If you beat your kid until he has a fractured skull you should do 10 years for attempted murder & never ever have custody of them again.

Difficult to watch. There are so many kids in this position today. We've never moved on, only backwards.

As someone who was brought up in a children's home, in the 60s and 70s, I can confirm this depiction is depressingly truthful. However, a superb production. Thank you. ☺

70’s childhood There was a freedom in being able to stay out until teatime and, in some ways, this did make children more self-reliant but there were so many dangers associated with that too.

Fancy having such people as parents. That poor little boy.

The opening scene was straight out my life

Wonderful acting. Avery touching performance. So sad and so true.

You used to see a lot of this sort of thing in the 70s and 80s with kids being neglected stinking of urine in filthy clothes and holes in their shoes parents neglected their kids and left them home alone while they went to the pub god it was so depressing and this film is absolutely spot on with accuracy social services were always involved with a lot of families in them days with drunken mothers on the game and abusive fathers both physically and mentally and even sexual god I cry when I remember them god awful days and the poor children who I know we're living this miserable existence god bless their souls xx

i was very lucky to have good parents even though i wished they had not smoked and drank in the 1970s because it opened doors for drug and alcohol addictions in the family , i remember how free we were as kids back then but i do remember the kids who stayed out later who had latch key lives and their parents were never home and they had dirty smelly clothes to boot , you don't think or know when your a kid how much others are suffering normally but i did ,always had a heightened sense of someone needs a friend at school etc , i would always be the one kid to stand up for someone being bullied or lonely , i realized when you dont follow the sheep your normally on your own because people don't want to be embarrassed or shown up as they used to say / hate violence hate bullies now its normally done digitally like writing horrible things on line about someone i think thats even worse because it reaches more people //glad i was young back then, the kids to day are suffering in a totally different way its awful x

Powerful story well done and acted - shows how just one decision can completely change someones life.

jesus my mam and dad would be doing life i was very badly beaten as a child up till i was 17 then i left however i suffer with shocking anxiety i brought up 3 children with love and compassion and i never ever lay a finger on their heads

I recently read the 1971 GF Newman novel 'Billy' on which this play is based. The tv play is very much a sanitised version of the story in which Billy's injuries are so severe that he requires invasive cranial surgery which leaves him blind. The foster family in the book version are a wealthy surgeon who operates on Billy & his wife, half of the novel describes their relationship. The surgeon's wife is traumatised by the miscarriage of their own child & they decide to home both Billy & his sister. The end of the story finds Billy's father, released from prison ( in the novel both parents go to prison for 6 months, the mother is also beaten up in prison ) violently abducting Billy & his sister from the garden of their new home, he takes them back to their old home & plans to kill Billy, instead he falls on the stairs & dies as a result. It has a happy ending as Billy & his sister go to live with the surgeon & his wife. There are no social workers in the novel, Billy & his sister have a much stronger bond & befriend an elderly tramp at one point, their parents are portrayed far less sympathetically, both children are terrified of them. Billy is portrayed as an intelligent & sensitive boy who learns to read braille, very different from the tv version.

The second social worker is played by Don Warrington! Cool

This was like a follow on from 'Cathy come home' from the late 1960s; I'm glad the 'dad' got battered in the nick, today he'd have been offered counseling and pleaded with not to do it again.

omg the size of those hamster cages , i remember as a kid how terribly small they were , generations of hamsters really suffered in them x now as an older person my hamster has a mansion looking at them now x

"Sometimes people batter out of stress" How dare you justify a father beating up his little boy? Disgusting.

Sorry for So many comments yet this really affected me back in the 70’s

4 pounds in ‘79 would be over £20 . What was also so shocking was the woman who had cut her wrists . Ppl were so desperate. The reality was the Dad was so emotionally immature & dangerous

The seventies and early eighties were so BROWN

Very well scripted and acted! Billy lost his one chance of the affection and support he needed and deserved at a critical phase of his development. Although totally in the wrong, his selfish and abusive parents’ “rights” trumped those of the vulnerable infant!

Welcome to the 1970s my friends

It was an horrific reminder of how things were back then, you had to grin and bear it. Having been on the front line of such violence I think it was the lesser of 2 evils, being the system and the so called care, interference by social workers that pulled families even further apart. Victims need to be consoled by the abuser, an apology made for their actions and slowly learn to trust again. Trying to hide the truth is worse than the initial beating, it's all handled wrong, especially those liberals quick to condemn what they don't understand without getting to the root of the problem. Enjoy your comfortable cotton wool life, and thank heavens the Drama is only on T.V., it lives with me continually and some scars you can't wash away. Thanks for the upload by the way, nothing personal.

Remember now how there is never an ending in these plays, they just stop suddenly.

Absolutely heartbreaking.

How badly we were treated in the 70’s just left to stand outside , luckily I didn’t have to tolerate that , my mother drove & we went to places to play . The play shows poverty & unhealthy role models , Billy was much better off , yet Judith wouldn’t let him go

Ppl wonder why we had all these abusive nutters like saville, in the 70’s in the U.K it was really odd times , as a child I was happy yet far to much was allowed to go on , ie the part we’re the foster parent says “ your a pretty girl “ I’m glad we stop that madness.

