Armchair Theatre: The Dolly Scene (ITV 1970, Sinead Cusack, Roy Marsden)

Drama The Dolly Scene focuses on unlucky in love Anna who seems to have a hard time finding her perfect man, her lovers are either married or her boss! Maybe the young man she meets in a coffee bar will be different.

Any John (Talking To A Stranger) Hopkins drama is going to be worth watching, this drama, for Armchair Theatre, gained a reasonable amount of press thanks to a role for the then popular DJ Stuart Henry who had started out as a drama student at Glasgow Drama College.

At the time Sinead Cusack was something of a rising star having appeared as the female lead in Peter Seller’s somewhat disturbing film Hoffman, talking to the TV Times Cusack described her character in The Dolly Scene as “tough little girl. She’s very different to the frightened little virgin I play in Hoffman. But they are both vulnerable in their different ways.”

production details
UK | ITV – Thames

RUNNING TIME:60 minute episode | NUMBER OF EPISODES: 1 | AIRDATE: Tuesday 3 November 1970 @ 9.00pm

WRITER: John Hopkins | EDITOR: John Kershaw | PRODUCTION DESIGN: Roger Allan | EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Lloyd Shirley | DIRECTOR: Peter Duguid

Series: Armchair Theatre / Season 13 Episode 14

cast
SINEAD CUSACK as Anna
BASIL HENSON as Hunter
STUART HENRY as The Young Man
ROY MARSDEN as Gerry
JOHN ABINERI as Chemist’s Assistant
JOHN GORRIE as Man in Chemists
SHARON GURNEY as Marian
MICHAEL PENNINGTON as Tom
VENETIA MAZWELL as Penny
LEE DONALD, RENATE ROMAN, STEVEN SUTHERLAND as Party Guests

Head of film reviews at The Viewers Guide with an erudite, insightful, slightly sardonic, deep appreciation for classic cinema. Has a habit of quoting obscure lines from old films in everyday conversation. He keeps a meticulously organized film logbook. He's a bit of a tea snob.