As Howarth Lay dying

 


As Howarth Lay dying


     This is from a moving scene in the PBS series "To Serve Them All My Days" that was based on a novel by R.F. Delderfield. The story revolves around a WWI soldier who is broken and bitter from the terrors of battle and takes a job at an elite boarding school, Bamfylde where he tries to teach these aristocratic kids despite his middle class standing. The show is full of memorable characters, particularly a wise professor named Howarth who we identified  with as he was a bachelor and fond of whiskey. The protagonist David Powlett-Jones struggles at first until he finds the friendship of Howarth and his many wise bits of advise. Howarth liked to take a little something at the end of his teaching days that he refers to as "the bachelor's friend" which delighted Greg.  At the very end of the show Howarth dies quietly, sitting in a camp chair while watching a cricket match on the pitch. It is one of the saddest scenes in all of drama. Greg often reenacted Howarth nodding off peacefully with drink in hand.



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