the name of the Play For Today episode filmed in Hartlepool in the late 70's time? Or even what year it was filmed?

Just discovered it was ITV not Play For Today. Called An Afternoon Off by Alan Bennett - my nanna was in it!!!

Indeed it was 'Afternoon off' and it was shot on location in sunny Seaton using The Staincliffe as the hotel.

I remember watching it when it was on, but can I fook remember what it was about.

Was the main character a waiter or summat?

He was a chinese, the waiter, not Alan Bennett

'But Bennett also challenges our own prejudices - it's easy to imagine a (non-Northern) viewer deploring the instinctive racism while simultaneously feeling superior to these insular people and their peculiar dialect ("Get this down your guzzle-holes"/"What do you know about it, you soft article?").'

'Insular' indeed? Cheeky tvvat!

And who in Hartlepool ever says 'soft article'? Thats a Yorkshire term and not a Hartlepool one. Ignorant Southerners eh?

my nanna was a maid at The Staincliffe when it was filmed, and she had a small non-speaking cameo role putting some linen away in a cupboard!!!

I've been after a dvd of this for ages

It's not out on dvd mate but you might get it on betamax.

a bit more info...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137343/

Didn't the main character go into The Shades at one point? At that time it had been shut for many years.