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Blue Remembered Hills
This deceptively simple tale relates the activities of seven English children played by adults on a summer afternoon during World War II. In a woods, a field and a barn, they play, fight, fantasize and swagger. Their aggressions, fears, hostilities and rivalries are a microcosm of adult interaction. Easy going Willie tags along as burly Peter bullies Raymond and is challenged by fair minded Paul. Plain Audrey is overshadowed by Angela's prettiness and wreaks her anger on the boys. All of them gang up on the terrified "Donald Duck" who, abused by his mother and ridiculed by his peers, plays a dangerous game of pyromania with tragic results.
43 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 1971
1 person is currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Dennis Potter
61 books35 followersDennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective (1986). His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture. Such was his reputation that he convinced BBC 2 and Channel 4 to co-operate in screening his final two works, written in the months he was aware of his impending death.
Potter's career as a television playwright began with The Confidence Course, an exposé of the Dale Carnegie Institute that drew threats of litigation. Although Potter effectively disowned the play, it is notable for its use of non-naturalistic dramatic devices (in this case breaking the fourth wall) which would become hallmarks of Potter's subsequent work. Broadcast as part of the BBC's The Wednesday Play strand in 1965, The Confidence Course proved successful and Potter was invited for further contributions. His next play, Alice (1965), was a controversial drama chronicling the relationship between Lewis Carroll and his muse Alice Liddell. Potter's most celebrated works from this period are the semi-autobiographical plays Stand Up, Nigel Barton and Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton; the former the tale of a miner's son going to Oxford University where he finds himself torn between two worlds, the latter featuring the same character standing as a Labour candidate—his disillusionment with the compromises of electoral politics is based on Potter's own experience. Both plays received praise from critics' circles but aroused considerable tension at the BBC for their potentially incendiary critique of party politics.
Potter's Son of Man (The Wednesday Play, 1969), starring the Irish actor Colin Blakely, gave an alternative view of the last days of Jesus, and led to Potter being accused of blasphemy. The same year, Potter contributed Moonlight on the Highway to ITV's Saturday Night Theatre strand. The play centred around a young man who attempts to blot out memories of the sexual abuse he suffered as child in his obsession with the music of Al Bowlly. As well as being an intensely personal play for Potter, it is notable for being his first foray in the use of popular music to heighten the dramatic tension in his work.
Potter continued to make news as well as winning critical acclaim for drama serials with Pennies from Heaven (1978), which featured Bob Hoskins as a sheet music salesman and was Hoskins's first performance to receive wide attention. It demonstrated the dramatic possibilities old recordings of popular songs. Blue Remembered Hills was first shown on the BBC on 30 January 1979; it returned to the British small screen at Christmas 2004, and again in the summer of 2005, showcased as part of the winning decade (1970s) having been voted by BBC Four viewers as the golden era of British television. The adult actors playing the roles of children were Helen Mirren, Janine Duvitski, Michael Elphick, Colin Jeavons, Colin Welland, John Bird, and Robin Ellis. It was directed by Brian Gibson. The moralistic theme was "the child is father of the man". Potter had used the dramatic device of adult actors playing children before, for example in Stand Up, Nigel Barton.
The Singing Detective (1986), featuring Michael Gambon, used the dramatist's own battle with the skin disease psoriasis, for him an often debilitating condition, as a means to merge the lead character's imagination with his perception of reality.
His final two serials were Karaoke and Cold Lazarus (two related stories, both starring Albert Finney as the same principal character, one set in the present and the other in the far future).
Potter's work is distinctive for its use of non-naturalistic devices. The 'lip-sync' technique he developed for his "serials with songs" (Pennies
Potter's career as a television playwright began with The Confidence Course, an exposé of the Dale Carnegie Institute that drew threats of litigation. Although Potter effectively disowned the play, it is notable for its use of non-naturalistic dramatic devices (in this case breaking the fourth wall) which would become hallmarks of Potter's subsequent work. Broadcast as part of the BBC's The Wednesday Play strand in 1965, The Confidence Course proved successful and Potter was invited for further contributions. His next play, Alice (1965), was a controversial drama chronicling the relationship between Lewis Carroll and his muse Alice Liddell. Potter's most celebrated works from this period are the semi-autobiographical plays Stand Up, Nigel Barton and Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton; the former the tale of a miner's son going to Oxford University where he finds himself torn between two worlds, the latter featuring the same character standing as a Labour candidate—his disillusionment with the compromises of electoral politics is based on Potter's own experience. Both plays received praise from critics' circles but aroused considerable tension at the BBC for their potentially incendiary critique of party politics.
Potter's Son of Man (The Wednesday Play, 1969), starring the Irish actor Colin Blakely, gave an alternative view of the last days of Jesus, and led to Potter being accused of blasphemy. The same year, Potter contributed Moonlight on the Highway to ITV's Saturday Night Theatre strand. The play centred around a young man who attempts to blot out memories of the sexual abuse he suffered as child in his obsession with the music of Al Bowlly. As well as being an intensely personal play for Potter, it is notable for being his first foray in the use of popular music to heighten the dramatic tension in his work.
Potter continued to make news as well as winning critical acclaim for drama serials with Pennies from Heaven (1978), which featured Bob Hoskins as a sheet music salesman and was Hoskins's first performance to receive wide attention. It demonstrated the dramatic possibilities old recordings of popular songs. Blue Remembered Hills was first shown on the BBC on 30 January 1979; it returned to the British small screen at Christmas 2004, and again in the summer of 2005, showcased as part of the winning decade (1970s) having been voted by BBC Four viewers as the golden era of British television. The adult actors playing the roles of children were Helen Mirren, Janine Duvitski, Michael Elphick, Colin Jeavons, Colin Welland, John Bird, and Robin Ellis. It was directed by Brian Gibson. The moralistic theme was "the child is father of the man". Potter had used the dramatic device of adult actors playing children before, for example in Stand Up, Nigel Barton.
