London Playhouse

1 9 5 5 – 1 9 5 6 (UK)
25 x 60 minute episodes

This series of 21 plays was produced by Rediffusion and debuted on 29 September 1955, airing Thursday evenings at 9.00 pm.

The Haven

Feeling that he’s in a rut, Kenneth (Robert Harris) can’t bear to spend another summer in the family’s holiday home by the lake. Although his wife Barbara (Joan Miller) and the kids – Germaine and Roland – are disappointed, he wants to sell the house and use the money for a long trip.

Kenneth is a serious, sensitive man whose love for the high-quality things in life makes him greatly appreciative of the works of Swinburne, classical music and the company of well-bred young women.

Barbara, on the other hand, is a foolish, loud-mouthed ex-barmaid, rarely seen without a cigarette drooping from her lips. Loving her husband above all, she paints a pathetic, bewildered portrait.

Caroline Denzil and James Doran as the two children of the marriage make sufficient unnecessary commotion to drive any man into the arms of a quiet and gentle mistress.

Supporting roles were played by Lionel Jeffries and John Franklyn Robbins, and the play was directed by Peter Cotes.

Babs
Joan Miller
Kenneth
Robert Harris
Germaine
Caroline Denzil
Roland
James Doran
Bob Ritchie
Lionel Jeffries
Lonely Tom
John Franklyn Robbins

---

A Call on the Widow

Two detectives (Clifford Evans and Michael Craig) call at a lonely farmhouse to investigate the death of the owner. Marooned by floods, they become guests of his widow (Jean Kent). One finds love, the other finds murder.

Elsa Carter
Jean Kent
McKendrick
John Rae
Inspector Grant
Clifford Evans
Sgt Marshall
Michael Craig

---

The Glorification of Al Toolum

Al (Lionel Murton) has won a competition as the most average man in the USA. Then he discovers that glorification brings troubles.

Al Toolum
Lionel Murton
Emily Toolum
Joan Miller
DJ
Hugh McDermott
Sherman Toolum
Garry Billings
Herman Toolum
Robert Brooke
Little Louie
Barry Fennell
John Bell
Peter Dyneley
Barbara McClain
Betty McDowall
Mrs Stickler
Barbara Cavan
Browning
Errol MacKinnon
Mr Bright
MacDonald Parke
Mrs Goren
Bessie Love
Mac the crazy kid
Richard Rogers

---

Summer in Normandy

Host
Neal Arden

---

A Garden in the Sea

This adaptation of Henry James’s The Aspern Papers featured a young writer (Robert Urquhart) searching for new material for his biography of a famous poet. He believes that a mysterious old recluse once knew the poet, and still has poems and letters yet unpublished. So he goes to visit her in Venice at the old palace that stands in a garden in the sea.

Margaret Haslan as the beautiful girl grown old and crazy, reading and re-reading her precious letters, communicated the lost yearnings and the desperate heartbreak with a kind of twisted beauty that underlined the horror (for the story is horrible). Rosalie Crutchley as Tina, the old woman’s niece, backed up admirably.

But the episode was televised live and there were enough bumps, rattles, rumbles, tinkles, clinks, clanks, squeaks, coughs and conversations in the background to keep a Royal Festival Hall audience happy for hours. And once we even caught sight of the camera boom.

There was also a marked feeling of claustrophobia generated by the paucity of sets (a couple of backdrops and half a dozen corners).

Tina Bordereau
Rosalie Crutchley
David Naseby
Robert Urquhart
Felice
Andreas Malandrinos
Marian Cumnor
Mary MacKenzie
Max Cumnor
Cyril Chamberlain
Juliana Bordereau
Margaret Halstan

---

The End of the Mission

Balbina
Derek Bond
Alex Scott
Eric Pohlmann

---

The Inward Eye

The story of a girl for whom a guide dog was the means by which she found her way back in life.

Mary
Patricia Owens
Kenyon
William Hartnell
Husband
John Horsley
Arthur Jones
David Markham
Miss Dudley
Jean Hardwicke
Blind beggar
Arnold Ridley
Doctor
Llewellyn Rees
Matron
Althea Parker
Miss Baker
Vi Stevens
Conklin
Peter Cozens
Scott
Graham Ashley

---

Fair Passenger

Avice Landon
George Woodbridge

---

Area Nine

The play – directed by Peter Cotes – gives dramatic emphasis to the problems of those who trespass within that part of the brain known as “Area Nine”.

It’s the story of Adrian Childe (Anthony Dawson) who has a brain tumour. His wife’s uncle is a famous brain surgeon with an ill-disguised contempt for psychiatrists and unqualified faith in the infallibility of the surgeon’s scalpel.

The psychiatrist – who had once been engaged to Adrian’s wife – knows that Area Nine lies in that part of the brain the functions of which are still a mystery; if it is involved in an operation, changes of personality may occur.

Not only do they occur, but Anthony Dawson portrays the changes with terrifying realism. Mad as he obviously is, one sympathises with him entirely as he becomes violent, menacing and given to fits which he can’t remember.

Joan Coates
George Curzon
Robert Gray
Laurence Payne
Charles Wingrove
Ronald Howard
Adrian Childe
Anthony Dawson
Judy Childe
Ann Castle

---

Lady Must Sell

The article for sale in this comedy play is a mink coat.

