Set in a small mining community, The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd charts the breakdown of the relationship between Charles Holroyd, a coarse, drunken pit-worker, and his embittered wife, Lizzie. Disturbed by her husband’s erratic behaviour, Lizzie is tempted to elope with the local electrician, Mr Blackmore. At her lowest ebb, she wishes Charles dead. In a cruel twist of fate, Lizzie’s husband then loses his life in a mining accident. Mourning her loss, Lizzie rediscovers her love for Charles and is forced to reconsider his character.
The 1995 production of The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd is a rare work for television by the highly distinctive theatre and opera director Katie Mitchell. Working with largely static cameras, Katie Mitchell defines with great precision an intimate and intense theatrical space, and in the closing moments, she employs to remarkable effect a single shot that settles on the screen for five and a half minutes. – John Wyver
Starring Zoe Wanamaker, Brenda Bruce, Stephen Dillane, Colin Firth.