Up the Junction

"Up the Junction" is an episode of the BBC anthology drama series The Wednesday Play directed by Ken Loach and produced by James MacTaggart. It was first broadcast on 3 November 1965 on BBC 1. The play was adapted by Nell Dunn and (uncredited) Ken Loach<ref>Although uncredited in this context, Loach contributed to the script and was paid a fee for his work. See Jacob Leigh The Cinema of Ken Loach: Art in the Service of the People, London: Wallflower Press, 2002, p.183, n.13. Dunn has acknowledged Loach's work on the script, see Stephen Lacey [https://books.google.com/books?id=QJv6E25XDHEC&pg=PA39 Tony Garnett], Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007, p.39</ref> from Dunn's short story collection of the same name. It tells the stories of three young women living in North Battersea and Clapham and, to a lesser degree, their boyfriends. Plot Three young female factory workers, Rube, Sylvie and Eileen, go out to a pub where they meet three young men, Terry, Ron and Dave. They flirt, go on a date to a lido and pair off, each couple developing a significant relationship. Terry and Rube soon have sex at Rube's flat while her mother is out. Rube becomes pregnant and must seek an illegal back-street abortion, which is botched, causing Rube to suffer a miscarriage. Although Terry and Rube continue their relationship after the abortion, they begin to grow apart, and finally have a row. Terry speeds off on his motorcycle, crashes it, and dies. Sylvie marries Ron, but soon marital troubles develop, culminating in the couple having an ugly public row in the street outside a pub that Sylvie visited with Rube and Eileen.