The Bone Grinder

It’s Britain vs USA in this drama by Dennis Potter as mild-mannered George finds himself in thrall to brash American Sam.

Dennis Potter had already made his name with the Nigel Barton plays by the time he wrote The Bone Grinder, his first play for ITV. It takes the decline of the British Empire and the rise of the USA as a central theme but Potter boils it down to two symbolic characters, the very English George King and the rudely American Sam Adams. Elegantly directed by Joan Kemp-Welch, there are surprising dark twists to a play one reviewer called “nasty, brutal and very compelling”.