Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Encyclopedia
Follow the Yellow Brick Road is a television play
by Dennis Potter
, first broadcast in 1972 as part of BBC Two
's The Sextet series of eight plays featuring the same six actors. The play is notable for its central theme of popular culture
becoming the inheritor of religious scripture, which anticipated Potter's later serial Pennies from Heaven (1978). The play's title, and much of the incidental music, is taken from the soundtrack to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz
.
psychiatrist, Jack explains that although he has recently only been able to find work in television commercials he much prefers them to television plays, which he considers morally corrupting. He goes on to reveal that his sexual disgust drove his wife Judy into having an affair with his agent Colin and that he has lost his faith. Leaving the psychiatrist's office he encounters his wife, who persuades him to go somewhere where they can talk. They head to Barnes Common where Jack becomes violent and, convinced the camera is on him again, decides to disrupt the narrative by running Judy over with her car. In an attempt to restore some 'goodness' into the plot he goes to Colin's flat to see his young wife Veronica, who mistakes his declarations of love as a sexual advance and invites him to seduce her. The play then cuts back to the psychiatrist's office where trainee Doctor Bilson prescribes Jack with some antidepressant
s to alleviate his paranoia. The last shot is of Jack leaving the hospital and climbing into a car with his wife Judy — and the whole play is revealed to be an advertisement for antidepressants.
("Krispy Krunch") and dog food
("Waggytail Din-Din"): all of which feature Denholm Elliot's character Jack Black, and justify his claim to the psychiatrist that the adverts present an idealistic and "pure" world view. As Jack's mental health deteriorates throughout the course of the play, the voiceovers and dialogue featured in these commercials start to form an ironic commentary into his condition. The Krispy Krunch commercial, which originally sees Jack going to the kitchen for a midnight snack, transforms into a recollection of how he stumbled upon his wife in bed with his agent, while extracts from the Waggytail Din-Din advert are intercut with Veronica's misunderstanding of Jack's intention as she invites him to seduce her ("Dogs can't live without it!"). The play's final turning in on itself as one long commercial for antidepressants sees Jack dressed in a medic's white coat in a film studio, quoting the "Epistle of St Paul to the Philippians
". Potter uses these commercials as a wider metaphor for popular culture becoming an inheritor of scripture; this is a device he explores in several plays, all of which take an essentially religious structure (see below).
A major theme of the play is the exploration of individual choice in the face of a seemingly omniscient narrator. Jack appears to be aware of his role as a character within the confines of a television play and comments accordingly on the drama as it progresses. In the opening scene, as he waits for his appointment with the psychiatrist, Jack comments on the "shoddy" set design and the play's apparent lack of pace ("Not much bloody action, is there? [...] People will switch over or switch off"); when an elderly patient tries to make polite conversation with him, he chastises her for the banality of her dialogue ("You don't get many interesting lines, do you?") before acknowledging this is "not [her] fault" and that she has "only got a small part". Jack's paranoia about his predicament is intensified by his awareness of the camera, which he frequently addresses, either to demand that it stops following him, or to ridicule the audience ("I can picture them now [...] Munching away on their telly snacks
, the corrupt zombies"). Jack abdicates responsibility for his actions in the early part of the play by surrendering himself to its anonymous, malevolent author —when he beats his wife Judy during their walk on Barnes Common he immediately apologises by saying that is what the script demanded him to do— but when he attempts to take over the narrative in the latter part of the drama only then does he begin to realise exactly how powerless he has become until he receives medical intervention.
(1976) and Karaoke (1996), both of which feature an author who becomes convinced that their latest works are being played out in front of them and they have been relegated to players in their own drama. The former uses a fictional advert for a chocolate bar, filmed as a pastiche of the 1970s Cadbury's Flake commercials, as a means of demonstrating how far an actress will go in pursuit of her profession, while the latter uses a karaoke
club as a metaphor for how human yearning becomes a commodity.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road was also a major influence on Pennies from Heaven (1978), Potter's first "serial with songs" which uses the popular music of the 1930s as latter-day Psalms
that function to provide the characters in that drama with glimpses of a better, 'purer' world.
A minor reference to one of Potter's earlier plays is made during Jack's first meeting with the psychiatrist. As he discusses the corrupting influence of television drama, Jack refers to how "they make Jesus Christ into a drooling imbecile": Potter himself had been accused of doing just that with his 1969 play Son of Man
, which drew threats of litigation from Mary Whitehouse
.
' Under Milk Wood
(1954); in Thomas' poem, Black finds the sexual habits of the young couples in the eponymous Welsh town disgusting and dreams of frightening them.
