The theme of Tony Marchant's WELCOME HOME is the guilt and anger of war survivors - staged in 1983 and later filmed by the BBC. The play follows the course of four squaddies in the Parachute regiment and their corporal from the time they prepare to disembark until their return at the end of the Falkland’s war. The characters are classic: the bluff insensitive macho man, Walters; Dennis, the decent family man; the young lad, Polo, who covers his fear with an obsession with pop music and its exponents, and the more intellectual type, Goldy. Their Corporal, Sharp is a decent, but basically insecure man, who attempts to disguise this under a brusque and sadistic attitude to his squad. They bring home the coffin of a comrade. Their shell-shock is worsened by the pointlessness of the exercise in which they took part.
