Blade on the Feather
Encyclopedia
Blade on the Feather is a television drama by Dennis Potter
, broadcast by ITV
on 19 October 1980 as the first in a loosely-connected trilogy of plays exploring language and betrayal. A pastiche
of the John Le Carré
spy thriller and transmitted eleven months after Anthony Blunt
was exposed as the 'fourth man', the drama combines two of Potter's major themes: the visitation motif and political disillusionment. The play's title is taken from "The Eton Boating Song".
Daniel seduces Christabel and, unknown to the others, murders Linda. As an anxious Hill forces him to leave, the young man reveals his true name is Daniel Cartwright and that his father Andrew was a British intelligence officer who was murdered by Cavendish while escorting a Soviet
defector to the British embassy. Cavendish leads Daniel to a summer house at the bottom of the garden where the author reveals he has been writing his memoirs, implicating himself and Mr Hill, as well as several high profile MPs, as Soviet sympathizers. Daniel convinces Cavendish to surrender the papers and shoot himself; the old man obliges, having grown weary of the enforced secrecy of his final years.
Having discovered Linda's body, Hill arrives at the summer house to execute Daniel. The young man reveals that he has been sent by the KGB
at Hill's request to prevent Cavendish blowing their cover, and that Linda was a sleeper agent
for MI6. Daniel leaves Hill to clean up the mess and leaves. The remorseful Hill approaches the summer house to attend his beloved friend's body.
's own production company Pennies From Heaven Ltd., but problems with funding led to the drama being relaunched at London Weekend Television
as the first of nine single plays: all produced by PFH Ltd. and commissioned by Michael Grade
for broadcast on ITV between 1980 and 1981. Six of the plays were to be written by Potter, while the remaining three were to be shared between Jim Allen
and an undisclosed writer. In the event, budget cuts and scheduling problems meant that only three plays were produced: Blade on the Feather, Rain on the Roof
and Cream in My Coffee
. All three dramas were shot on 16mm film stock and featured extensive location work.
In Potter on Potter, the author told Graham Fuller that although Cavendish is more closely based on Kim Philby
than any of the other Cambridge Spies
he is not intended to be a fictional version of that figure. Philby is mentioned several times throughout the play, as are Burgess
and Maclean
: all of whom in the drama were apparently recruited by Cavendish. Nevertheless, Cavendish and Hill are an amalgamation of the three spies; despite the old man's denigration of the trio as 'drunks, queers and lefties,' Cavendish and Hill are both represented as heavy drinkers, Hill's faith in Sovietism is said to be bordering on fanaticism by the disillusioned Cavendish and the friendship between the two men is presented with a distinctly homoerotic
undertone (most notably in their joint recitation of "The Eton Boating Song").
Director Richard Loncraine
claimed he heavily rewrote several scenes in Potter's original script because they were unusable.
enclosure at London Zoo
; Daniel drops a book he is carrying into the water, whereupon it is fished out by a zoo keeper and revealed to be Cloud Cape. Daniel later states to Mr Hill that he bears no malice towards Cavendish for his father's murder as their infrequent trips to the zoo are all he remembers about him. What the audience presumes to be a fond memory therefore becomes an unreliable
one and ties in to one of Potter's major themes of memory as a malleable source.
The visitation motif that Potter explored in several of his other works (see below) is an important narrative thread in Blade on the Feather. In the play, Daniel is named after his biblical counterpart
('a Daniel come to sit in judgement') and in his role as disruptive outsider ultimately restores peace to the troubled household.
The central theme of Blade on the Feather is betrayal—both political and personal—and throughout the course of the play each character betrays the other. Cavendish betrays Hill by writing his memoirs, while Hill betrays Cavendish by calling in Daniel to execute his old friend; Linda betrays Cavendish in her role as a sleeper agent brought into the household to spy on her husband, while Christabel betrays her father by sleeping with the visitor. Daniel's role as KGB assassin means that instead of seeking vengeance for his father's death he is ultimately protecting Cavendish's cover, therefore betraying his father.
Political disillusionment is another key theme; the consequences of an individual's cynicism towards an established social order leading them to more prescriptive ideologies. Cavendish reveals to Daniel that he was drawn to the communist fervor at Cambridge in the 1930s as a means of escaping the rigidities of his traditional upper-class English background, only to find himself tarnished by his association with Sovietism. When Christabel attempts to reassure him that their way of life is safe following Thatcher's
victory at the general election, Cavendish tells her:
Denholm Elliott won the BAFTA Best Actor award in 1981 for his performance. The play also won for its graphics (Pat Gavin) and was nominated in four other categories.
