I have heard this one as a Radio play which is available and seena Television version from 1982. It is a play I like.

This J B Priestley play is, in a way, not unlike ‘An Inspector Calls’ where a mysterious stranger comes into the lives of people staying at a small holiday cottage in Yorkshire.

Herbert Lom plays the stranger Dr Gortler who it seems has been sent on a mission to meet these people and influence the rest of their lives in a very dramatic way. There is a man, Walter Ormund and his wife Janet, who are unhappy in their lives , and another single man, Oliver Farrant, a teacher, who is travelling alone and it seems. pretty much alone in life.

ABOVE – Herbert Lom excellent as Dr Gortler

Dr Gortler has been sent to this cottage knowing that he will meet the three and also knowing the scenario – an unhappy marriage of two very decent people and a young man who is on his own.

The young man and Janet Ormund seem not to like one another and in fact do their very best to avoid meeting or being in the same room. This scene below is when Janet asks the teacher why he does not like her as he moves to leave the room. Gradually he opens up and says that, far from not liking her, he is actually drawn to her very forcefully and has been from the first time they met.

She admits that she feels – and has felt – the same and they rush to embrace.

They know that they must be together.

However they are worried about Walter and what he might do

Dr Gortler knows that in the scenario he has Walter would kill himself and leave the two lovers torn by guilt and struggling but he also is sure that he can change this.

ABOVE – Sam Shipley’s daughter Sally Pratt – who seeing what is happening is very concerned for her son who attends Walter Ormund’s school and she fears what would happen if the school closed due to this

ABOVE – Sam Shipley played by Leslie Sands

ABOVE Dr Gortler talks with Walter Ormund for some time and Walter decides not to stand in the way of the two lovers saying that his wife deserves the happiness he always wanted for her – and that there will be no scandal

Walter chats to the owner of the cottage and realises just how content he is. Played of course by Leslie Sands who we all well remember as ‘Cluff’ in the TV series.

Anthony Valentine is excellent as Walter Ormund. We probably remember him best for ‘Colditz’ but he was in so many productions in film and mainly Television.

Looking him up I see that he actually married in 1982 the year that he payed in this drama