A Day Out

Alan Bennett's first work for television is a beautiful, simple picture of a Halifax cycling club's outing to Bolton Abbey in the summer of 1911. It is a hot summer day, and not much happens - but the play is packed with incident as the club members from across the social spectrum interact with each other and the locals they meet. the naive optimism is countered by a brief epitaph in 1919, as the survivors of the World War commemorate the dead.

The black and white drama is doubly nostalgic, not only with the near perfect portrait of 1911 Yorkshire, but also of the high-quality early efforts of Bennett and Stephen Frears at the beginning of their careers over 30 years ago. Well worth watching.