www.univ-tours.fr(Cathy Come Home)
Jeremy Sandford on his 'Cathy Come Home' (1).

If any writer ever hoped that an idea of his would be accepted by the public as valid and taken to their hearts, then he would have hoped for the reaction that has followed my 'Cathy Come Home'.

If any writer ever hoped that what he wrote would be embodied in flesh and blood with power, accuracy, beauty, then he would have hoped for a director like Ken Loach, and a performance such as Carol White's.

And if ever a writer hoped that, in however small a way, what he wrote would result in changes in the manner that his country was run, then that writer would be me. Because there has been changes, small but more the less important, which, it might not be too much to believe, were the result of 'Cathy'.

I wrote 'Cathy' in bitterness and anger because I had seen happening to a girl, a neighbour of mine, and her children, the things that happened to Cathy. Later I learned that this sort of thing was happening not only to her - but to thousands of others, and this increased my sorrow and my anger.

I wrote it late in 1963 and for three years I could find no organization prepared to put it on. Then 'Cathy' was bought by Tony Garnett for the BBC and there were hundreds of letters at the time of that first showing, thanking me that at last the truth had been told about one area of life as it really is in Britain.

The facts of 'Cathy' have often been questioned but, I claim, cannot be faulted. There are true. Some of the things shown in the film happen more rarely than others. The taking of children from their parents, as shown at the end of the film, doesn't often happen by force, but it does happen sometimes that parents fight for their children. With 5,000 children in care for no other reason than that their parents can find no home for them, it would be surprising if it didn't.

And I might note here that since 'Cathy' the number of these children has increased by one whole thousand from the figure of 4,000 given in the film.

Many of the other conditions shown in 'Cathy' are still all too painfully with us. The desolate squalor of many caravan sites, the housing lists that run into thousands, the millions of people living in slum conditions, the over-crowding - there has been little improvement here.

Numbers in hostels for the homeless have risen from 12,500 at the time of the film to 15,000 now.

The eviction, the fire, life in the slum, all these scenes in 'Cathy' were modelled on life.

So, too, were those scenes in which Cathy is trying to sleep out with her family in ruined building, in a tent, anything rather than having to face the humiliation of going into public care.

It has been said that all the things that happened to Cathy could not have happened to one person.

This is false. The odysseys of those who end up in Britain's Homes for the Homeless are often far more complicated than those undertaken by Cathy.

I know because I have spoken with many of them. Since 'Cathy' Shelter has been formed, a national campaign to keep alive that compassion and responsible concern for the victims of Britain's housing situation which 'Cathy' may have helped to arouse. And we are building more houses. But, I would say, still not fast enough. Officials may not, I would say, always get the most accurate picture since they see members of Britain's homeless in a tense atmosphere, across a desk.

But to talk with Britain's real-life Cathys, as I have done, face to face and heart to heart - might end not in an official document but in a play like 'Cathy'.

1. SANDFORD Jeremy, Cathy? To Britain's Shame, there are still too many like her. Jeremy Sandford writes about his much-discussed 'Cathy Come Home' which is being given another showing as The Wednesday Play (BBC 1, Wed, 13/11/68). The Radio Times. p. 45, 7th November 1968.

Text Commentary prepared by MARCHAIS (Dyall) Deena and HOUDINET Stéphanie Univerité François Rabelais, Tours.

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