"The Long Distance Piano Player" began life as a radio play and was later adapted by its author Alan Sharp into a television drama. It was broadcast on BBC1 on 15th October 1970, the first production in the BBC's "Play for Today" series. The BBC gave a lot of publicity to what it described as a "new drama series", although "Play for Today" was really no more than a rebranding of the old Wednesday Play; a change in the Beeb's schedules meant that Wednesday night was given over to sport and drama moved to Thursday.
Sharp admitted that he was inspired by Horace McCoy novel "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", turned into a film by Sydney Pollack in 1969. McCoy's novel and Pollack's film, however, both dealt with a Great Depression-era dance marathon, whereas Sharp's play has a contemporary setting and deals with a piano-playing marathon. It tells the story of Pete, a young pianist who for some reason has decided to break the world record for non-stop piano playing, something which will involve him for playing for four days and nights, It must be said that his record attempt does not attract much attention. The venue is not Wembley Stadium or the Royal Albert Hall but a shabby hall in a Northern provincial town, and he only attracts a handful of spectators, mostly bored pensioners with nothing better to do. It is not even clear whether, if he succeeds, this will count as an official record; there is no adjudicator from the Guinness Book of Records or any other organisation present. Pete is played by Ray Davies, better known as a pop star with The Kinks, here making his acting debut.
Besides Pete, the two most important characters in the drama are his wife Ruth and his manager Jack. The play can be seen as a battle between these two for control of Pete, who is played by Davies as a rather simple, child-like young man. Ruth is resolutely opposed to the piano marathon, which she sees as futile, while Jack tries to represent it, both to Pete himself and to the wider world, as some glorious exploit. Norman Rossington's portrayal may have been influenced by Gig Young's sinister master of ceremonies in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" He gives Jack an obviously fake American accent, although he doesn't actually exclaim "Yowza! Yowza!" It is clear that he and Ruth detest one another, and although nothing is made explicit there is a hint that there might be a homosexual element in his feelings for Pete.
While watching the play I wondered if it might have been better if Sharp had shown us more of Pete's earlier life, exploring in greater depth the question of why he wanted to try and break some meaningless record. I also would have been interested to know what Jack's motivation was- surely he didn't stand to make much money from this venture? Yet perhaps I was being unfair, for two reasons. The first is that the original 80-minute version as broadcast in 1970 has become (like too many Plays for Today and other television programmes from the era) "lost"; all that survives in the BBC archives is a shorter 61-minute version broadcast as a repeat in 1972.
The other reason why I may have been unfair to Sharp is that he may not have intended the play as a psychological study at all. Pete describes his marathon as "the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest". When the mountaineer George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Everest he famously replied "because it is there", a phrase which has become proverbial as a justification for some monumental but ultimately pointless enterprise. Seen in this light, we perhaps should not ask ourselves why Pete wanted to break the record, beyond the fact that it was there. Perhaps Jack's motivation can be seen as wanting to bask in some reflected glory, however dubious that glory might be. I also wondered if Sharp was asking us to see Pete as an Everyman figure. After all, many- perhaps most- working people go on plodding away at some humdrum task, day after day, without being able to see any real purpose in what they are doing. Pounding tunelessly away on the piano for days on end is really just the same sort of thing.
"The Long Distance Piano Player" was perhaps not the greatest start to the new series; there were to be some much better plays in store over the next fourteen years. It was not greeted with much enthusiasm by the TV critics of the day. Yet it has its points of interest, and one can only regret that the original version has not been preserved. 7/10.
Sharp admitted that he was inspired by Horace McCoy novel "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", turned into a film by Sydney Pollack in 1969. McCoy's novel and Pollack's film, however, both dealt with a Great Depression-era dance marathon, whereas Sharp's play has a contemporary setting and deals with a piano-playing marathon. It tells the story of Pete, a young pianist who for some reason has decided to break the world record for non-stop piano playing, something which will involve him for playing for four days and nights, It must be said that his record attempt does not attract much attention. The venue is not Wembley Stadium or the Royal Albert Hall but a shabby hall in a Northern provincial town, and he only attracts a handful of spectators, mostly bored pensioners with nothing better to do. It is not even clear whether, if he succeeds, this will count as an official record; there is no adjudicator from the Guinness Book of Records or any other organisation present. Pete is played by Ray Davies, better known as a pop star with The Kinks, here making his acting debut.
Besides Pete, the two most important characters in the drama are his wife Ruth and his manager Jack. The play can be seen as a battle between these two for control of Pete, who is played by Davies as a rather simple, child-like young man. Ruth is resolutely opposed to the piano marathon, which she sees as futile, while Jack tries to represent it, both to Pete himself and to the wider world, as some glorious exploit. Norman Rossington's portrayal may have been influenced by Gig Young's sinister master of ceremonies in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" He gives Jack an obviously fake American accent, although he doesn't actually exclaim "Yowza! Yowza!" It is clear that he and Ruth detest one another, and although nothing is made explicit there is a hint that there might be a homosexual element in his feelings for Pete.
While watching the play I wondered if it might have been better if Sharp had shown us more of Pete's earlier life, exploring in greater depth the question of why he wanted to try and break some meaningless record. I also would have been interested to know what Jack's motivation was- surely he didn't stand to make much money from this venture? Yet perhaps I was being unfair, for two reasons. The first is that the original 80-minute version as broadcast in 1970 has become (like too many Plays for Today and other television programmes from the era) "lost"; all that survives in the BBC archives is a shorter 61-minute version broadcast as a repeat in 1972.
The other reason why I may have been unfair to Sharp is that he may not have intended the play as a psychological study at all. Pete describes his marathon as "the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest". When the mountaineer George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Everest he famously replied "because it is there", a phrase which has become proverbial as a justification for some monumental but ultimately pointless enterprise. Seen in this light, we perhaps should not ask ourselves why Pete wanted to break the record, beyond the fact that it was there. Perhaps Jack's motivation can be seen as wanting to bask in some reflected glory, however dubious that glory might be. I also wondered if Sharp was asking us to see Pete as an Everyman figure. After all, many- perhaps most- working people go on plodding away at some humdrum task, day after day, without being able to see any real purpose in what they are doing. Pounding tunelessly away on the piano for days on end is really just the same sort of thing.
"The Long Distance Piano Player" was perhaps not the greatest start to the new series; there were to be some much better plays in store over the next fourteen years. It was not greeted with much enthusiasm by the TV critics of the day. Yet it has its points of interest, and one can only regret that the original version has not been preserved. 7/10.
