[Sydney] Newman and [James] MacTaggart saw no problem with running a new wave of Paddy Chayefskyan problem plays out of the electronic studio, but [T… - Ken Loach

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[Sydney] Newman and [James] MacTaggart saw no problem with running a new wave of Paddy Chayefskyan problem plays out of the electronic studio, but [Tony] Garnett and Ken Loach were soon rejecting this whole classical notion of "the play"’. They had seen the future of television drama, and it was A bout de souffle mated with World in Action. While MacTaggart was away, they booked up as much off-base filming as they could for a television version of Nell Dunn's book, Up the Junction, a mouthy compendium of South London lower-class lore.
"At that time, you were allowed about four days filming |with cumbersome 35mm equipment] just to show a car pulling up or driving away," says Loach. "So we used those four days to whizz round and shoot half the script with a hand-held 16mm camera - about 35 to 40 minutes of screen time." The remaining studio scenes were dubbed from tape on to film so that the whole thing could be collaged together in the cutting room, with Loach deploying all manner of neo-Godardian time leaps and wild-track effects.