[1] "Joe's Ark" was written by Dennis Potter, directed by Alan Bridges, produced by Graeme McDonald, and starred Freddie Jones.
In rural Wales, Lucy (Angharad Rees), the daughter of formerly god-fearing pet shop owner Joe (Freddie Jones) has returned home from her studies at Oxford University suffering from terminal cancer.
"Joe's Ark" was commissioned by Play for Today script editor Ann Scott in January 1971, with the brief outline "a suburban Noah prepares for the end of the world".
[2] Potter was only able to attend one rehearsal, an experience of which he observed that "almost everyone concerned seemed intent on excavating the solemnity rather than the intrinsic comedy of the piece, but I was at that time either too ill or too diffident to do much about it".
John R. Cook in his book about Potter notes that "the play does not so much come down on one side or the other" in the debate about the validity of a faith in God "as hold both possibilities in taut suspension".