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The Nigel Barton Plays are two semi-autobiographical television dramas by Dennis Potter, first broadcast on BBC1 in 1965 as part of ''The Wednesday Play'' strand. The first play, ''Stand Up, Nigel Barton'', follows the eponymous character's journey from his childhood in a small mining community to winning a scholarship for Oxford, while the second play, ''Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton'', sees him standing for Parliament as the Labour Party candidate in a by-election. Both plays develop themes and use dramatic devices that became hallmarks of Potter's later plays for television. ==''Stand Up, Nigel Barton''== The play opens with Nigel (Keith Barron) following his father (Jack Woolgar) to work at the local colliery, questioning why his father walks in the middle of the road instead of using the pavement, and laughing at his assertion that it is an old miners' tradition. As his father rushes to clock in, Nigel muses on the very different paths their lives have taken. The scene shifts to Nigel at school, in a scene in which, as in all the school scenes in the play, the children, including Nigel, are played by adults, a technique that Potter used again in ''Blue Remembered Hills''. Then, in a brief montage, we are carried to Nigel's arrival at Oxford in his first year. Nigel is introduced to the college scout, who embarrasses him by calling him "sir". We then return to Nigel at school, watching the class bully/clown Georgie Pringle (Johnnie Wade) being called up to the front of the class to read a passage from the Bible. He chooses a passage from the Book of Ezekiel that he and the children find amusing, but the teacher (Janet Henfrey) finds his behaviour blasphemous and canes him. She then calls Nigel, much to his embarrassment and the chagrin of the class, to read another passage. The teacher praises Nigel for the clarity of his reading, for which he earns the contempt of his peers. After school the other children, with Georgie as the ringleader, bully Nigel, leaving him upset and frustrated. The play then returns to Nigel at Oxford, where he is struggling to reconcile his working-class background with his new-found social mobility. When he returns home for the summer Nigel finds himself a figure of suspicion for some members of the community, who believe that he has betrayed his roots by taking up his university scholarship. This leaves Nigel confused and frustrated as to where his allegiance lies. Back at New College, Nigel attends a party where he meets an upper-class girl called Jill (Vickery Turner) who becomes enamoured of his unwillingness to adapt to the new social codes he encounters at university. He is also approached by a television producer who has witnessed Nigel in the debating chamber discussing class conflict and asks him to appear in a documentary on the subject. Back at school Nigel, in a fit of pique, has torn the stem of the class flower. That afternoon, as the teacher moves round the classroom looking for the culprit, Nigel breaks down. The teacher forces him to stand up and, as Georgie starts to mock him, Nigel tells the teacher that Georgie damaged the flower. The other children leap to Nigel's defence and Georgie is dragged away to the headmaster's office to receive a caning. Back in the present day Nigel's parents are visited by a journalist who informs them that he has seen a recording of Nigel's participation in the documentary, which is due to go out that evening, and wants to gauge their reactions to some of his comments. Nigel's father throws him out, angry at the journalist's insinuation that Nigel is ashamed of his roots. That evening Nigel watches the documentary with his parents. In the televised interview he tries to explain that, while he is proud of his heritage, he feels confused about where he now belongs. He describes himself being "between two worlds", much to his father's anger. The play ends with Nigel's father walking out of the house and Nigel following him. They stand in the road for a moment and decide to go to the pub together: Nigel's father tells him that he will be walking in the middle of the road. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Nigel Barton Plays」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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