Robin Redbreast is a television play made as part of the BBC's Play for Today program, which from 1970 to 1984 broadcast a wide range of plays encompassing different genres including drama, fantasy, science fiction and horror. Written by novelist and playwright John Bowen, Robin Redbreast falls into the categories of fantasy and horror; despite its relative obscurity, it has a reputation amongst fans of British telefantasy as an example of "folk horror" that has been described as a precursor to The Wicker Man.

The story sees BBC script editor Norah Palmer feeling emotionally vulnerable after splitting up with her boyfriend and deciding to move to the rural village house that they bought together. As is often the case in fiction, the local villagers turn out to be not quite as welcoming as one might hope, and to have some decidedly odd customs. As she meets local stud Edgar, who is nicknamed Rob - short for Robin Redbreast - she finds herself being manipulated into having sex with him, getting pregnant, and discovering that leaving the village isn't as easy as she assumed.

Bowen's plot unfolds slowly but steadily, teasing out the story through an accumulation of seemingly random events that gradually coalesce into a sinister whole, with Norah discovering that Rob has been raised as a sacrificial lamb and that the locals have orchestrated her brief affair with him and subsequent pregnancy - by terrifying her with a bird dropped down her chimney and hiding her contraceptive diaphragm - so that they can raise her child as his successor. Whilst the villagers' pagan rituals are the stuff of pure fantasy, the psychological and emotional abuse inflicted on Norah- and by extension the physical violation resulting from the loss of control over her own body - is entirely plausible and provides the screenplay with a chilling sense of creeping paranoia. Rob's sacrifice takes place off-screen and is revealed to the audience purely by a scream, but it still has a real impact when coupled with Mr. Fisher's indirect explanation of the villagers' dark secret.

Robin Redbreast was original broadcast in colour, but survives only as a black and white telerecording remastered and released on home media by the British Film Institute. If anything, black and white only enhances its sinister atmosphere: television director James MacTaggart does a fine job, with some notably surreal camerawork such as when Norah first encounters an almost-naked Rob in the woods and her later nightmare. When a bird gets into Norah's house, MacTaggart provides a bird's-eye view, whilst a voice-over is used as Norah narrates her letter to Jake, documenting her failed attempts to leave; these camera and narrative techniques all contribute to the play's success.

The casting certainly is another important factor. Anna Cropper is well cast as Norah (Bowen wrote the part for her),looking rattled by the odd locals, especially Bernard Hepton's quietly menacing Mr. Fisher. Cropper conveys Norah's growing paranoia and fear entirely convincingly, and she's very naturalistic as a middle aged woman flattered and seduced by the attentions of an attractive younger man, which makes her perfect for the villagers' plans. Andrew Bradford makes Rob believable as an awkward and not very bright young man trapped by a dark destiny which he never fully seems to understand until it is far too late. Hepton meanwhile gives a superbly understated performance as Fisher, who is eccentric without being comical and softly-spoken but intimidating. Less understated is Freda Bamford as Mrs. Vigo, a wonderful character who would reappear (again played by Bamford) in Bowen's subsequent Play for Today, A Photograph.

Overall, Robin Redbreast is a fine vintage slice of British television horror that despite no longer surviving in its original colour format still manages to impress. The 2013 BFI DVD release of Robin Redbreast was extremely welcome: it made the play available to a whole new audience, and is essential viewing for all fans of British telefantasy and all fans of "folk horror". Now if only they would release A Photograph...

During my early teenage years,I remember that whenever my mum and dad talked about TV shows that were show when they were growing up,they would always mention a program called "Play For Today",due to how much controversy the program received during its airing.

Years later:

After having the extraordinary chance to attend a Q & A session which director Mike Leigh held at a near by Uni,I became interested in taking a look at the Play For Today program,which had been highly spoken of during the Q & A.Doing a bit of research about the show and also checking for its availability,I was thrilled to discover that all of Leigh's Play For Today's had been brought out,but was shocked to discover that out of the 300 or so plays,only a tiny fraction of them had been brought out,with most of the plays sadly being left to fade away into history.

Having given up on seeing any of the "forgotten" Play For Todays,I ended up happily being caught completely by surprise,when a friend kindly gave me a copy of a wonderful sounding,"Forgotten" Play for Today play/episode!.

The plot:

With recently having had a messy break up with her long term partner in London,Norah feels that she needs to get away from "The City" life as far as possible,which leads to her deciding to move away to a cottage in a remote rural village.Hiring a local called Mrs Vigo to act as a part time maid for the house,Norah notices that field mice's seem to have somehow gotten into her cottage.

