Ashes

Television (Full Length) – 1975

This second offering from Pacific [Films] was television being used as an art form. Here was a personal vision, a commentary by Barry Barclay on TS Eliot's Ash Wednesday. Unabashed, dense, exploratory.
– Richard Campion in a Listener review, 12 April 1975, page 41

I remember getting a school report that said that I much preferred to sit in a corner with a few well chosen friends, to joining in the general throng. I have this public persona —frightening to approach, independent, competent. I have the distinction of being the only girl in school who refused to go to church.
– Val

This constant renunciation of one's will ran right through the day to day life. Personal whims and were not important — what counted was God's will, not your own.
– The priest (Sam Neill), on adjusting to living in a monastery

I was quite satisfied living by my own strength, forming my own ideas, opinions and theories. But I was always on the outside looking in, and I preferred to remain silent, rather than expound my views.
– Mere