Andy Worthington Joins Panel at Homeless Film Festival’s 50th Anniversary Screening of Ken Loach’s ‘Cathy Come Home’, LCC, Fri. Nov. 18
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I’m delighted to have been added, as a commentator on Britain’s housing crisis, to a panel discussion taking place after a screening this Friday, November 18, of ‘Cathy Come Home’ at London College of Communication, at the Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB. The screening marks the 50th anniversary of the broadcast of this hugely important drama about homelessness, written by Jeremy Sandford and directed by Ken Loach, and first broadcast on November 16, 1966, in the BBC’s series, ‘The Wednesday Play,’ which aired between 1964 and 1970, tackling contemporary social issues that might not otherwise have reached a wide audience. Also screening is a short film about London’s homelessness crisis by photographer Don McCullin. Thanks to Polly Nash for adding me to the panel.
The event is part of the Homeless Film Festival, and it runs from 6.30-9pm in Lecture Theatre B at the LCC. Also on the panel is a very good friend of mine, Val Stevenson, Chair of The Pavement, the magazine for homeless people, and Michael Chandler, Programme Director of Cardboard Citizens who make life changing theatre with and for homeless people. The page for the event is here. Please note that it is free, but booking is required.
Writing about the importance of ‘Cathy Come Home’ this summer, and the impact of homelessness and housing stress on people’s mental health, journalist and author Clare Allan, in an article for the Guardian, wrote how “this drama about a young mother caught in an impossible, inhuman system, which leaves her homeless, destroys her marriage and ultimately robs her of her children, led to public outrage, a surge in donations to the charity Shelter and the founding of the charity Crisis the following year.” Read the rest of this entry »
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