Bernard Atha CBE was an actor known for his many appearances in Ken Loach films and various notable Play for Today productions.
He also served as a Labour councillor for the Kirkstall ward in Leeds for 57 years (1957-2014) and was once the Lord Mayor of the city.
He trained in ballet and law before taking up his career in acting and politics.
He died aged 94 on 22nd October 2022.
Based on a short story by Edith Wharton. A lady's maid named Hartley finds employment with Mrs. Brympton, a lady who is confined to her country estate because of delicate health. Almost immediately Ms. Hartley realizes something ominous is occurring in the old house.
Mr and Mrs Cooper are staying at a boarding-house in the seaside resort of Morecambe with their small children, Colin and Jennifer. Mr Cooper has just been made redundant, but the family are trying to keep this a secret from the other guests. Also staying at the hotel are Keith and Jo, a young couple on their honeymoon, and an older couple, Mr and Mrs Thornton. Waking early one morning, Colin amuses himself by dangling one of his sister's sandals out of the window on a piece of string. The sandal accidentally lands on a flat roof just outside the window of the honeymooning couple, and his father's now straitened financial circumstances mean Colin has to get it back, by fair means or foul.
In the days leading up the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Pauline, a recently separated single mother, receives a visit from a bailiff and is given 15 days to address her overdue rent payments. Meanwhile, the local council is under pressure to cut expenditure, and their decisions result in Pauline's mentally handicapped daughter Paula being transferred from a care home for special needs children to an old people's home, where she is all alone.
Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.