Freedom in September

Freedom in September

1962 - United Kingdom

A Soviet musician is missing from his hotel. He wanders through London trying to contact people he has met and known in Russia. Who are these people? What lies behind his desperate search? 

In Freedom in September author Leo Lehman focuses attention on those brief, but regular 1960s news items which announced that yet another Russian visitor had resolved to make his home in Britain, and asked for political asylum.

Deftly, sensitively, without taking sides, Lehman examines one of these situations in the making, laying bare all the frustration, the loneliness and heart-searching which such a decision entails. He is concerned, not with the famous - like dancer Rudolph Nureyev - whose welcome was assured, but with an ordinary citizen who necessarily will pay a higher price for freedom.

"For these people who are welcome but not particularly wanted by anyone, the difficulties are much greater," said Lehmann. “Lencherenko (Joseph Furst) in my play is a man like this. He knows that if he stays he will be alone in a strange country. He must abandon the life he has known - the good things as well as the bad."

Lehmann emphasised that the play was about people - not politics. Lecherenko, a minor composer, unknown in the West, is a member of a Russian cultural delegation on a good-will visit to London. He leaves the party so that he can be alone while making the final, fateful decision on whether he will stay or go home.

We first see Lomov (Martin Sterndale), leader of the delegation, unwilling to admit that Lecherenko has disappeared as he starts the discreet, polite, deceptively unhurried enquiries that go on throughout the play. Meanwhile, as the composer in his dilemma seeks out various people he knows, he is helped by a sympathetic journalist, Prince (Patrick Troughton). He also meets a Russian exile Dornik (Alan MacNaughton) who has himself been faced with the same agonising decision.

Also in the cast were Patsy Rowlands as Ivy and Amanda Barrie as a maid. The play was directed by Joan Kemp-Welch. Broadcast in the Play of the Week strand on Tuesday 18 September 1962 at 9.15 to 10.45pm.

Published on March 3rd, 2020. Written by Sarah Snow - based on original TV Times article and adapted for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

Alice in Wonderland TV play

The earliest television version of Lewis Caroll's fantasy masterpiece was broadcast before most people in Britain had televisions...

Also tagged Single Play

Already It's Tomorrow

After a road accident, an attractive girl recovers consciousness in a strange room. With her is a young man she has never seen before.

Also released in 1962

Compact

Compact was the BBC's third adult soap opera.

Also released in 1962

All Summer Long

Willie has tried to make his father aware of the danger to their house from flood water, but Dad thinks that Willie's fears are excessive. Willie decides to spend all summer long building a wall to keep out the river, but his efforts are in vain.

Also tagged Single Play

Checkmate

An expensive investigative agency operating in San Francisco protects the lives of people who had become targets of the criminal underworld.

Also released in 1962

Culloden

The Battle of Culloden, which took place on April 16th, 1746, was the last battle fought on British soil. This docudrama blurred the distinctions between documentary and drama and proved to be ground-breaking television.

Also tagged Single Play

It's A Living

Long-time comedy double-act Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warris star in a sitcom about a couple running a small general store.

Also released in 1962

Animal Magic

Presented by the inimitable Johnny Morris, the man who not only spoke to the animals, but also for them, Animal Magic was a firm children's favourite on BBC television for no less than 21 years.

Also released in 1962