The Move After Checkmate

The Move After Checkmate

1966 - United Kingdom

"I've waited 27 years to get Sellman and tonight I've got him...because I've got his son." 

Michael Crawford is caught between two long-time adversaries who use him as a pawn in their grudge fight in this Play of the Weekpresentation from May 1966. On either side of him are Donald Pleasence and Peter Vaughan as the old enemies. Pleasence plays a police chief into whose hands the boy falls. Vaughan plays the boy's ex-gangster father. Crawford had recently been awarded the title of Most Promising Actor of the Year by the Variety Club of Great Britain for his performances as an acid tongued, scooter-riding mod, on television and for his part in the London stage play Travelling Light. 

The Move After Checkmatewas a departure for Crawford and was far removed from the comedy parts that he was already gaining a reputation for. Here he plays Tony Sellman, a public schoolboy who, after a few drinks, crashes his Jaguar and seriously injures his girlfriend. Superintendent Smith recognises his name. Tony's father is a successful business-man - but 27 years earlier he was a gangster known as "Big Tony." Smith believes the father responsible for three killings which were previously filed as unsolved cases. Unable to prove Tony's guilt back then, Smith sees an opportunity to fulfil an ambition that has been something of an obsession for years and works single-mindedly to finally get his man. 

The Move After Checkmate

Sellman senior reverts to his old ways and begins getting together a mob of thugs...It was the first time that Donald Pleasence and Peter Vaughan had appeared together in leading parts even though they had shared a flat in Bayswater in the days when they began their acting careers. 

The Move After Checkmate, written by Barry England and also starred Derren Nesbitt and John Woodvine was an Anglia production broadcast at 9.40pm on Monday 2 May 1966 and was directed by Alvin Rakoff. Producer was John Jacobs.   

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

Read Next...

Daktari

"The real stars of the series were Clarence the lion and Judy the chimpanzee."

Also released in 1966

Cathy Come Home

Harrowing drama of one family's downward spiral into poverty that sparked a national debate in the Houses of Parliament on the plight of the homeless.

Also released in 1966

Alice in Wonderland

Unimpressed with Disney's 1951 animated version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Jonathan Miller was keen to develop a new version which would bring to the fore undertones of the story that had been glossed over in the often 'traditional' presentation of this classic children's tale.

Also released in 1966

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

Seaspray

Australian series about a widowed father travelling the Southern Pacific seas with his two sons, daughter and a deckhand.

Also released in 1966

Kid Flanagan

A young boxer's career is destroyed by a scheming woman in this one-off BBC play that also starred Sid James.

Also tagged Single Play

The Baron

An antiques dealer works in an informal capacity as an agent for British Diplomatic Intelligence.

Also released in 1966

The Browning Version

Schoolmaster Andrew Crocker-Harris is retiring because of ill-health, and Taplow, one of his pupils, brings him a present on the eve of his retirement in this Terence Rattigan play from 1966.

Also tagged Single Play