Being advised by Vigo, (who seems to know about everything that happens in the village) Norah decides to ask a rugged,young gamekeeper called Rob to help with getting rid of the mice's.Thinking about Rob during the night,Norah gets the shock of her life,when she hears a loud thud that rattles her cottage.

Despite having "gone home" hours ago,Rob bursts through the front door and tells Norah that he has just come to check up on her,and see if everything is alright.Feeling relived about seeing him again,Norah starts to feel very close to Rob and ends up sleeping with him, (unprotectived-due to her contraceptive having strangely "disappeared".) Leaving her behind after their night of passion,Norah quickly discovers that Rob has made her pregnant.

Deciding that her night with Rob was a "one off",Noarh starts to make arrangements to stay with friends In London,as she considers either keeping the child or having an abortion.Attempting to sort out an agreement with her friends on where she can stay,Norah begins to notice that the towns folk are worryingly starting to surround her,as if they are trying to do everything possible to make sure that she never leaves "their" village.

View on the play:

From the moment that Norah steps into her cottage for the first time,writer John Bowen makes the dialogue impressively frank,in a manner which is still sharp and has not been worn down over the ensuring decades.

Having Norah, (played by a terrificly firm Anna Cropper) feature in almost every scene of the play,Bowen cleverly has the character break every taboo imaginable,from smoking whilst pregnant, (shown in a smartly matter of fact way by director James MacTaggart) to destroying any remaining that "Intamate" relationships shown on TV have to involve love,and cant feature a character who just wants to sleep with someone,and never see them again.

Surprisingly being ahead of some of the themes which Anthony Shaffer's screenplay of The Wicker Man would look at a few years later,Bowen expertly has the brilliant "Folk Horror" of the play always bubbling away underneath,until the end when he smoothly pushes it right to centre stage,as Norah begins to fear for her life over how strange and sinister the towns folk are,whilst also realising,that she has in fact not entered any village,but has in fact horrifyingly entered "their" village.

Seeking a new start in life after breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, Norah Palmer, a thirty-something Londoner, moves to a village in a remote part of the countryside. She makes the acquaintance of a good-looking young man who works as a pest controller when she hires him to clear out an infestation of mice at her house. Norah is attracted to the man, whose real name is Edgar, although everybody calls him "Rob", and the two have a brief affair, after which Norah finds herself pregnant. This development marks a change in the way she is seen by the villagers; at first they had seemed friendly, but now Norah begins to believe that she is the victim of a conspiracy to cut her off from the outside world, as her car is vandalised and her telephone line cut.

Like some other early episodes of "Play for Today", such as "The Long-Distance Piano Player", "Robin Redbreast" was originally broadcast in colour but only survives today in a black-and-white version. (Some other early episodes appear to have been lost altogether). I never saw the colour version- I was only a child in 1970, and in any case my family did not have a colour television at that date- but monochrome certainly suits the bleak and mysterious nature of John Bowen's story.

"Robin Redbreast" has a similar theme to the feature film "The Wicker Man" from three years later. Both are examples of what has become known as "folk horror", dealing with pagan rural customs, up to and including human sacrifice, in modern British society. Both feature an outsider who comes into an isolated community where such customs have survived. In both cases there is a shocking surprise ending. The two films, however, deal with their subject-matter in different ways. In "The Wicker Man" the people of Summerisle (a fictitious Hebridean island) are quite open about their pagan beliefs. In "Robin Redbreast" the villagers are at pains to conceal them from Norah and from the outside world- her housekeeper Mrs. Vigo, for example, poses as a church-going Christian- and the full truth only becomes apparent towards the end.

"The Wicker Man" has become something of a cult movie, whereas "Robin Redbreast" is largely forgotten. Yet in my opinion it is considerably better than "The Wicker Man", which asks some interesting questions but suffers from some dodgy acting, especially from Britt Ekland, who wanders through the film as though she does not know what she is doing in it. That film has also suffered from some injudicious editing (apparently without the approval of the director) and seems to exist in numerous versions; I have seen two of them, neither of which flowed easily.

The acting in "Robin Redbreast", however, is far better. I was particularly impressed by Bernard Hepton as the mysterious Mr. Fisher, a local historian and neighbour of Norah's who is our main source (albeit a somewhat cryptic one) of knowledge, about local folklore and the beliefs of the pagan cult. There were also good contributions from Anna Cropper as Norah and Freda Bamford as Mrs Vigo, the sort of servant who seems to be more in control of her mistress than vice versa. The story moves slowly at first but gathers speed as it moves inexorably towards its climax, just as shocking as the one in "The Wicker Man", even if there is less explicit violence shown on screen. (In the early seventies British television could be stricter about such things than the cinema). Like many of the early Plays for Today, this one deserves to be better known. 8/10.