The Winslow Boy
by Terence Rattigan
SNT 1965-01-30
adapted by Peter Watts
with Marius Goring, Brian Hewlett and Lockwood West.
160K
Based on an Edwardian cause celebre, The Winslow Boy tells of a father's determination to clear the name of his young son, a naval cadet accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order.
Ronnie Winslow, a fourteen-year-old cadet at the Royal Naval College, is accused of the theft of a five-shilling postal order. An internal enquiry, conducted without notice to his family and without benefit of representation, finds him guilty, and his father, Arthur Winslow, is "requested to withdraw" his son from the college (the formula of the day for expulsion). Winslow believes Ronnie's claim of innocence and, with the help of his suffragette daughter Catherine and his friend and family solicitor Desmond Curry, launches a concerted effort to clear Ronnie's name. This is no small matter, as under English law, Admiralty decisions were official acts of the government, which could not be sued without its consent—traditionally expressed by the Attorney General responding to a petition of right with the formula "Let right be done".
The Winslows succeed in engaging the most highly sought after barrister in England at the time, Sir Robert Morton, known also to be a shrewd opposition Member of Parliament. Catherine had expected Sir Robert to decline the case, or at best to treat it as a political football; instead, he is coolly matter-of-fact about having been persuaded of Ronnie's innocence by his responses to questioning (in fact, a form of cross-examination, to see how young Ronnie would hold up in court) in the presence of his family, and is shown mustering his political forces in the House of Commons on the Winslows' behalf with little concern for the cost to his faction. Catherine remains unconvinced of Sir Robert's sincerity, perhaps not least because of his record of opposition to the cause of women's suffrage, but also due to his dispassionate manner in the midst of the Winslow family's financial sacrifices.
Replies
Eager to hear this - it's an interesting story. Many thanks !
Thank You.
I have the later 1981 production. It will be interesting to compare them
Thanks.
You are welcome Mon Ami. ---- Rick