Drama. Charlie, a widower of Italian parentage, has one dream -- to take his young daughter back to Italy, and farm. He is a Londoner, born and bred, and reality hits him hard when he tries to make his dream come true.

A HOODLUM gang has been fighting in Charlie Panetti's snack bar the night before "The Jukebox" opens. This was not the first time, nor will it be the last, but if Panetti calls the police, he might as well close down.
"The Jukebox" is Friday's "Television Playhouse" production. It stars Miriam Karlin and Harry H. Corbett who plays Panetti, the Cockney with a life-long dream of going to live in Italy. He plans to end his days in Tuscany, where his father was reared. Until now, he has ventured no farther than a visit once a year to his young daughter Nina (Wendy Hutchinson) in the country.
Since her mother died 10 years before, Nina has lived with her aunt Rosa, Panetti's sister. Now Nina has blossomed into an attractive 17 year old and her aunt is anxious to shift the responsibility back onto Panetti. She returns Nina to the snack bar, bringing Panetti back to earth.
"Panetti is like so many men who overlook the fact that their daughters are growing up and are surprised and a little put out when they attract attention," says Corbett. "He is typical, too, of the many romancers who would rather claim to be anything but English. They mistakenly think it adds to their stature to be different -- it is made to compensate for what they lack in other directions."
Fortunately for Panetti, Dolly (Miriam Karlin), who looks after him and runs his business, has both feet firmly on the ground. She has no intention of going to Italy, or even of moving away from the snack bar when Nina arrives.
Rikki (Alan Bates), leader of the hooligans -- because, as he says, "they must have someone to hang on to" -- is a scrap dealer. Much sought after by the local girls, he has shown little interest -- until he sees Nina.
The interest of the play centres on Nina's relationships with her father and Rikki, and the effect these have on Rikki's gang.
From her home in Grimsby, author Elizabeth Dawson told me that her knowledge of young people stems from welfare work among them shortly after the war. She draws on this experience for her plays. She started to write in 1950, and she has been writing consistently for radio and television. The most notable of her plays was "The Roof Garden." She could not easily be persuaded to give up her job as secretary to a bank manager and says only: "I write best at night, anyway."
"She treats a tough subject with sensitivity," says the play's director, Tania Lieven, "and she shows a great insight in her characterisation."
Although Wendy Hutchinson is only 21, she has crowded a lot into her acting career. Starting at Bristol Old Vic drama school, she moved on to their resident company for 18 months. Since then, she has been cast in three important TV roles, made her debut on the West End stage and in films, playing opposite Dirk Bogarde, for a limited run, in Oxford -- "my most exciting experience so far on the stage" -- and has recently been appearing at the Arts Theatre in London. |||