The Trials of Oz
The Trials of Oz is 1991 video-taped BBC television drama shown in the UK on 9 November 1991 as part of BBC 2's Performance anthology series of single plays.
It concerns the six-week trial in June and July 1971 trial in which the editors of the British underground magazine Oz were prosecuted on three charges, including obscenity. The play is an adaptation of the transcripts of the court case by Geoffrey Robertson, who was junior defence counsel at the trial. The re-enactment features Hugh Grant as Richard Neville, Peter O'Brien as Jim Anderson, Kevin Allen as Felix Dennis, Leslie Phillips as Judge Michael Argyle, Nigel Hawthorne as Brian Leary, Simon Callow as John Mortimer, Alfred Molina as George Melly, Lee Cornes as Marty Feldman, and Nigel Planer as John Peel.
The three accused were convicted of obscenity and given sentences ranging from nine to fifteen months, but released on appeal at which the trial judge was severely reprimanded for misdirecting the jury.
The play was nominated for a BAFTA Award as Best Single Drama.
The Trials
It wasn't gravity, it was the witches.
Make your fingers into pillars
Hold all the stomachs in this town,
They can't stomach anymore.
The wood on these trees smell like skin now
And old fires are full of carpenter stories,
Where they push plastic nails through their smiles.
It wasn't gravity, it was the witches.