18. Ready When You Are, Mr McGill

An A to Z of UK Television Drama

Our second look at the work of prolific television playwright Jack Rosenthal. This time a celebrated Granada production from January 1976 starring Jack Shepherd, Mark Wing-Davey and Joe Black: ’Ready When You Are, Mr McGill’ directed by Mike Newell. The play formed the first of 7 episodes of the 1976 anthology series Red Letter Day and concerns the all-important day in the life of TV extra Mr McGill as he finally gets lines to say in a production. However, all does not go to plan and Mr McGill ends up adding to the frustrations of the fraught film crew, and especially its director, Phil, who is dangerously close to a nervous breakdown. Andy and Martin compare the production to its 2003 remake with Bill Nighy, Tom Courtenay and Amanda Holden, consider the lot of the TV extra, now referred to as supporting artists, and the meta nature of a TV drama about making TV drama. Next Time: Secret Army (and especially recorded new interviews with three of its principal cast members)