[Afamilyatwar-list] Episode 4

[Veit, Richard]

Episode No. 4, "The Summer Before the War"

[cid:image001.png at 01D4385B.FE5C7AC0]

In terms of heightening the dramatic tension, “The Summer Before the War” is perhaps the most compelling of all the early episodes. It is really quite remarkable how many significant events are happening, almost simultaneously, that will impact the entire run of the series. If the first three installments of “A Family at War” were necessarily introductory in nature, presenting viewers with essential character portraits that will serve them throughout, then this fourth episode must be recognised as a vehicle for propelling the narrative forward in a wide array of creative directions. Just consider the succession of important plot developments that this single episode initiates:

War is declared
John goes off to fight
Edwin’s managerial aspirations are dashed
David “lands” a second time (Peggy’s pregnancy)
Sheila decides against evacuating the children
Philip withdraws from Oxford


Some other random thoughts…

Again, as so often in the series, we are reminded of what a major role radio broadcasts played in the lives of people on the home front. In this case, the family hears Prime Minister Chamberlain’s solemn pronouncement that England now is at war. The effective use of archival sound recordings adds a further touch of historical authenticity.

I thought the scene where Jean and Edwin are lying in bed was very well photographed. When the street lamps go off, Edwin asks his wife, “Who was it said, ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe’?” It was nicely shot, seeing full lighting reduced to a half-light and then to rather dim when the street lamps outside are extinguished.

Two bits of dialogue serve to bring the nascent war home in chilling fashion. Freda says to Philip, “Have you been out in the gloom yet? It’s like the end of the world.” Later, also at the Ashtons’, Sheila poses a rhetorical question: “Who’s going to drop bombs on children?”

There is one costuming oddity that caught my eye. In the pub, Peggy Drake seems to be wearing the same outfit—a lovely blue and green floral dress—that later will be seen adorning the character of Doris Jackson in “Lend Your Loving Arms.” I have attached comparative jpeg images for purposes of illustration.

[http://afamilyatwar.com/04-Peggy%20(dress).jpg]

[http://afamilyatwar.com/23-Doris%20(dress).jpg]


“The Summer Before the War” is the only episode among the fifty-two in which there are two cast members who, much later in the series, will reappear—but in different roles:
(1) Actress Diana Davies appears, uncredited, as a despondent mother, tearfully embracing her child at the makeshift evacuation centre (Margaret’s school). Later, of course, she will have a recurring role as Freda’s friend, Doris Jackson. It would be interesting to know whether her performance here inspired creation of the role of Doris, or whether Doris already was planned, and Diana Davies’s gripping portrayal of a heartbroken mother served as her audition for a “call back.”
(2) Bill Dean is seen in this episode (and again in “The End of the Beginning” and “The Other Side of the Hill”) as the printing works pressman, Alan Mills. However, in Episode No. 47, “Under New Management,” he plays the role of a Labour Party agent, espousing the socialist cause over a car-mounted loudspeaker. It could, of course, be argued that the later character too is Alan Mills, but this would seem most unlikely, in that the personalities are so dissimilar.

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