Dorothy Ireland
Joan Miller
Adrian Ireland
Hugh Sinclair
James Lloyd
Brian Oulton
Annie
Vi Stevens
Sybil Lloyd
Joan Carol
Inspector Padbury
Campbell Singer
Mrs Fred Deacon
Peggy Thorpe Bates
Rodney Ireland
William Simons
Winkle Ireland
Jill Williams
Police constable
Peter Cozens
Host
Neal Arden

---

The General’s Mess

Written by Giles Cooper.

Leslie Henson
Sam Kydd
Joan Sims

---

Fighting Chance

Jimmy (Stephen Boyd) is a professional boxer who is tempted by his crooked brother-in-law to throw a fight.

Betty Day
Eleanor Summerfield
Jimmy Day
Stephen Boyd
Mickey Day
James Kenny
Mickey Day as a child
Fraser Hines
Syd
John Arnatt
Frank
Charles Lamb
Ted
Arthur Lovegrove
Mendoza
Richard Leech
Matthews
Harry Lane
Jack
Tom Bowan
Max
Jim O’Brady
Bookmaker
Sydney Brahms
Harper
Teddy Gee
Johnson
Alf Lay
Mickey’s first opponent
Joe Barnham
Mickey’s second opponent
Fred King
Len
Len Sharpe
Boxing Board Control man
Royal Russell
Commentator
Alan Weekes
1st referee
Billy Wells
2nd referee
Paddy Hayes

---

The Man Who Liked Christmas

Written by Reuben Ship.

David Kossoff
Estelle Brody
Sheldon Lawrence
Neil McCallum

---

Adeline Girard

Fay Compton
Maureen Pryor
Harold Scott
Richard Thorp
Roger Delgado

---

Two Letters: Yesterday’s Mail/No Other Wine

Reed de Rouen
Alan Gifford
Joan Miller

---

Sam and the Great Unveiling

Sam Bowler (Reginald Beckwith) is a well-respected bookie who has just crowned a lifetime of service by raising the money for a new children’s home.

But some facts about his private life have been overlooked, and unfortunately, it is not in the nature of the implacable Lady Battleby (Noel Hood) to overlook anything – and she holds the purse strings.

Written for television by Gwyneth Jones.

Sam Bowler
Reginald Beckwith
John Postgate
Richard Wattis
Mayor Todd Fletcher
Francis de Wolff
Lady Battleby
Noel Hood
Mavis
Pat Hornsby
Doris
Jennifer Phipps
Elaine McKinnon
Sally Lahee
Ann Postgate
Shirley Cooklin
Dr McKinnon
Michael O’Halloran
Grace
Megs Jenkins
Sheila
Catherine Finn
Moira
Catherine Jupp
Mrs Gregg
Joan Hickson
Maudie
Irene Handl
Reporter
Patrick Westwood
Chief Constable
Jack MacNaughton

---

The Guv’nor

A 999 call sends police racing through a deserted Piccadilly at dawn on the trail of a stolen car: The Guv’nor has struck again.

But as Inspector Bailey (Richard Caldicot) remarks to a visiting American police chief, no matter how well The Guv’nor plans his crimes, some small detail will trip him up in the end. Written by Tudor Gates.

Mr Frisby
Michael Hordern
Amanda Pinkerton
Coral Browne
Buxton
Jimmy Hanley
Sgt Darcy
Nigel Davenport
Det Insp Bailey
Richard Caldicot
Constable
Edward Mulhare
Frederick
Sydney Vivian
Charles
Sam Kydd
Martin Flashman
Robin Ray
Fragalli
Alan Gifford

---

The Sun Divorce

Written for television by Margot Bennett.

---

Wish on the Moon

Ruth (Julia Worth) longed to see her name in lights. Olivia (Margaret Allworthy) wanted a husband, but London remodelled the lives of each and put both girls on the road to success.

Ruth Barclay
Julia Worth
Olivia Beech
Margaret Allworthy
Roy Wayne
Brian Nissen
Barney Goodwyn
Leo Franklyn
David Thorne
Hugh Latimer
Mr Allbright
James Dyrenforth
Miss Boyce
Glen Alyn
Hal Peterson
Bill Nagy
Mr Duval
John Vere
Secretary
Diana Lambert
Miss Jones
Jill Melford

---

Margaret Moves On

Margaret (Mary Merrall) is a widow in her sixties and has a genius for losing friends and exasperating people. Comedy and drama follow when she moves into the hard-pressed household of her son David (Patrick Barr).

David
Patrick Barr
Margaret
Mary Merrall
Ann
Ursula Howells
Peter
Jonathan Swift
Barbara
Iris Russell
Tony
Roderick Lovell
Mrs Pothecary
Dandy Nichols
Mrs Clark
Gladys Boot
Mr Clark
Richard Caldicot
Nurse Castle
Barbara Ogilvie
Sergeant
Leonard Williams
William Steadman
Henry Longhurst

---

Goodbye Jonah

A west country comedy by John Beaumont about the ruthlessness of the big businessman pitted against the guile and experience of the countryman. The big shot tried to buy the farmers out and impose modern methods, but after an immense amount of grumbling in the local village pub, everybody was reconciled.

Welsh character actor Enyon Evans was crafty West Country Reuben (with a trace of his Welsh accent coming through) and Roddy Hughes was amusing as an inefficient efficiency expert.

Reuben
E Eynon Evans
Stokes
Richard George
Craig
William Lucas
Major Gray
Gerald Case
Brian Shaw
Nigel Davenport
Diana Doyle
Ann Stephens
Eccles
Roddy Hughes
Mrs Crabthorne
Margot Lister
Jack Forge
Leo Franklyn