The Singing Detective (1986), featuring Michael Gambon, used the dramatist's own battle with the skin disease psoriasis, for him an often debilitating condition, as a means to merge the lead character's imagination with his perception of reality.
His final two serials were Karaoke and Cold Lazarus (two related stories, both starring Albert Finney as the same principal character, one set in the present and the other in the far future).
Potter's work is distinctive for its use of non-naturalistic devices. The 'lip-sync' technique he developed for his "serials with songs" (Pennies
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
June 15, 2019
Que coisa boa! Gostava muito de ter visto a peça no Teatro Nacional 💙
June 9, 2015
Blue Remembered Hills concerns nothing more than a gang of seven-year-olds larking about. Yet for all its smallness, it remains one of the most disturbing plays ever written, as if Potter were examining the seed of human cruelty through a microscope.
November 29, 2022
Absolute shit. I also had to act this out. Shir accents. Shit eveything. Such an awful play to recreate. But the I enjoyed the slang.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2023
I read this play to understand it as an acting reference. It is constantly referred to when adults play children as a good standard. As in Blue Remembered Hills they’re not “playing” children -which is always uncomfortable and stereotypical- they’re being an adult who has the direct nature of a child.
The play itself hasn’t aged well in terms of politics and language. It is very comedic throughout but with an incredibly bleak ending which kind of feels like it comes out of nowhere.
The play itself hasn’t aged well in terms of politics and language. It is very comedic throughout but with an incredibly bleak ending which kind of feels like it comes out of nowhere.
August 30, 2019
Que bela peça, de um autor responsável pela "golden age" da televisão britânica. Já que não é possível ver a encenação portuguesa que originou a publicação deste livro, há o telefilme (a origem desta narrativa) para ver.
July 29, 2023
A brilliant play which cleverly draws attention to the base instincts of children to establish social hierarchy. It deals with playing war games to understand their own circumstances, cruelty and childhood abuse.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 17, 2025
Three of Dennis Potter's best short plays. Some people like him. Some people don't. For me he is the greatest writer who ever picked up a pen. Potter was unafraid to put himself on the page. His bravery and honesty are second to none.
June 14, 2021
Somewhat harrowing insight into the lives of wartime kids... but a great watch/read!
January 4, 2023
i hate this fucking play
February 23, 2023
Love this play, such a shame I never got to direct it last year.Maybe one day!
Read
June 10, 2023oh
June 21, 2024
Quite fucked up lol
April 15, 2021
Nice short play, telling the story of children during the war.
September 26, 2016
Didn't much care for it.
November 15, 2012
Potter's television and stage plays, under review here is the stage version, seems to have been inspired, or at least is the thematic opposite, of A. E. Housman's sweet poem "Into my heart on air that kills" from A SHOROPHSIRE LAD, 1896
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
The play and poem share the assumption that you can't go home again when home is not just a place, but is also childhood. Potter's children, however, feel little content unless content means being oblivious to the feelings of those around you. It is as if he see Houseman's world with the wary eye of one who realizes that children are often mean, selfish, and destructive. These are cruel, cruel people, hurting each other in every conversation until an abrupt and tragic ending. I'm not sure it is childhood at its worst, that is reserved for child slaves, drug addicts, and child prostitutes, but this is about as bad as it gets for middle class European people. You can criticize the story for being unrealistically extreme, but there is an essential truth in that extremity.
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
The play and poem share the assumption that you can't go home again when home is not just a place, but is also childhood. Potter's children, however, feel little content unless content means being oblivious to the feelings of those around you. It is as if he see Houseman's world with the wary eye of one who realizes that children are often mean, selfish, and destructive. These are cruel, cruel people, hurting each other in every conversation until an abrupt and tragic ending. I'm not sure it is childhood at its worst, that is reserved for child slaves, drug addicts, and child prostitutes, but this is about as bad as it gets for middle class European people. You can criticize the story for being unrealistically extreme, but there is an essential truth in that extremity.
March 6, 2014
I'm not a play write (although i wish to be). I'm not a professional Actress (Though i wish to be even more)! I am a year 11 pupil who achieved her first A* in performance through playing Peter in this play. I feel that this play is very cleverly written and has amazing characters that i now love to bits.
March 25, 2017
Had to read this for Drama class. It was mostly boring, with bland characters, and a plot that suspiciously resembled Lord of the Flies. The only redeemable part of the play was Donal duck and the tragic ending at the end, which I have to admit, somewhat shocked me (thus the 2 stars).
December 31, 2014
I've been studying this play at school in drama and originally I strongly disliked it. But over the past couple of months I've come to really love this play and it's probably one of my favourite performances I've ever worked on! I LOVE playing Audrey :)
June 13, 2010
3 written-for-television plays...maybe better to see than to read...
Blue Remembered Hills **ooo
Joe's Ark **ooo
Cream in My Coffee ***oo
Blue Remembered Hills **ooo
Joe's Ark **ooo
Cream in My Coffee ***oo
February 14, 2012
For A Level English Literature.
December 29, 2011
A warm, yet - at the same time - disturbing parable on the so-called 'innocence' of childhood. I wonder if Houseman would have smiled at the ending - even if it wasn't quite what he had in mind!
Want to read
September 2, 2013How do you read the books you've downloaded help needed
September 26, 2016
Das peças de teatro mais engraçadas que já li e vai sem dúvida um projeto incrível para desenvolver nas aulas de Interpretação *-*
March 3, 2008
It's alright, I suppose. Quite entertaining and a nice dark finish. But boy, does it drag.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews