During the 1970s the BBC had several different one-off anthology drama series. BBC1's "Play for Today", which aired weekly, mostly consisted of dramas between 50 and 100 minutes long, generally specially written for television and dealing with some aspect of contemporary British life, although there were exceptions. "Play of the Month", as its title suggests, was broadcast monthly, and mostly consisted of adaptations for television of stage plays or novels; many of them dealt with historical subjects. "Play of the Week", which borrowed the title of a defunct ITV series, was a short-lived series which ran between 1976 and 1978; its content was similar to that of "Play for Today" but was broadcast on BBC2. (In the seventies the two channels, although both part of the overall BBC structure, had different identities). And "Second City Firsts", like its predecessor "Thirty Minute Theatre", also dealt with contemporary British life, but its offerings were much shorter, at around half and hour in length. The title derives from the fact that the plays were filmed at the BBC's studios in Birmingham, the UK's second-largest city, and were being shown on television for the first time. (Many were the first plays written by their authors).
"Second City Firsts" suffered badly from the BBC's short-sighted policy of wiping old videotapes; out of a total of 53 episodes, 25 are currently missing. Perhaps their very brevity made the Beeb feel that they were not worth keeping; out of more than a hundred "Plays for Today" made during the same period only seven are missing. For a long time "Girl" was thought to be one of the missing episodes, until a tape was discovered, rather oddly, in the archives of the BBC's rival Thames Television, part of the ITV network.
It is often said that the first lesbian kiss on British TV was that between Anna Friel and Nicola Stephenson in the soap opera "Brookside" in 1994. In reality, the first lesbian kiss occurred twenty years earlier, between Alison Steadman and Myra Frances in "Girl". This may have been overlooked because the programme was missing for so long. Another Second City First. Steadman here plays Jackie Smithers, a young recruit in the WRAC, who is being discharged after getting pregnant before completing her training. We learn that Jackie has been having a lesbian affair with an NCO, Corporal Christine Harvey, and we learn about the history of their relationship, both in flashbacks and through what Jackie tells two other female soldiers.
This would have been a potentially controversial theme in 1974, although I do not recall much being made of it in the press at the time, unlike the "Brookside" kiss which seemed to be in the news for weeks. Today, of course, television programmes and films featuring same-sex relationships are no longer as daring or as controversial as they once were, so historic dramas on this subject, which once might automatically have garnered praise for being "ground-breaking", now have to be able to stand on their own two feet.
And I think that this is something which "Girl" is able to do: writer James Robson treats his subject-matter sensitively, and there are two excellent performances from Steadman and Frances. Steadman's Jackie is the more innocent and inexperienced of the two; Frances's Harvey is older, and it is clear that she has exploited her greater experience and higher rank to seduce the younger girl. Jackie was at one time deeply in love with Christine, but having realised that Christine did not return her feelings in full and was only using her has become disillusioned, not only with the relationship but also with the military career which she was once eagerly anticipating. This play might be only half and hour long, but Robson is able to get a lot of content into those thirty minutes.
"Second City Firsts" suffered badly from the BBC's short-sighted policy of wiping old videotapes; out of a total of 53 episodes, 25 are currently missing. Perhaps their very brevity made the Beeb feel that they were not worth keeping; out of more than a hundred "Plays for Today" made during the same period only seven are missing. For a long time "Girl" was thought to be one of the missing episodes, until a tape was discovered, rather oddly, in the archives of the BBC's rival Thames Television, part of the ITV network.
It is often said that the first lesbian kiss on British TV was that between Anna Friel and Nicola Stephenson in the soap opera "Brookside" in 1994. In reality, the first lesbian kiss occurred twenty years earlier, between Alison Steadman and Myra Frances in "Girl". This may have been overlooked because the programme was missing for so long. Another Second City First. Steadman here plays Jackie Smithers, a young recruit in the WRAC, who is being discharged after getting pregnant before completing her training. We learn that Jackie has been having a lesbian affair with an NCO, Corporal Christine Harvey, and we learn about the history of their relationship, both in flashbacks and through what Jackie tells two other female soldiers.
This would have been a potentially controversial theme in 1974, although I do not recall much being made of it in the press at the time, unlike the "Brookside" kiss which seemed to be in the news for weeks. Today, of course, television programmes and films featuring same-sex relationships are no longer as daring or as controversial as they once were, so historic dramas on this subject, which once might automatically have garnered praise for being "ground-breaking", now have to be able to stand on their own two feet.
And I think that this is something which "Girl" is able to do: writer James Robson treats his subject-matter sensitively, and there are two excellent performances from Steadman and Frances. Steadman's Jackie is the more innocent and inexperienced of the two; Frances's Harvey is older, and it is clear that she has exploited her greater experience and higher rank to seduce the younger girl. Jackie was at one time deeply in love with Christine, but having realised that Christine did not return her feelings in full and was only using her has become disillusioned, not only with the relationship but also with the military career which she was once eagerly anticipating. This play might be only half and hour long, but Robson is able to get a lot of content into those thirty minutes.
