The Foxtrot
| The Foxtrot | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Rhys Adrian |
| Directed by | Philip Saville |
| Starring |
Michael Bates Thora Hird Donald Pleasence John Collin Diana King |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Irene Shubik |
| Running time | 70 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 29 April 1971 |
The Foxtrot is a television play by Rhys Adrian, first broadcast on BBC One in 1971 as part of the Play for Today strand. It is notable as an early example of the series' departure from socially aware, issue-based drama towards comedy and non-naturalism.
The play is a domestic drama concerning two couples nearing retirement age: Arthur and Gwen, and their friends Harry and Maisie. Gwen, however, is a little too close to Tom — a mutual friend who has recently returned after a long absence. The apparent intimacy between the two has not gone unnoticed; Maisie speculates to Harry that Gwen and Arthur's son, now living in America, seems to bear more of a likeness to Tom than his presumed father. Harry, meanwhile, is more preoccupied with his now sexless marriage and the ever encroaching sound of the new motorway outside their house.
Despite Maisie's concerns about the state of their marriage, Gwen and Arthur appear close to Tom – Arthur regularly meeting him at the local pub, and Tom visiting them at home. One afternoon, while Arthur is at work, Tom invites himself round, foxtrots with Gwen, and reveals that he has always loved her. Gwen questions the sincerity of this declaration because he moved away and left her with Arthur, but does not dismiss his obvious passion for her. Shortly afterwards, Gwen's father dies. At the memorial service, Arthur and Tom sit upfront with Gwen and, to Maisie's amazement, both men console her by placing a hand on her shoulder.
After the funeral, Arthur confronts Tom about his son's legitimacy, contesting his paternity by producing a photograph that shows Tom has more in common with his child than he does. Tom, on the other hand, asserts that Arthur is the natural father, and also presents a photograph to support his claim. In the last scene, Tom is invited back to Arthur and Gwen's and we discover that Tom is Gwen's real husband, and that he left her upon discovering she was having an affair with Arthur. Gwen pleads for Tom and Arthur to put their differences aside and for the former to move in with them. As the end credits roll, the three of them blissfully watch television together, their hands interlinked.
The action of The Foxtrot is broken up into several distinct sections, each one allocated an appropriate intertitle. While many of these captions simply describe the scene taking place — "At the pub", "After the funeral", and so on — there are also instances where Adrian uses the intertitles to explicitly reference the tone and undercurrent of particular sequences. During the opening scene, Arthur is asked by a canvasser about his attitude towards the permissive society, at which point a caption appears on screen that reads "Gwen hasn't told Arthur about Tom"; that night, as Arthur and Gwen are talking in bed, a caption introduces the scene as "A tender moment"; towards the end of the play, during one of Tom's many visits to the house, a title announces this as "The Tom, Gwen and Arthur Show".
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