Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jonathan Aris, Lorne MacFadyen, Lizzy Watts, Tyger Drew-Honey, Matt Addis, Joanna Brooks, Jessica Dennis, Paul Panting, Alistair McGowan, Barkha Bahar.
National tragedies have a habit of slowly fading from the memory over time, not least of all because those directly involved in the disaster will themselves succumb to the passing of time, but it is because of nature; we as citizens can carry placards in anger, we can weep in unison at the senselessness of the catastrophe, we can rage and demand tougher actions to keep people safe, and we will seek retribution against the one person we might hold responsible…even if it defined to have been caused by simple misfortune, or the most unfortunate of mistakes.
A play of two parts, Inside and Outside sets down the course of events that overwhelmed the emergency services as the worst accident to take place on the London Underground since World War Two took place at Moorgate Station in February 1975.
Written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran of The New Statesman and Goodnight Sweetheart fame, sees their radio play, Moorgate, bring the subject into focus once more, and perhaps no greater person had the right to provide insight and depth of understanding than Laurence Marks himself who was a young journalist covering the disaster at the time, and who unbeknownst to him at the time, lost his father in the ruins and devastation of the accident.
It is in such sadness that the playwright often delves into their finest work, the more personal an event is, the greater their empathy, and in the unveiling of misfortune that overtook two of the figures, Margaret Liles, a new police officer fresh out of training and on her way to be given her right to wear the uniform, and Jeffrey Benton, played by Tyger Drew-Honey, the moment that brought them together as they struggled to stay alive, and the aftermath of which fate had decreed they must endure.
The tragedy that was Moorgate may have been passed by those too young to remember the heartbreaking scenes as firemen, police, ambulance drivers, and doctors alike were thrust into the devastation, that even now remains unanswered as to the true cause. However, in the empathetic writing of Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran the human cost is set aside, there is no focusing on the number who died, but instead on the personal stories of those affected; and it with courage and definition that the two-part play reaches out and does exactly what a play should, inform and educate.
A play of seismic proportions, the ramifications alone of the event framed with compassion and historical significance; a truly testing play, one that signalled industry change. As it honours those who lost their lives and the heroic nature of those involved in the rescue of the survivors in its 50th anniversary, Moorgate is a finely written and examining piece of radio theatre.
Ian D. Hall