"Play for Today" Penda's Fen (TV Episode 1974)

Penda’s Fen: Directed by Alan Clarke. With Spencer Banks, John Atkinson, Georgine Anderson, Ron Smerczak. Through a series of real and imagined encounters with angels, demons, and England’s pagan past, a pastor’s son begins to question his religion and politics, and comes to terms with his sexuality.

“Alan Clarke was better known as a social realist director with films such as Scum or The Firm. He was an unlikely choice to direct Pendau0026#39;s Fen by writer David Rudkin, a type of film that could happily be made by someone like Terrence Malick.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film is about Spencer Franklin, a vicaru0026#39;s son, studying at sixth form and about to turn 18 year of age. He is going through a rites of passage that involves a spiritual and sexual awakening particularly his latent homosexuality bubbling underneath.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is this sexual confusion plus the arrival of a socialist writer in this quiet Worcestershire village leads Stephen to moral confusion and he starts to lose his grip on reality. He dreams of a demon sitting on his bed, he meets composer Edward Elgar, he finds out that he is adopted and finally meets King Penda, the last pagan king of England.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePendau0026#39;s Fen was shown for the Play for Today strand on BBC television. It has now been cleaned up for a Blu-Ray release. The films use of visuals and use of classical music gives it a haunting quality but the script and the way it is delivered by the actors was rather flat.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere is no doubt that this is an ambitious and avantgarde work but I felt that the reputation it has acquired is overstated.”