through the local council, but are not helped because of their many moves and the long list of other people also seeking housing assistance. Cathy and Reg decide to separate temporarily so that Cathy and the children can move into an emergency homeless shelter where husbands are not allowed to stay. Reg leaves the area to seek employment. Cathy's loneliness and frustration finally boil over and she becomes belligerent with the shelter authorities, who are often cold and judgmental towards the women living in the shelter. Cathy's allotted time at the shelter expires while Reg is away, and she and her two remaining children (one having been sent to live with Reg's mother) have nowhere to go. They go to a railway station, where Cathy's children are taken away from her by social services. Cast Production The play was written by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach, who went on to become a major figure in British film. Loach employed a realistic documentary style, using predominantly 16 mm film on location, which contrasted with the vast amount of BBC drama of the time, the bulk of which was entirely shot in a television studio. Union regulations of the time forced about ten minutes of Cathy Come Home to be shot in this way, with the material shot in a studio on electronic cameras being telerecorded and spliced into the film as required. The cinematographer was Tony Imi, whose innovative use of a hand-held camera to take moving action shots and close-ups gave Cathy Come Home almost a feel of a current affairs broadcast and a realism which was rare in British television drama at the time. This produced shots some traditionalists thought "not technically acceptable". Imi commented: "I was stuck in a rut after working on Dr Finlay's Casebook and Maigret – standard BBC productions. All of a sudden, with The Wednesday Play and Ken, there was a newness that fitted into the way I was thinking at the time." Loach's naturalistic style helped to heighten the play's impact. Many scenes were improvised, and some include unknowing members of the public, such as the final scene in which Cathy's children are taken from her at a railway station (none of the passers-by intervened). The song that is played at the beginning and end of the film is a cover version of "500 Miles" by Sonny