Middletons

A drama series written by Philip Marley and produced by Sian Platt and Mark Hansgate and directed by Chris Kwouk.

Cast:

• Sarah Fitzpatrick - Anna Scarna
• Tony Middleton - Stuart McSkimming
• Joe Manton - Paul Halidy
• Kathy Granthen - Tracey Swarison
• Ruth - Kate Harry
• Waiter - Charles Blessing

Trivia

• 3 episodes were written and filmed but only the first was actually edited together.

• Because it was filmed during the period in which YSTV had no studio, in order to edit the first episode the Umatic editing suite was set up on the floor of Mark Hansgate's bedroom in his rented accommodation.

• The second episode involved a scene where Ruth (Kate Harry) threw herself off of the York City Wall. This involved filming very close to the edge of one of the high points of the wall without the aid of a stuntman or a net!

• The airing of the first episode was one of the highlights of Children In Need 1993.

• Mark Hansgate sensed that the show would probably finish on the third episode and so rewrote the ending to include a scene where Tony Middleton (Stuart McSkimming) committed suicide by blowing his brains out in front of Sarah Fitzpatrick (Anna Scarna). This was never filmed however as everyone else thought that the show had legs!

In the Archive

Episode 1 was found by chance on an unmarked Umatic tape. The quality is reasonable although there are a lot of little drop-outs on the tape, and the sound mix is very oddly done, alternating between the two channels of the stereo sound track.