Taking us back to a forgotten world that is nonetheless brimming with familiar passions and human foibles, Lay Me Down Softly is another slice of vintage Billy Roche. Set in rural Ireland of the early '60s, Roche's new play takes us into the burlesque world of Delaney's Traveling Roadshow.

A major release from Initial films for Channel Four starring Stephen Rea and Richard Harris. Award-winning writer Billy Roche and director Gillies Mackinnon create a strange compelling world on the edge of society

Eddie is a small-town hawker who dreams of a business of his own. Treated as little more than an errand boy by his employer John Power, the godfather of the local traveller community, his modest ambitions seem far beyond his grasp until Power becomes obsessed with a young traveller girl, Kathleen. On the night of their wedding Kathleen elopes with Power's nephew, Dermot,...