(1971), Gorky Park
(1983), The Singing Detective
(1986) and Cold Lazarus
(1996).
The visitation motif plays a central role in The Confidence Course (1965), Shaggy Dog
(1968), Angels Are So Few (1970), Joe's Ark (1974), Schmoedipus (1975), Brimstone and Treacle
(1976), Rain on the Roof
(1980), Track 29
(1987) and Secret Friends
(1992).
Daniel's anecdote about the Pakistani
waiter sweeping up in a fast food restaurant and the outraged response this provokes from a disgruntled diner is taken from Joe's Ark, in which Dennis Waterman
's character reacts in the same way after receiving news of his sister's terminal illness.
.
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
, broadcast by ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
on 19 October 1980 as the first in a loosely-connected trilogy of plays exploring language and betrayal. A pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
of the John Le Carré
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
spy thriller and transmitted eleven months after Anthony Blunt
Anthony Blunt
Anthony Frederick Blunt , was a British art historian who was exposed as a Soviet spy late in his life.Blunt was Professor of the History of Art at the University of London, director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Surveyor of the King's Pictures and London...
was exposed as the 'fourth man', the drama combines two of Potter's major themes: the visitation motif and political disillusionment. The play's title is taken from "The Eton Boating Song".
Synopsis
Professor Jason Cavendish is the septuagenarian author of Cloud Cape, a children's fantasy novel. He lives in a secluded cliff-top mansion with his second wife Linda, his 18 year old daughter Christabel and Mr Hill, his butler and personal secretary. They are visited one day by Daniel Young, who claims to be writing a thesis on political allegory in children's literature. After saving Cavendish's life when the old man has a seizure, Daniel is invited to stay by Linda and Christabel who fight for his affections. Mr Hill, meanwhile, is suspicious of Daniel's motives and concerned by Cavendish's reluctance to show him what he is writing.Daniel seduces Christabel and, unknown to the others, murders Linda. As an anxious Hill forces him to leave, the young man reveals his true name is Daniel Cartwright and that his father Andrew was a British intelligence officer who was murdered by Cavendish while escorting a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
defector to the British embassy. Cavendish leads Daniel to a summer house at the bottom of the garden where the author reveals he has been writing his memoirs, implicating himself and Mr Hill, as well as several high profile MPs, as Soviet sympathizers. Daniel convinces Cavendish to surrender the papers and shoot himself; the old man obliges, having grown weary of the enforced secrecy of his final years.
Having discovered Linda's body, Hill arrives at the summer house to execute Daniel. The young man reveals that he has been sent by the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
at Hill's request to prevent Cavendish blowing their cover, and that Linda was a sleeper agent
Sleeper agent
A sleeper agent is a spy who is placed in a target country or organization, not to undertake an immediate mission, but rather to act as a potential asset if activated...
for MI6. Daniel leaves Hill to clean up the mess and leaves. The remorseful Hill approaches the summer house to attend his beloved friend's body.
Principal cast
- Tom ContiTom ContiThomas "Tom" Conti is a Scottish actor, theatre director and novelist.-Early life:Born Thomas Conti in Paisley, Renfrewshire, he was brought up Roman Catholic, but he considers himself anti-religious...
as Daniel Young - Donald Pleasance as Jason Cavendish
- Denholm Elliot as Mr Hill
- Kika MarkhamKika MarkhamKika Markham is an English actress.Markham was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire. She is a daughter of actor David Markham and writer Olive Dehn . She has led a long career in the cinema, television, and theatre as an actress...
as Linda - Phoebe NichollsPhoebe NichollsPhoebe Nicholls is an English film, television, and stage actor. She is known for her roles as Cordelia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited and as the mother of John Merrick in The Elephant Man....
as Christabel - Gareth Forwood as Doctor Bell
- Alvar LidellAlvar LidellTord Alvar Quan Lidell was a BBC radio announcer and newsreader.Lidell was born in Wimbledon Park, Surrey, to Swedish parents. His father John Adrian Lidell was a timber importer; his mother was Gertrud Lidell . Lidell attended King's College School, Wimbledon and Exeter College, Oxford...
as newsreader
Production
Blade on the Feather was originally conceived as a feature film to be produced by Potter and Kenith TroddKenith Trodd
Kenith Trodd is a British television producer particularly noted for a long association with television playwright Dennis Potter.The son of a crane driver, Trodd was raised in the Christian fundamentalist Plymouth Brethren...
