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Dennis Waterman

I Can Walk Where I like, Can't I?

1964 - United Kingdom

Set partly on a building site, a boy (15-year old Dennis Waterman) and a girl (16-year old Judith Geeson) meet secretly in a partly-built block of flats each day after the builders leave. They are discovered, however, by two workmen doing overtime - Frank (John Thaw) and Mike (Earl Cameron). 

The two are friends but they see the children's retreat to the flats from different angles. So too, do the children's parents. But there is little understanding in either home, particularly the boy's, where his widowed father (Edward Woodward) and the boy "live in each other's background." The boy is totally disinterested in the woman friend his father is trying to introduce to the household, and the father is only vaguely conscious that the boy is growing up and has his own problems. 

Writer Rhys Adrian told the TV Times back in 1964 how he got the idea for the play whilst out walking one weekend with his five-year old son, Lewis. As he drifted on to a building site where a block of flats was being built, he saw some children playing: "High above us a couple of children, a boy and girl of about 15, were chasing each other. This was a marvellous playground and I saw the fun as quite innocent. But I began wondering if everyone would see it that way? Or does it depend on how one wants to see it?" 

Few of the characters have names in this Play of the Week presentation. Waterman's character is only known as 'The Boy' whilst Geeson is credited as 'The Girl'. The Girl's mother is played by Joan Newell and her father by Patrick Kavananagh. Yootha Joyce also appears. 

The play was directed by Graham Evans. Dennis Waterman, who had been a child actor was already something of a veteran by 1964 with over a dozen TV credits, but this was an early appearance for his co-star, Judith - later Judy Geeson (Born in Arundel, Sussex in 1948). Broadcast on ITV on Monday February 17, 1964 at 9.10pm. An ATV Network Production.   

Published on April 3rd, 2020. Written by Based on original TV Times article and adapted for Television Heaven.

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