SYNOPSIS
Spending his days at a factory bench, his Saturday evenings at the local pubs and his Saturday nights with Brenda, wife of another factory worker, Arthur Seaton is determined to make the most of the money he earns and to accept no one’s right to tell him how to spend it.
He is not going to become a unit on the factory books, or to follow his father in letting television rule his evenings; circumstances are not going to tame his truculent individuality. But responsibility touches Arthur when Brenda becomes pregnant.
He takes her to see his Aunt Ada, hoping for helpful advice about an abortion, but without success. Meanwhile, he is simultaneously involved with Doreen, younger and more naïve then Brenda but with a hard-headed attitude towards marriage.
Jack, Brenda’s husband, learns of the affair; and his soldier brother and a friend waylay Arthur after an evening at a fair and give him a severe beating up. In a sense, Arthur recognises that he has earned his punishment.
Responsibility is catching up with him: he will marry Doreen and settle on the new housing estate, but he will remain the obstinate Arthur Seaton.