's own production company Pennies From Heaven Ltd., but problems with funding led to the drama being relaunched at London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
as the first of nine single plays: all produced by PFH Ltd. and commissioned by Michael Grade
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...
for broadcast on ITV between 1980 and 1981. Six of the plays were to be written by Potter, while the remaining three were to be shared between Jim Allen
Jim Allen (playwright)
James "Jim" Allen was a socialist playwright from England, best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach.- Early life :...
and an undisclosed writer. In the event, budget cuts and scheduling problems meant that only three plays were produced: Blade on the Feather, Rain on the Roof
Rain on the Roof
Rain on the Roof is a television drama by Dennis Potter, broadcast by ITV on 26 October 1980.It is the second in a loosely-connected trilogy of plays exploring language and betrayal produced for London Weekend Television by the independent company Potter and producer Kenith Trodd established after...
and Cream in My Coffee
Cream in My Coffee
Cream in My Coffee is a television drama by Dennis Potter, broadcast on ITV on 2 November 1980 as the last in a loosely-connected trilogy of plays exploring language and betrayal. A juxtaposition between youth and old age, the play combines a non-linear narrative with the use of popular music to...
. All three dramas were shot on 16mm film stock and featured extensive location work.
In Potter on Potter, the author told Graham Fuller that although Cavendish is more closely based on Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
than any of the other Cambridge Spies
Cambridge Spies
Cambridge Spies is a 2003 four-part BBC television drama concerning the lives of the best-known quartet of the Cambridge Five Soviet spies from 1934 to the 1951 defection of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean to the Soviet Union...
he is not intended to be a fictional version of that figure. Philby is mentioned several times throughout the play, as are Burgess
Guy Burgess
Guy Francis De Moncy Burgess was a British-born intelligence officer and double agent, who worked for the Soviet Union. He was part of the Cambridge Five spy ring that betrayed Western secrets to the Soviets before and during the Cold War...
and Maclean
Donald Duart Maclean
Donald Duart Maclean was a British diplomat and member of the Cambridge Five who were members of MI5, MI6 or the diplomatic service who acted as spies for the Soviet Union in the Second World War and beyond. He was recruited as a "straight penetration agent" while an undergraduate at Cambridge by...
: all of whom in the drama were apparently recruited by Cavendish. Nevertheless, Cavendish and Hill are an amalgamation of the three spies; despite the old man's denigration of the trio as 'drunks, queers and lefties,' Cavendish and Hill are both represented as heavy drinkers, Hill's faith in Sovietism is said to be bordering on fanaticism by the disillusioned Cavendish and the friendship between the two men is presented with a distinctly homoerotic
Homoeroticism
Homoeroticism refers to the erotic attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female , most especially as it is depicted or manifested in the visual arts and literature. It can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements...
undertone (most notably in their joint recitation of "The Eton Boating Song").
Director Richard Loncraine
Richard Loncraine
Richard Loncraine is a British film and television director.Loncraine received early training in the features department of the BBC, including a season directing items for Tomorrow's World...
claimed he heavily rewrote several scenes in Potter's original script because they were unusable.
Structure and themes
The play contains none of the non-naturalistic flourishes that dominate much of Potter's work, however it does contain two flashback sequences that hint at Daniel's motives in coming to the house. The first of these flashbacks shows the murder of Daniel's father as he escorts the Soviet defector to the British Embassy, while the second features the young Daniel and his father by the polar bearPolar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
enclosure at London Zoo
London Zoo
London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. It was eventually opened to the public in 1847...
; Daniel drops a book he is carrying into the water, whereupon it is fished out by a zoo keeper and revealed to be Cloud Cape. Daniel later states to Mr Hill that he bears no malice towards Cavendish for his father's murder as their infrequent trips to the zoo are all he remembers about him. What the audience presumes to be a fond memory therefore becomes an unreliable
Unreliable narrator
An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually...
one and ties in to one of Potter's major themes of memory as a malleable source.
The visitation motif that Potter explored in several of his other works (see below) is an important narrative thread in Blade on the Feather. In the play, Daniel is named after his biblical counterpart
Daniel
Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
('a Daniel come to sit in judgement') and in his role as disruptive outsider ultimately restores peace to the troubled household.
