Alan Hull Squire TV Play.Written by Tom Pickard

"Alfy is 30 and on the dole. So what does he want with a stuffed tern, a shooting stick, a Harris tweed suit and a shotgun?"

This was how the Radio Times announced 'SQUIRE', the first television play written by Tom Pickard which made its screen debut on BBC2 at 10.15pm on the evening of Monday 25th November 1974, one of the new 30 minute plays commissioned as part of their innovative 'Second City Firsts' series.

Newcastle born writer Tom Pickard made his name during the early sixties as one of the emerging band of British 'underground' poets, inspired by the beat poetry coming out of America led by Kerouac and Ginsberg. Befriended by the influential figure of Basil Bunting, Tom ran a performing arts club known as the Morden Tower in a back alley close to the city centre, where local artists of all kinds would hang out - amongst them the painter Richard Hamilton, singer Bryan Ferry and songwriter Alan Hull. According to Tom, Hully made his performing debut at the Tower.

The pair remained firm friends and when the Second City Firsts commission came about, Tom not only asked Alan to write the incidental music but cast him in the lead role of Alfy, a 30 year old dole-ite with delusions of grandeur. It was Alan Hull's first acting role, but he carried it off with some aplomb, causing the Daily Telegraph to state - "He could be the first pop singer since Adam Faith to make a successful transition to acting."
Martin Jackson of the Daily Mail agreed, saying "it looks like the beginning of a new acting career, for Alan Hull is also working with the production team - writer Tom Pickard and director Barry Hanson - on a television version of Dostoievsky's 'The Idiot', transformed to Tyneside and likely to be retitled The Nutter."

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Sean Day-Lewis commented - "Second City Firsts was given a splendidly rejuvenating injection of new life by moving from the Midlands to the North East and harnessing two of Newcastle's brightest and most unruly talents. Tom Pickard's Squire said little, but said it in such a lively way that 30 minutes seemed far too short."
The Daily Mail suggested that "Hull was at ease in the role, extracting a little sour relish from showing the lack of true opportunities for a secondary modern school graduate unlucky enough to be both naturally indolent and resident in an area of chronic unemployment."
Not all of the newspaper reviews were so kind; the Daily Mail concluded that "New Realism in drama has been around for long enough now to become as cliched as the style it ousted - and that element worked against Pickard's play."

In his excellent Lindisfarne biography, Dave Ian Hill quotes Alan's own version of events - "Tom - a great poet, great Socialist, great friend - rang me up and said "I've got this play, for BBC2, do you want to write the music for it?". "Be proud to" I said, "Give me the script, come round and we'll talk about it". Alan then discovered that Pickard also wanted him in the lead role. "So I said, I can't act". So he says "Can you read?" "I dunno, just about". So he says, "Well, you can act". So I got the job!"

The play itself centres around Alfy, a charming workshy layabout who keeps his wife and two kids courtesy of the dole office, yet at the same time pictures himself as a country gentleman. Alfy's wife Mary is played by Madelaine Newton, the architypal hard-done-by housewife who struggles to feed, dress and pack the kids off to school, while her husband lies daydreaming in bed. When he eventually rises, Mary scolds: "You haven't even shaved yet" to which Alfy replies: "I'm only signing on, y'knaw, not bloody kissin' arses." Most of the female Lindisfarne fans will recall their first sight of Hully's bare backside, as in one scene a stark naked Alfy runs down the narrow staircase of his terraced home! The pressure of poverty constantly keeps husband and wife at loggerheads, yet Alfy always has time for his kids; when Mary shouts at them not to forget their dinner money, Alfy gently tells them not to waste it - "no more Tizers and Crunchies"."


While there are clips on YouTube, the DVD of the whole thing is pretty rare. It's not the greatest quality - looks fine, but has a brownish tinge throughout that makes it look like the tape was steeped in tea