Talking to a Stranger

<h2 id="episodes">Episodes</h2>
The four episodes were individually subtitled Anytime You're Ready I'll Sparkle, No Skill or Special Knowledge is Required, Gladly, My Cross-Eyed Bear and The Innocent Must Suffer. They were respectively the stories of the daughter, Terry; the father, Ted; the son, Alan and the mother, Sarah. Her viewpoint is recounted after her suicide. The role of the daughter Terry provided a major early role for <a href="/facts/Judi_Dench/pwwp87wN">Judi Dench</a> in one of her first starring roles on television. The other leads were played by <a href="/facts/Maurice_Denham/XM7LU5Gc">Maurice Denham</a>, <a href="/facts/Margery_Mason/II3xo50b">Margery Mason</a> and <a href="/facts/Michael_Bryant_(actor)/o1znFntx">Michael Bryant</a>.
According to Hopkins, he was seven months late delivering the scripts and, when he was commissioned by the BBC, all he had in his head was the final line of the final play: "Somebody hold me."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1">1</a>

<h2 id="reception-and-awards">Reception and awards</h2>
Frequently hailed by critics as one of the most important and affecting television dramas of the 1960s, in a 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the <a href="/facts/British_Film_Institute/AsbWhPE9">British Film Institute</a> to determine the <a href="/facts/100_Greatest_British_Television_Programmes/gN8yC226">100 Greatest British Television Programmes</a> of the 20th century, it was placed seventy-eighth.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a>
<a href="/facts/The_Observer/mY7AHeEp">The Observer</a> TV <a href="/facts/Critic/AofMVGna">critic</a> <a href="/facts/George_Melly/44vD1rqe">George Melly</a> called it "the first authentic masterpiece written directly for television"<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a> and claimed that "on the evidence of this work alone, the medium can be considered to have come of age."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a>
Dench won the 1967 <a href="/facts/British_Academy_Television_Award_for_Best_Actress/ExX04RMV">British Academy Television Award for Best Actress</a> for her performance.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a>

<h2 id="broadcast">Broadcast</h2>
Originally transmitted on <a href="/facts/BBC_Two/TErpjSD4">BBC2</a> as part of the <a href="/facts/Theatre_625/0SSUUPj3">Theatre 625</a> anthology strand, the four instalments were shown weekly from 2 to 23 October 1966.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a> The first three plays ran 96 minutes and the final play 102 minutes.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a>
It was repeated as part of BBC2's twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations in 1989, allegedly because writer <a href="/facts/Alan_Bleasdale/J4yfnkVg">Alan Bleasdale</a> refused to allow his 1982 drama <a href="/facts/Boys_from_the_Blackstuff/986PC6Dn">Boys from the Blackstuff</a> to be re-shown unless Talking to a Stranger also featured as part of the celebratory season. It was screened again by the BBC in 2003, this time on the digital channel <a href="/facts/BBC_Four/13z8yarT">BBC Four</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a>

<h2 id="international-adaptations">International adaptations</h2>
Talking to a Stranger was remade thrice, once for Canadian television in 1971 and twice for <a href="/facts/Belgium/YKuMXP5j">Belgian</a> television. The version for the Belgian Flemish television, Praten tegen een vreemde, was adapted by Pieter De Prins and directed by Lode Hendrickx (1969).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a> <a href="/facts/Paul_Roland/5Wdb0r7a">Paul Roland</a> was the director of Comme des étrangers for the Belgian French television.

<h3>Canadian</h3>
The Canadian version, produced by the <a href="/facts/Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporation/xBHaMb9R">Canadian Broadcasting Corporation</a>, was adapted by Doris Gauntlett and starred Budd Knapp (the father), <a href="/facts/Douglas_Rain/2JcN3KTG">Douglas Rain</a> (Alan), <a href="/facts/Martha_Henry/S88HUvV0">Martha Henry</a> (Terry) and Norma Renault (the mother).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a> This was produced by <a href="/facts/Eric_Till/6C8XTA7L">Eric Till</a> as four-hour-long episodes and broadcast on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern) from 24 November to 15 December 1971.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a>
The episodes of the Canadian adaptation are structured as follows:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a>

<ol><li>Terry faces pregnancy while estranged from her husband</li>
<li>Terry's mother commits suicide, as seen through the viewpoint of her husband</li>
<li>The family faces the aftermath of the suicide, under the viewpoint of Terry's brother Alan</li>
<li>The final episode recounts the first, under the viewpoint of the mother</li></ol>
<h2 id="video-releases">Video releases</h2>
The original production is included in The Judi Dench Collection boxset which has been issued in both Region 1 and Region 2 DVD versions.

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060031/">Talking to a Stranger</a> at <a href="/facts/IMDb_(identifier)/uWrqVYVy">IMDb</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/499298/">Talking to a Stranger</a> at the <a href="/facts/British_Film_Institute/AsbWhPE9">BFI</a>'s <a href="/facts/Screenonline/8W5paKsk">Screenonline</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Plater, Alan (1 May 2006). "Law and disorder". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 24 May 2010. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,1765037,00.html" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,1765037,00.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">"BFI TV 100 site". Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120321080206/http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/tv/100/list/prog.php?id=78" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20120321080206/http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/tv/100/list/prog.php?id=78</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">"BBC Film & Drama website". <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/talking-to-stranger.shtml" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/talking-to-stranger.shtml</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">"British Film Institute ScreenOnline site". <a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/499298/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/499298/index.html</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">"Judith Olivia (Judi) Dench". Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140221085438/http://www.debretts.com/people-of-today-profile?person=12682" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20140221085438/http://www.debretts.com/people-of-today-profile?person=12682</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">"BAFTA Awards Search: Judi Dench". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 9 September 2018. <a href="http://awards.bafta.org/keyword-search?keywords=judi+dench" target="_blank">http://awards.bafta.org/keyword-search?keywords=judi+dench</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">"British Film Institute ScreenOnline site". <a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/499298/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/499298/index.html</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Plater, Alan (1 May 2006). "Law and disorder". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 24 May 2010. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,1765037,00.html" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,1765037,00.html</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">"BBC Film & Drama website". <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/talking-to-stranger.shtml" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/talking-to-stranger.shtml</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Praten tegen een vreemde at IMDb <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338649/" target="_blank">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338649/</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Hal Erickson (2011). "New York Times' Movies online". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2010. <a href="/wiki/Hal_Erickson_(author)" target="_blank">/wiki/Hal_Erickson_(author)</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">Allan, Blaine (1996). "Talking to a Stranger". Queen's University. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2012. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150924012749/http://www.film.queensu.ca/CBC/T.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20150924012749/http://www.film.queensu.ca/CBC/T.html</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">Corcelli, John (September 2005). "Talking to a Stranger". Canadian Communications Foundation. Retrieved 4 May 2012. <a href="http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/programming/television/programming_popup.php?id=1295" target="_blank">http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/programming/television/programming_popup.php?id=1295</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

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Talking to a Stranger