Playing Away

Playing Away
GenreComedy
Written byCaryl Phillips
Directed byHorace Ové
StarringNorman Beaton
Nicholas Farrell
Robert Urquhart
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerVijay Amarnani
Running time100 minutes
Original release
Release25 November 1986 (1986-11-25)

Playing Away is a 1986 TV comedy film directed by Horace Ové, from a screenplay by Caryl Phillips.[1]

Premise

In the story, an English cricket team, fictitiously named "Sneddington" (based in Lavenham, Suffolk), invites a team of West Indian heritage based in Brixton (South London) to play a charity game in support of their "Third World Week." According to Screenonline, "The gentle comedy of manners and unexpected reversal of white and black stereotypes in Playing Away contrasts sharply with the stylistic experimentation and the militant denunciations of racial prejudice in director Horace Ové's earlier feature, Pressure (1975)."[2]

Reception

New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby called it "witty and wise without being seriously disturbing for a minute".[3]

Production

The cricket match scenes were filmed at Botany Bay Cricket Club in Enfield, London.[citation needed]

The film cost £924,000.[4]

Cast

References

  1. ^ "Playing Away (1986)". TCM. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  2. ^ Onyekachi Wambu, "Playing Away (1986)", Screenonline, BFI.
  3. ^ Vincent Canby, "Playing Away (1986)", The New York Times, 13 March 1987.
  4. ^ "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 27.


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