‘Borstal was all right. Kind of university for them that can’t afford Oxford…’
Prolific director Ken Loach has been at the heart of British cinema for sixty years, but he started in the world of television. The Wednesday Play was a BBC anthology series that tackled social issues of the time and give an opportunity for up-and-coming directors to showcase their talents. Loach contributed ten episodes to The Wednesday Play most notably Cathy Come Home and Up the Junction. Both were heavily criticised by the moral majority (including the infamous conservative activist Mary Whitehouse) for daring to depict life as it really is…
Three young factory workers, Sylvie (Carol White), Rube (Geraldine Sherman) and Eileen (Vickery Tuner), spend a fateful night with three local likely lads, Dave (Tony Selby), Terry (Michael Standing) and Ron (Ray Barron), leading to life-changing consequences for all of them.
Loach mixes documentary-style footage with contemporaneous needle drops all shot in stark black and white. Carol White, who would find further success working with Loach on both Cathy Come Home and Poor Cow, sparkles throughout, but it is Sherman as the hapless Rube that steals the show. Loach has always been great at bringing the best out of an inexperienced cast, and Up the Junction is no different.
More than anything, Up the Junction provides an invaluable and prescient snapshot into working-class life in London in the 1960s. Essential viewing.