The central theme of Blade on the Feather is betrayal—both political and personal—and throughout the course of the play each character betrays the other. Cavendish betrays Hill by writing his memoirs, while Hill betrays Cavendish by calling in Daniel to execute his old friend; Linda betrays Cavendish in her role as a sleeper agent brought into the household to spy on her husband, while Christabel betrays her father by sleeping with the visitor. Daniel's role as KGB assassin means that instead of seeking vengeance for his father's death he is ultimately protecting Cavendish's cover, therefore betraying his father.
Political disillusionment is another key theme; the consequences of an individual's cynicism towards an established social order leading them to more prescriptive ideologies. Cavendish reveals to Daniel that he was drawn to the communist fervor at Cambridge in the 1930s as a means of escaping the rigidities of his traditional upper-class English background, only to find himself tarnished by his association with Sovietism. When Christabel attempts to reassure him that their way of life is safe following Thatcher's
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
victory at the general election, Cavendish tells her:
There isn't any sort of England someone of my generation would think he had inherited [...] Take away the pudding and the baked jam roll and the custard and there isn't very much left.
Broadcast and reception
Blade on the Feather was broadcast on 1TV on 19 October 1980 and attracted favourable reviews.Denholm Elliott won the BAFTA Best Actor award in 1981 for his performance. The play also won for its graphics (Pat Gavin) and was nominated in four other categories.
Intertextuality
Potter explored political defection and its consequences in TraitorTraitor (TV drama)
Traitor is a BBC television drama written by Dennis Potter, which featured in the Play for Today on 14 October 1971.It features the prominent British comedy actor John Le Mesurier, in a straight acting role, as Adrian Harris, a character loosely based on Kim Philby, although he may also contain...
(1971), Gorky Park
Gorky Park (film)
Gorky Park is a 1983 film based on the novel Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith. It was directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by Dennis Potter ....
(1983), The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective is a BBC television miniseries written by Dennis Potter, which stars Michael Gambon, and was directed by Jon Amiel. The six episodes were "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It"....
(1986) and Cold Lazarus
Cold Lazarus
Cold Lazarus is a four-part British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying of cancer of the pancreas....
(1996).
The visitation motif plays a central role in The Confidence Course (1965), Shaggy Dog
Shaggy Dog (play)
Shaggy Dog, broadcast by ITV on 10 November 1968, is a black and white television play by Dennis Potter written for the London Weekend Television anthology series The Company of Five, specifically a group of five actors.-Synopsis:...
(1968), Angels Are So Few (1970), Joe's Ark (1974), Schmoedipus (1975), Brimstone and Treacle
Brimstone and Treacle
-Potter on Brimstone and Treacle:In 1978, Potter said:I had written Brimstone and Treacle in difficult personal circumstances. Years of acute psoriatic arthropathy—unpleasantly affecting skin and joints—had not only taken their toll in physical damage but had also, and perhaps inevitably, mediated...
(1976), Rain on the Roof
Rain on the Roof
Rain on the Roof is a television drama by Dennis Potter, broadcast by ITV on 26 October 1980.It is the second in a loosely-connected trilogy of plays exploring language and betrayal produced for London Weekend Television by the independent company Potter and producer Kenith Trodd established after...
(1980), Track 29
Track 29
Track 29 is a 1988 film directed by Nicolas Roeg. It was produced by George Harrison's HandMade Films with Rick McCallum. The film was nominated for and won a few awards at regional film festivals. The writer, Dennis Potter, adapted his own 1974 television play, Schmoedipus, changing the setting...
(1987) and Secret Friends
Secret Friends
Secret Friends is a 1991 British drama films directed by Dennis Potter and starring Alan Bates, Gina Bellman and Ian McNeice. It was based on the novel Ticket to Ride by Dennis Potter...
(1992).
Daniel's anecdote about the Pakistani
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
waiter sweeping up in a fast food restaurant and the outraged response this provokes from a disgruntled diner is taken from Joe's Ark, in which Dennis Waterman
Dennis Waterman
Dennis Waterman is a British actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.-Early life:...
's character reacts in the same way after receiving news of his sister's terminal illness.
Commercial releases
The film was released on VHS Tape in the United States under the title Deep Cover (Prism/Paramount) in 1990 and has been issued in Region 1 and 2 DVD along with other Potter works for LWTLondon Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
.
Sources
- Humphrey CarpenterHumphrey CarpenterHumphrey William Bouverie Carpenter was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster.-Biography:...
, Dennis Potter: A Biography; 1998 - Graham Fuller (Ed.), Potter on Potter; 1993
- W.Stephen Gilbert, Fight & Kick & Bite: The Life and Work of Dennis Potter; 1995