The following is commentary on Episode No. 5 ("The Gate of the Year") from members of AFAMILYATWAR-LIST. If you wish to add your thoughts to what is being said on this page, become a part of our discussion group by clicking the "Join" button.

 

 


 

 

Richard Veit

“The Gate of the Year” is perhaps most notable for giving us, for the first time on camera, the intriguing couple of Harry and Celia Porter. So masterfully conceived are these two characters that they seem utterly real and true to life. Celia is insecure and self-centered, Harry is a bit stodgy but compassionate and eminently likeable. Indeed, one might wonder how these disparate personalities ever came to be married. Later episodes suggest (through Harry’s musings) that Celia changed much in the intervening years, nearly suffocating with love the couple’s son, John, whom she dotes over and spoils.

Celia Porter is an annoying and unsympathetic character, to be sure, but Margery Mason’s portrayal is so brilliantly convincing that I find myself actually pitying the poor woman and wishing she could find the happiness that, alas, will forever elude her. No less human is the long-suffering character of Harry Porter, trapped in a claustrophobic state of matrimony that only a saintly gentleman could endure. The explanation, of course, is that Harry truly does love his wife, despite her conspicuous flaws and incessant, confrontational nagging. John, as we shall see, does not escape this unhealthy familial environment without some profound emotional scars. Margaret’s simmering resentment of her mother-in-law is most apparent when her desire to have a meal with her husband, on leave from Formby, is foiled by Celia’s selfish determination to prepare a cauliflower cheese for him instead. I think these two wonderful actresses play off each other superbly well throughout the entire run of the series.

A pivotal moment in “The Gate of the Year” comes when John witnesses the shocking sight of his father kissing Connie Edwards under the mistletoe. I very much like the way director Michael Cox chose to block this scene, with the camera positioning John Porter directly between the kissing pair.

Two minor performances also should be recognised. Arthur Cox does a nice job of playing the unctuous but harmless Reg Thorpe, who dallies with Mrs. Cole at the ARP. John Comer is wonderful as the taxi driver, a veteran of the First World War who talks to John about the importance of using gas masks, saying, "We're all in the trenches now."

Also quite effective, I think, was the entire sequence of John’s frustrating inability to locate his wife before leaving on his emergency posting—excellent writing, creating a believable sequence of circumstantial events that might well occur in the real world. It reminds me of a similar series of near-misses that occur in a marvelous film from 1986, A Summer Story, based on a novella by John Galsworthy. That film, incidentally, has two “A Family at War” alumni in its cast: Kenneth Colley, who plays Sergeant Jago in the episode “Two Fathers,” and John Savident, who appears as Sefton’s solicitor, George Askew, in four episodes.

 


 

Paul Cook

The Gate of The Year
 
I like the title for this episode, which I presume is taken from the poem by Minnie Louise Haskins, written in 1908. As we hear at the close of this episode, King George VI includes this in his Christmas message of 1939. It was also read more recently at the Queen Mother’s funeral. For "A Family At War," it is a poignant reflection on John having to go overseas at such short notice, as with all families with sons going to war.
 
Sons and Lovers
 
I revel in  how the complexity of the relationships between mother/father/son/husband/daughter-in-law are worked out in this episode. From a relatively naïve view on how his mum and dad get on with each other, poor old John not only has to contend with what presumes is his father having an extra-marital affair, discover that his mother actually lied to him about the whereabouts of Margaret, find out that Margaret is unhappy living at the Porter’s, and to cap it all, find out that Margaret is pregnant! It is as if this poor man’s life is falling apart before our eyes. What a way to have to go off to war. I get a real sense of that awful experience of brutal separation that  our families must have endured at this time.
 
Watching the movie Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire yesterday, I am sure I saw Margery Mason, (Celia), in a very brief part as a trolley lady on the Hogwart’s Express! I feel asleep, so didn’t catch the final credit to find out!!
 
The Clock is Ticking……
What particularly adds to the dramatic effect for me is how clocks appear throughout the episode, rather like a leitmotiv, both in a very obvious way to show the time, but also more subtly, for instance, as a rather distant shot on the mantelpiece at Sheila’s house. The whole 2 hours is played out with a kind of relentless and desperate rhythm, between 7.30pm up until John’s final departure from the railway station at 9.30pm. Powerful stuff.