Greg Davies: Looking for Kes (BBC Four Sunday 17 September 23)

Greg Davies: Looking for Kes airs Sunday 17 September 23 on BBC Four.

What is this episode about

Greg Davies, comedian, actor, and former English teacher, has always loved Barry Hines’s classic novel A Kestrel for a Knave, which tells the story of Billy Casper and his experience training a kestrel as an escape from his troubled home and school life. Greg travels to Barnsley, where the book is set and where Ken Loach’s famous adaptation, Kes, was filmed, in an attempt to discover the book’s enduring appeal.

Greg pays a warm, funny, and poignant tribute to a book that gave a distinct voice to the working-class experience and, in Billy Casper, created a young rebel whose story continues to connect with readers more than 50 years after its initial publication in 1968. Greg meets with Barry Hines’ friends, family, collaborators, and admirers.

Greg runs into Dai Bradley, who played Billy Casper, at the fish and chip shop in Kes (now called Caspers). They both wonder where he could be now. Dai believes that Jian would have maintained his tenacity had he lived. There are a lot of kids out there just like him, and the book’s message is that we need to find ways to channel their enthusiasm.

Greg also gets to know locals at the working men’s club where Barry used to frequent, and learns that many of the book’s characters, such as the villainous PE teacher, were based on real people he met there.

Ken Loach elaborates on the merits of the book as a film adaptation. ‘The truth of the book shone through: the comedy, the use of language and dialect and, of course, the central image of a boy who is trapped, training a bird that flies free.’

Greg travels to the spot where Richard Hines, Barry Hines’ brother, encountered a kestrel, the event that inspired Billy and the setting of the film. The last time Richard flew a kestrel was fifty years ago.

Greg is overjoyed to discover the original handwritten manuscript of A Kestrel for a Knave in the Sheffield University archives. There he meets Jarvis Cocker, another book lover, who shares his thoughts on the book and its significance in his life. ‘That symbolism of escape was powerful for me growing up,’ says Jarvis. ‘The desire for escape has been a massive engine for creativity for people from working-class backgrounds. You want to make, write or sing something to help you escape.’

Series 2

When can we see the episode

Greg Davies: Looking for Kes airs Sunday 17 September 23 at 9:05pm on BBC Four

Featured Image Credit: BBC Four