6.8 /10 1 Votes
Initial release 1986 Music director Simon Webb | 6.7/10 IMDb Director Horace Ové Screenplay Caryl Phillips | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Producers Brian Skilton, Vijay Amanani Cast Norman Beaton, Neil Morrissey, Nicholas Farrell, Robert Urquhart, Helen Lindsay Similar Cricket movies, Comedies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing Away is a 1987 TV comedy film, from a screenplay by Caryl Phillips, about two cricket teams. In the story, the English team, fictitiously named "Sneddington" (based in Lavenham, Suffolk), invites a team of West Indian heritage based in Brixton (South London) to play a charity game in support of their "Third World Week." According to Screenonline, "The gentle comedy of manners and unexpected reversal of white and black stereotypes in Playing Away contrasts sharply with the stylistic experimentation and the militant denunciations of racial prejudice in director Horace Ové's earlier feature, Pressure (1975)." New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby called it "witty and wise without being seriously disturbing for a minute".
The cricket match scenes were filmed at Botany Bay Cricket Club in Enfield, London. Among those starring in Playing Away were: