcast "Sunset Song", a drama serial based upon a novel by Gibbon.
"Clay, Smeddum and Greenden" might seem like the name of a provincial firm of solicitors, but each word is the title of one of the three stories. All three are set in the same Scottish east coast farming community in the 1920s and 1930s; several characters appear in two of the stories, or sometimes all three. The same character, the local grocer Alec Webster, acts as narrator of all three parts. (He is played by Fulton MacKay, who also appeared in "Orkney").
"Clay" deals with a farmer who becomes obsessed with trying to tame an unpromising "park"- a local word for farm- consisting mostly of heavy clay soils, gorse and heather, but neglecting his wife and daughter while doing so. This story reminded me of Sheila Kaye-Smith's novel "Sussex Gorse", set at the opposite extremity of Great Britain, but which also deals with an obsessive farmer trying to wrest a living from a barren and unproductive tract of soil while neglecting the needs of his family. The difference is that Kaye-Smith's character, Reuben Backfield, eventually succeeds in his endeavour, although at great personal cost, whereas Gibbon's Rob Galt is defeated.
"Smeddum"- Scots dialect for spirit or determination- is lighter in tone, a comedy about a woman trying to run both her farm and the lives of her children after the death of their shiftless father. (I was going to say "her husband", but it is finally revealed that they were in fact never legally married, something which would have shocked her pious neighbours had it come out during his lifetime).
In "Greenden" George and Ellen Simpson, an urban couple from Glasgow, move to the countryside for the sake of George's health. ("Greenden" is the name of the farm on which they settle). George has been advised to take up farming because he has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and his doctors think that fresh country air and hard work will do him good. George does indeed take to country life, and his health improves, but Ellen, feeling lonely and neglected, sinks into depression.
In my view "Clay" was the best of the trilogy and contains the best acting performance by Victor Carin as the obsessive Rob. He is difficult to like, particularly in the way in which he treats his wife and daughter, yet it is also difficult to avoid admiring his dogged determination. "Smeddum", by contrast, never really engaged me and suffered from being a slight piece of comic relief sandwiched between two tragedies. "Greenden" was potentially an interesting story, but I felt it would have benefitted from a longer and more expansive treatment, possibly being the subject of a full-length drama in its own right. I did not enjoy the trilogy as much as "Orkney", and certainly not as much as "Sunset Song", one of the best BBC dramas of the seventies. 6/10.
"Clay, Smeddum and Greenden" might seem like the name of a provincial firm of solicitors, but each word is the title of one of the three stories. All three are set in the same Scottish east coast farming community in the 1920s and 1930s; several characters appear in two of the stories, or sometimes all three. The same character, the local grocer Alec Webster, acts as narrator of all three parts. (He is played by Fulton MacKay, who also appeared in "Orkney").
"Clay" deals with a farmer who becomes obsessed with trying to tame an unpromising "park"- a local word for farm- consisting mostly of heavy clay soils, gorse and heather, but neglecting his wife and daughter while doing so. This story reminded me of Sheila Kaye-Smith's novel "Sussex Gorse", set at the opposite extremity of Great Britain, but which also deals with an obsessive farmer trying to wrest a living from a barren and unproductive tract of soil while neglecting the needs of his family. The difference is that Kaye-Smith's character, Reuben Backfield, eventually succeeds in his endeavour, although at great personal cost, whereas Gibbon's Rob Galt is defeated.
"Smeddum"- Scots dialect for spirit or determination- is lighter in tone, a comedy about a woman trying to run both her farm and the lives of her children after the death of their shiftless father. (I was going to say "her husband", but it is finally revealed that they were in fact never legally married, something which would have shocked her pious neighbours had it come out during his lifetime).
In "Greenden" George and Ellen Simpson, an urban couple from Glasgow, move to the countryside for the sake of George's health. ("Greenden" is the name of the farm on which they settle). George has been advised to take up farming because he has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and his doctors think that fresh country air and hard work will do him good. George does indeed take to country life, and his health improves, but Ellen, feeling lonely and neglected, sinks into depression.
In my view "Clay" was the best of the trilogy and contains the best acting performance by Victor Carin as the obsessive Rob. He is difficult to like, particularly in the way in which he treats his wife and daughter, yet it is also difficult to avoid admiring his dogged determination. "Smeddum", by contrast, never really engaged me and suffered from being a slight piece of comic relief sandwiched between two tragedies. "Greenden" was potentially an interesting story, but I felt it would have benefitted from a longer and more expansive treatment, possibly being the subject of a full-length drama in its own right. I did not enjoy the trilogy as much as "Orkney", and certainly not as much as "Sunset Song", one of the best BBC dramas of the seventies. 6/10.