The Bankrupt was an entry in the Play For Today anthology series. In the David Mercer scripted drama Ellis Cripper, a washed up travel executive who has been declared bankrupt after his company goes belly up, returns home to his father country cottage and finds himself heading towards a breakdown.
David Mercer was a playwright who used the themes of madness and insanity often in his work and whilst The Bankrupt is a minor piece, with too many dream sequences (or fragments from Cripper’s troubled mind), it is still worthy of attention.
production details
UK / BBC-2 (For Play For Today) / 1×75 minutes / Broadcast 27 November 1972
Writer: David Mercer / Producer: Graeme McDonald / Director: Christopher Morahan
cast
Joss Ackland as Ellis Cripper
Sheila Allen as Angela
David Waller as Gowran Cripper
Alethea Charlton as Anne
Peter Cellier as James
Bob Hoskins as Taxi Driver
John Woodnutt as Doctor
