1971-1980 Alan Gibson Drama Sci-Fi The Wednesday Play & Play for Today United Kingdom

Alan Gibson – Play for Today: The Flipside of Dominick Hide (1980)

adminJanuary 19, 2023

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Dominick is a London suburbanite of the year 2130, who “goes flipside” by stepping into his flying saucer and landing on the London of 1980. Both centuries, he finds, have their advantages. Dominick’s 2130 environment is a stress-free society, but antiseptic and colourless.

Though people have lost inhibitions about nudity, sex itself is dispassionate. No one smokes cigarettes, and the air is not polluted. But then, no one has ever smelled a rose, and cooking is less tasty than nowadays.

Author Jeremy Paul, 43, who co-wrote the play with Alan Gibson said: “We were not interested in creating a future where machines and technology have taken over.Dominick’s London is our London, surviving. He goes to work in Pinner, carrying his briefcase, like a present-day commuter.

“Alan and I sat in the East Tower of the BBC Television Centre and looked down, pretending we were on Dominick’s flying saucer. We watched people waiting for buses and noted the general messiness of the streets. Dominick, coming from a future when Britain is like a nice. clean park, would be mesmerised.

“We wanted to show that things are not so bad today.” In the story Dominick breaks the rules by landing on Earth, 1980 instead of just cruising overhead to do research. His motive is curiosity : he wants to visit his great-great-grandfather who lived in Portobello Road in London’s Notting Hill.

Instead he find a 20th Century-style love with a stallholder Jane, a more emotional girl than Ava, his wife of 2130. Dominick returns to his own century leaving Jane pregnant, but provided for.

Winner of two awards at the 1981 BANFF Television Festival – Best Dramatic Script & Jury Prize.