It's Wellington in the 1970s and Bob (Jeremy Stephens) is an Auckland businessman who deserts his wife and comes to Wellington with a young girl. His friend from university days is drawn into the affair and this brings both men into conflict with each other and those around them.
The cast included William Johnson, Jeremy Stephens, Pamela Hewes, Raeburn Hirsch, Helen McGrath, Sam Neill and Shirley McGregor and the whole ' play is on film. Two main locations were used—a house in Lower Hutt and a house in Adelaide Road, Wellington. It took just under a month of filming to complete, including about a week of night shoots..
The play was commissioned, as were the bulk of the plays then being produced. Ian Cross originally wrote it as part of a series about a lawyer. But, as producer Chris Thomson put it in a Listener article at the time: The series seemed to fade away during the fighting and this was the best script.
The play as produced was an extensive rewritten version of the original. It is about a man running away from reality, trying not to look over his shoulder but unable, all the same, to keep the past behind him. A fairly pessimistic play and belonging very much to New Zealand, it is one of the few dramas that is probably meaningless outside this country.
It has a lot to do with the New Zealand environment and its effect on the success of an ordinary, intelligent New Zealand Professional,
said Chris Thomson at the time.
Screened August 9th, 1971 on the Central channel, and most likely on others after that.
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