The first Social Worker and her Supervisor were part of the problem not the solution.

Child neglect, poor kids , I can’t believe iv found this I remember seeing this as a child & I had nightmares. Even though we were middle class , my Dad has a terrible temper & I was scared of him , He came close to really hitting my older sister & myself . He always stopped but he was wrong

awww the Children's care home worker at 42:00 was a young "Mrs Monroe" from "Grange Hill" . (Anna Quayle ,who sadly recently died . Superb actress. R.I.P.)

The good old days when people showered once every two weeks weather they needed to or not............🤠

You what luv?! Parents often batter out of stress! So that's perfectly alright is it?! FFS. Disgusting "man" and the mother not defending them. I know this is actually fiction but it does go on in real life. Poor kids 😡

I’m angry at the mum who seems to think that her husband barely didn’t do anything. No wonder Judith was confused as she saw conflicting messages about her parents. Her mum should of been much more concerned about her children. Carole forgives him immediately & blames anyone who confronted him

Heartbreaking 💔💔💔

Oh Lord Billy, I just hope you were alright.

Judith was the only loving consistency in Billy’s life

We all get stressed but smashing a little boys head in is horrendous & he should of been put in prison for attempted murder . The children were great actors

Cannot believe anyone would go drinking and leave their kids outside the pub like that.

I did not know any Billys or Judiths growing up but I did read about them in the Sun and Mirror. Bless them all, every single one. Hope they grew up to find peace and love in their lives.

when i was a kid i was scared of men with beards

OMG IV BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS !!! It really affected me as a child

This was filmed in Fulham, my old stomping ground

Great play .. .

As a parent NOW IN 2023 you don't have the legal right to smack your child unless it is 'reasonable punishment' - find out more from Child Law Advice. If the violence you use is severe enough to leave a mark, for example a scratch or a bruise, you can be prosecuted for assault or the child can be taken into local authority care.

I understand miss Durham yet giving them the rent direct was WRONG . if there rent was directly paid they wouldn’t have so much debt .

Thank the gods that me and mine are from the 'middle class' never ever experienced anything like this. Horrifying on every level.

The money was sent direct , instead now it’s much more sense that it goes direct to the landlord or council . They should of sent the rent direct to the landlord. I’m left wing I believe in a kinder society, I’m just being a realist , the Dad wasn’t interested in making sure the rent was payed

Biological parents are one thing a child's needs and rights in this case should have had priority over the former. Disturbing outcome to say the least!

Spoiler- Billy wanted to stay with the foster parents yet was torn with his connection to Judith “ she should of said thanks for the comics even though iv read them , yet she was only taught aggressive & inconsiderate behaviour . Judith felt she was like a mother rather than a v young sister - the missing ending is both children are driven to the new council flat , Judith is happy yet Billy is sad again . It was showing that things needed to change & it shouldn’t get to being beaten to improve things

Some mother she was she just pulled the blankets over her head while her little boy was getting bashed off her drunken husband 🤬.

Blood social workers frightened of a court case and puts childrens lives at risk again and again 😡

Unbearably sad.

No babies in pubs. 14 plus only. Then upto landlord.

Too sad to view. Heartbreaking.

If they cared about the children . The missing end is Billy stands back as Judith tells him to come into the new council flat , he doesn’t want to go & is terrified of his dad . It shows that things needed urgently to change & battered children should never be forced back to violent parents . All the progress he’d made with the foster mum was broken as he was torn . It was ludicrous that Judith was taking a role as a adult

i was in assessment centre at 6, then a boarding school at 7 to 10 social serveses put me there my father was a druggie

This is hard to watch.

judith is now my mum!!!

Disgraceful cant pay the rent but can booze and smoke

Does this accurately depict British legal handling of such cases? I can't understand how the father was released, instead of being immediately trundled off to the hoosegow for a lengthy stretch.

omg :(

It seemed to me like they were heavily hinting that it was the sister who was really abusing Billy, but then the whole story ended without any dramatic resolution, which seems typical for Play for Today. I thought maybe there had been an ending that had been cut for time or something.

Very sad

Amazingly dreadfully truthful depiction. Awful. Children desensitised beaten until they're not sane any more

I think the mother was the little girl in Bedknobs and Broomsticks

PHILIP FROM RISING DAMP DID HE TELL HIS CO-WORKER HE,S A SON OF A CHEIF?

Ended very abruptly, was there something wrong?

Brilliant, thank you

Ending was too abrupt leaving viewers in limbo. What happened after the decision to return the children to their parents? Was there a missing second episode?

So the poor kid must be severely abused because dad has no job. Plenty had money issues back then and even today but they don’t beat their kids to a pulp.

Ended a bit abruptly

This what people in the uk watched in prime time tv?

Was the foster dad the teacher from grangehill?

Typical social workers .."..

@40:36-40:50 Er.......wtf?

Amazing how bleak this series was.