Unknown early 1970s drama

[Spaceport]

Can anybody identify the programme that was one my first television memories? I've always wondered what it was.

The programme must have been on at the very beginning of the 1970s, say between 1970 and 1973. Not much to go on, and what I remember might have been distorted over the years, but I feel it was a studio drama of some sort.

A woman (old?) was being kept prisoner in the attic or bedroom of a house. A younger woman was asked to take some food up to her in a bowl but instead of giving it to her she sat on the stairs and ate it saying something like "you can have the gravy because you like that."

I think it might have been something like an Armchair Thriller episode or a one-off play?

[jaycad]

Can anybody identify the programme that was one my first television memories? I've always wondered what it was.

The programme must have been on at the very beginning of the 1970s, say between 1970 and 1973. Not much to go on, and what I remember might have been distorted over the years, but I feel it was a studio drama of some sort.

A woman (old?) was being kept prisoner in the attic or bedroom of a house. A younger woman was asked to take some food up to her in a bowl but instead of giving it to her she sat on the stairs and ate it saying something like "you can have the gravy because you like that."

I think it might have been something like an Armchair Thriller episode or a one-off play?

Rings a bell with me too although I am too young to have watched it on its original airing which makes me think it may be an episode of Brian Clemens excellent 'Thriller' series which began in 1973?

[Euryale]

This reminded me of a short story called The Silver Mask by Hugh Walpole, written in the 1930s. A young couple inveigle their way into a rich elderly lady's home and take over her life. When she becomes ill, they put her in an attic bedroom and although they superficially look after her, her food rations are meagre, with the implication that she'll eventually die of malnutrition.

It was dramatised on television in 1973 in a series called Between the Wars. Zoe Wanamaker appeared and her website gives a synopsis with various links inc. to some stills and the original story itself:

http://www.zoewanamaker.com/tv.php?n...lver_Mask'


E.

[Spaceport]

I've read your link. Yes, a studio drama and the plot sounds right. The broadcast year is right also, so it was probably this. At least I know what it is now and exactly when it was on! Thanks, you've got an impressive knowledge of television.