The references to The Wizard of Oz (both the film
and the original book
) underline the central theme of both Potter's play and Frank Baum
's Oz stories, which are often viewed as commercial satires.
) and 2005 (BBC Four
) as part of Dennis Potter seasons.
Television play
From the 1950s until the early 1980s, the television play was a popular television programming genre in the United Kingdom, with a shorter span in the United States. The genre was often associated with the social realist-influenced British drama style known as "kitchen sink realism", which depicted...
by Dennis Potter
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...
, first broadcast in 1972 as part of BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
's The Sextet series of eight plays featuring the same six actors. The play is notable for its central theme of popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
becoming the inheritor of religious scripture, which anticipated Potter's later serial Pennies from Heaven (1978). The play's title, and much of the incidental music, is taken from the soundtrack to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
.
Synopsis
Jack Black is a disturbed actor who believes himself to be trapped in a television play, followed around by an invisible camera. Having sought the help of an NHSNational Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
psychiatrist, Jack explains that although he has recently only been able to find work in television commercials he much prefers them to television plays, which he considers morally corrupting. He goes on to reveal that his sexual disgust drove his wife Judy into having an affair with his agent Colin and that he has lost his faith. Leaving the psychiatrist's office he encounters his wife, who persuades him to go somewhere where they can talk. They head to Barnes Common where Jack becomes violent and, convinced the camera is on him again, decides to disrupt the narrative by running Judy over with her car. In an attempt to restore some 'goodness' into the plot he goes to Colin's flat to see his young wife Veronica, who mistakes his declarations of love as a sexual advance and invites him to seduce her. The play then cuts back to the psychiatrist's office where trainee Doctor Bilson prescribes Jack with some antidepressant
Antidepressant
An antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used to alleviate mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia and anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder. According to Gelder, Mayou &*Geddes people with a depressive illness will experience a therapeutic effect to their mood;...
s to alleviate his paranoia. The last shot is of Jack leaving the hospital and climbing into a car with his wife Judy — and the whole play is revealed to be an advertisement for antidepressants.
Principal cast
- Denholm Elliot as Jack Black
- Billie WhitelawBillie WhitelawBillie Honor Whitelaw, CBE is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works...
as Judy Black - Richard VernonRichard VernonRichard Vernon was a British actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles...
as Doctor Whitman - Bernard HeptonBernard HeptonBernard Hepton is a British actor of stage, film and television.Hepton is known as a particularly versatile character actor. He trained at Bradford Civic Theatre school under Esme Church along with actors such as Robert Stephens...
as Colin Sands - Dennis WatermanDennis WatermanDennis 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:...
as Doctor Bilson - Michele DotriceMichele DotriceMichele Dotrice is an English actress best known for her portrayal of Betty, the long-suffering wife of Frank Spencer, played by Michael Crawford, in the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, which ran from 1973 to 1978....
as Veronica Sands
Structure and themes
The action of the play is broken up by a series of mock television commercials for breakfast cerealBreakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
("Krispy Krunch") and dog food
Dog food
Dog food refers to food specifically intended for consumption by dogs. Though technically omnivorous, dogs exhibit a natural carnivorous bias, have sharp, pointy teeth, and have short gastrointestinal tracts better suited for the consumption of meat...
("Waggytail Din-Din"): all of which feature Denholm Elliot's character Jack Black, and justify his claim to the psychiatrist that the adverts present an idealistic and "pure" world view. As Jack's mental health deteriorates throughout the course of the play, the voiceovers and dialogue featured in these commercials start to form an ironic commentary into his condition. The Krispy Krunch commercial, which originally sees Jack going to the kitchen for a midnight snack, transforms into a recollection of how he stumbled upon his wife in bed with his agent, while extracts from the Waggytail Din-Din advert are intercut with Veronica's misunderstanding of Jack's intention as she invites him to seduce her ("Dogs can't live without it!"). The play's final turning in on itself as one long commercial for antidepressants sees Jack dressed in a medic's white coat in a film studio, quoting the "Epistle of St Paul to the Philippians
Epistle to the Philippians
The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, usually referred to simply as Philippians, is the eleventh book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was written by St. Paul to the church of Philippi, an early center of Christianity in Greece around 62 A.D. Other scholars argue for an...
". Potter uses these commercials as a wider metaphor for popular culture becoming an inheritor of scripture; this is a device he explores in several plays, all of which take an essentially religious structure (see below).
A major theme of the play is the exploration of individual choice in the face of a seemingly omniscient narrator. Jack appears to be aware of his role as a character within the confines of a television play and comments accordingly on the drama as it progresses. In the opening scene, as he waits for his appointment with the psychiatrist, Jack comments on the "shoddy" set design and the play's apparent lack of pace ("Not much bloody action, is there? [...] People will switch over or switch off"); when an elderly patient tries to make polite conversation with him, he chastises her for the banality of her dialogue ("You don't get many interesting lines, do you?") before acknowledging this is "not [her] fault" and that she has "only got a small part". Jack's paranoia about his predicament is intensified by his awareness of the camera, which he frequently addresses, either to demand that it stops following him, or to ridicule the audience ("I can picture them now [...] Munching away on their telly snacks
TV dinner
A TV dinner is a prepackaged frozen or chilled meal that usually comes as an individual portion...
, the corrupt zombies"). Jack abdicates responsibility for his actions in the early part of the play by surrendering himself to its anonymous, malevolent author —when he beats his wife Judy during their walk on Barnes Common he immediately apologises by saying that is what the script demanded him to do— but when he attempts to take over the narrative in the latter part of the drama only then does he begin to realise exactly how powerless he has become until he receives medical intervention.
Other Potter works
Potter incorporated several scenes from Follow the Yellow Brick Road into his first novel Hide and Seek (1973), which also features a central protagonist (in this case 'Daniel Miller') who becomes aware of himself as a character in a novel and seeks to liberate himself from the hands of the author. This theme is also returned to in Double DareDouble Dare (play)
Double Dare is a television play by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on BBC1 on 6 April 1976 as part of the Play for Today series. The play explores the link between author and viewer, one of Potter's major themes, and is referenced several times in his later work...
(1976) and Karaoke (1996), both of which feature an author who becomes convinced that their latest works are being played out in front of them and they have been relegated to players in their own drama. The former uses a fictional advert for a chocolate bar, filmed as a pastiche of the 1970s Cadbury's Flake commercials, as a means of demonstrating how far an actress will go in pursuit of her profession, while the latter uses a karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
club as a metaphor for how human yearning becomes a commodity.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road was also a major influence on Pennies from Heaven (1978), Potter's first "serial with songs" which uses the popular music of the 1930s as latter-day Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
that function to provide the characters in that drama with glimpses of a better, 'purer' world.
A minor reference to one of Potter's earlier plays is made during Jack's first meeting with the psychiatrist. As he discusses the corrupting influence of television drama, Jack refers to how "they make Jesus Christ into a drooling imbecile": Potter himself had been accused of doing just that with his 1969 play Son of Man
Son of Man (play)
Son of Man is a television play by British playwright Dennis Potter which was directed by Gareth Davies. It premiered in The Wednesday Play slot on 19 April 1969 starring Irish actor Colin Blakely and was an alternative depiction of the last days of Jesus, leading to Potter being accused of...
, which drew threats of litigation from Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
.
Cultural references
As a means of underlining Jack's distaste for sex, Potter borrows his character's name from the cobbler in Dylan ThomasDylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
' Under Milk Wood
Under Milk Wood
Under Milk Wood is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, adapted later as a stage play. A movie version, Under Milk Wood directed by Andrew Sinclair, was released during 1972....
(1954); in Thomas' poem, Black finds the sexual habits of the young couples in the eponymous Welsh town disgusting and dreams of frightening them.
The references to The Wizard of Oz (both the film
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
and the original book
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
) underline the central theme of both Potter's play and Frank Baum
Frank Baum
Frank Baum may refer to:* L. Frank Baum , American author of children's books, notably The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* Frank Joslyn Baum , American lawyer, soldier, writer, and film producer; son of the author L. Frank Baum...
's Oz stories, which are often viewed as commercial satires.
Broadcast and reception
The play was first broadcast on BBC 2 on 4 July 1972 and received generally positive reviews. It received repeat broadcasts in 1987 (on BBC2BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
) and 2005 (BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
) as part of Dennis Potter seasons.
See also
- Double DareDouble Dare (play)Double Dare is a television play by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on BBC1 on 6 April 1976 as part of the Play for Today series. The play explores the link between author and viewer, one of Potter's major themes, and is referenced several times in his later work...
- Pennies from Heaven
- Karaoke
Sources
- Humphrey Carpenter, Dennis Potter: A Biography; 1998
- Graham Fuller (Ed.), Potter on Potter; 1993
- W.S. Gilbert, Fight and Kick and Bite: The Life and Work of Dennis Potter; 1995
- Nigel Williams (Ed.), ArenaArena (TV series)Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. It has run since 1 October 1975, and over five hundred episodes have been made. Arena covers all manner of subjects, from profiles of notable people such as Bob Dylan to the Ford Cortina car...
: Painting the Clouds; 2005