ATV Choice: Playhouse Presents… The Call Out

Playhouse Presents… The Call Out starring Vanessa Redgrave, Samantha Bond and Stephen Graham. The Sky Arts 1 drama is a touching story exposing the loneliness of life in the city.

Directed by Redgrave’s son Carlo Nero and based on a short story by Leonard B Francavilla, it follows two policemen, Len (Graham) and Vic (Sushil Chudasama) who are called to a disturbance on the seventh floor of a block of flats.

They arrive to find a widow (Bond) claiming that she spotted an intruder in her flat. However, she turns out to be unconcerned about seeing her home secured. She leads Len (Graham) into a room playing soft music and filled with erotic pictures of
her late husband, offering him a drink, questioning him about his sex life and telling him about the death of her two dogs.

Deflecting her advances, Len escapes the flat only to stumble on a frantic elderly woman (Redgrave) clutching a bowl of water and panicking that her flat is flooding. Entering her home, he finds that a huge spread of teas, cakes and sandwiches is awaiting him.

Len finds himself affected by her stories of alienation and isolation and, having learnt that loneliness affects people of all ages and
walks of life, his eventful night prompts him to reconsider his own relationships.

Playhouse Presents… The Call Out, tonight (Thursday 2nd May) at 9pm on Sky Arts 1