In comedy drama The Day Of The Janitor, a mild mannered maintenance supervisor in an office block is more interested in paelantology than in what is going on around him but when he is ignored by one of the companies in the block he plans a sweet revenge, especially after he is called in to fix a leak. From that moment on the the company in his power.
Speaking to the TV Times for the week of the dramas broadcast author Chris Wilkins said it was the sudden, startling revelation that the humble anchovy has the power to put the world’s corn markets in a turmoil that helped inspire The Day of the Janitor, his second play for tele-vision and this Wednesday’s Playhouse presentation.
Wilkins, creative director with one of the country’s top advertising agencies, explains “Some time ago I was involved with a company dealing in corn for cooking oil when the cost went up. It turned out that Peru’s anchovy crop had failed and the increased demand for corn as alternative animal meal affected the price.”
Cast: ARTHUR WHYBROW as Washbrook / EDWARD DE SOUZA as Daniel / JOHN BASKCOMB as Darby / SARAH MARTIN as Caroline / RICHARD DURDEN as Roger / RONALD LACEY as Julius / STELLA TANNER as Dolly / IRENE SUTCLIFFE as Miss Walsh / HARRY LITTLEWOOD as O’Connor
Writer: Christopher Wilkins / Production Design: Anthony Cartledge / Producer: Michael Dunlop / Executive Producer: John Frankau / Director: Baz Taylor
UK / ITV – Thames (for the Playhouse strand) / 1×60 minute episode / Broadcast Wednesday 8 July 1981 @ 9.00pm
