Cathy Come Home: Film Screening and Talk

The revolutionary, documentary style film, Cathy Come Home, directed by one of Britain’s most critically acclaimed film-makers, Ken Loach, is showing at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts on Saturday 10 November 2012. The event is being run in partnership with the National Trust and includes a talk from the film producer, Tony Garnett and Dr Chris Upton from Newman University College.

Cathy Come Home was first broadcast on 16 November 1966 on BBC1 as part of The Wednesday Play and was watched by 12 million people; a quarter of the British population at the time. The film candidly addressed issues of homelessness, unemployment and poverty in post-war, inner-city Britain with some scenes filmed in Birmingham.

The impact of this film at the time alerted the public, media and the government to the scale of the housing crisis and issues around homelessness. The charities Crisis and Shelter were set up soon after the first broadcast and the film went on to be rated as the best British television drama ever made.

After the film screening, there is a unique opportunity to listen to a talk from Tony Garnett with Dr Chris Upton. The talk will be introduced by Professor Ian Grosvenor (Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Cultural Engagement and Professor of Urban Educational History, University of Birmingham).