Paradise postponed; No. 101; Death of a Saint

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This record is featured in “Exploring Public Media in the Peabody Awards Collection.” This record is featured in “Peabody Awards Collection.”
Series
Paradise postponed
Episode Number
No. 101
Episode
Death of a Saint
Producing Organization
Thames Television, ltd.
WGBH (Television station : Boston, Mass.)
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip-15-60qrgpp2
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Description
Episode Description
This is episode 101, Death of a Saint.
Series Description
"PARADISE POSTPONED is an eleven-part drama chronicling the social life of the small English village of Rapstone during the four decades following World War II. It is written by John Mortimer, the author of the screenplays of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER and RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY. "The story centers on the mysterious will left by the Reverend Simeon Simcox on his death in 1985. A liberal, even left-leaning Anglican minister, Simcox leaves his considerable fortune, not to his wife or two sons, but to the ambitious, unscrupulous politically conservative Leslie Titmuss. The drama is constructed of flashbacks into Simcox's life, beginning in the 1940's when his sons and Titmuss, the son of a brewery worker, were only boys. We continually return to 1985 as Simcox's sons seek the story behind the legacy and Leslie Titmuss, now a Cabinet Minister, continues to seek his own fortune. "PARADISE POSTPONED is social commentary in the style of Dickens: a collection of rich and colorful characters playing out their lives against a backdrop of political institutions and social conventions. Through the story of the Simcox family, PARADISE POSTPONED provides and insightful and immediate look at the unprecedented social change that England has undergone since World War II. The lives of Simeon Simcox and his family, even as they live through their own domestic dramas, parallel the social upheaval in their country. "'For a long time paradise seemed to be a place of peace, social justice, equal opportunity and the welfare state. For many years those remained our ideals, although paradise was postponed because of a shortage of money to pay for it; by political disagreement; or by man's natural tendency to long for somewhere more exciting and perhaps wicked, to live than the Garden of Eden.'--John Mortimer"--1986 Peabody Awards entry form.
Broadcast Date
1986-09-15
Asset type
Episode
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:32:30.549
Credits
Producing Organization: Thames Television, ltd.
Producing Organization: WGBH (Television station : Boston, Mass.)
Production Unit: Masterpiece Theatre / Mystery!
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: cpb-aacip-b87ba155e9d (Filename)
Format: U-matic
Generation: Copy: Access
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Citations
Chicago: “Paradise postponed; No. 101; Death of a Saint,” 1986-09-15, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 22, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-60qrgpp2.
MLA: “Paradise postponed; No. 101; Death of a Saint.” 1986-09-15. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. June 22, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-60qrgpp2>.
APA: Paradise postponed; No. 101; Death of a Saint. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-60qrgpp2