Walter

Featuring a remarkable central performance by Ian McKellen and directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen), Walter remains one of the most acclaimed and poignant dramas ever made for British television - the first ever Film on Four it was chosen as the centerpiece drama for the launch night of Channel Four in 1982. This release comprises the original BAFTA-nominated play, and Walter and June, a sequel screened in 1983 co-starring Sarah Miles. Also included is Loving Walter - a movie-length edition that blends material from both films as well as previously unseen footage. Walter, adapted by David Cook from his award-winning novel, is set in the early 1960s and tells the disturbing story of a man with mental and physical disabilities who is left at the mercy of society's attitudes following the death of his parents. The play's unflinching treatment of its subject inevitably shocked, but also drew overwhelming praise from viewers and critics, with McKellen receiving a Royal Television Society award for his harrowing, rigorously researched portrayal. Walter and June, again written by Cook and directed by Frears, picks up Walter's story nineteen years on. It charts the friendships he has formed, and the tender, life-changing but precarious relationship that develops between Walter and mercurial fellow patient June, as the two leave the confines of the hospital to face an uncertain future in London.