& Cher. Broadcast After the first transmission in 1966, the play was repeated on BBC1 on 11 January 1967, 13 November 1968 and again on BBC2 on 11 August 1976. It was also screened by Channel 4 on 31 March 1993 as part of a season of programmes on homelessness, and by BBC Four in a season on the same subject in 2006. BBC Four also aired this drama on 5 and 11 June 2003 (shown as part of Time Shift). On 31 July 2016 it was repeated on BBC Four as part of a retrospective on 1966 and repeated again on BBC Four on 13 November 2016. In 2022 it was shown again on BBC Four as part of a retrospective on The Wednesday Play, then in May alongside an interview with Ken Loach. Reception The play broached issues that were not then widely discussed in the popular media, such as homelessness, unemployment and the rights of mothers to keep their own children. It was watched by 12 million people – a quarter of the British population at the time – on its first broadcast. Its hard-hitting subject matter and highly realistic documentary style, new to British television, created a huge impact on its audience. One commentator called it "an ice-pick in the brain of all who saw it". The play produced a storm of phone calls to the BBC, and discussion in Parliament. For years afterwards Carol White was stopped in the street by people pressing money into her hand, convinced she must be actually homeless. In a 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute to determine the BFI TV 100 of the 20th century, Cathy Come Home was voted second (the highest-placed drama on the list), behind the comedy Fawlty Towers. In 2005 it was named by Broadcast as the UK's most influential TV programme of all time. Impact In the light of public reaction to the film, and following a publicity campaign led by Willam Shearman and Iain Macleod highlighting the plight of the homeless, the charity Crisis was formed the following year in 1967. By coincidence, another charity for the homeless, Shelter, was launched a few days after the first broadcast. Though it was not connected to the programme, "the film alerted the public, the media, and the government to the scale of the housing crisis, and Shelter gained many new