Trevor Hill radio plays

FARMING TODAY THIS WEEK
Sat 30 Dec 2017, 6.30am. Trevor appeared briefly, as one of the guests, talking about broadcasting during and just after WW2. The programme was made to celebrate 80 years of 'Farming Today'.

FAME IS THE SPUR*....c1990
By Howard Spring; dram. Ken Whitmore.Ken adds the following remarks about the production- "Trevor Hill was a great producer for sound effects and I remember him going off somewhere to record a coach and horses for couple of scenes. And we had a big old fashioned fire range in the studio complete with pans and kettles and pokers, which the actors had to move about as they spoke their lines. Trevor also had the superb theme tune specially commissioned. I'm afraid I have forgotten the name of the composer". (Trevor worked on the original Children's Hour and on retirement wrote a book about his radio days)

INTERVIEW WITH TREVOR HILL*....1988
6thOct88. Trevor Hill talks about Children's Hour.

The Weasel With The Waistcoat....1983
6 Sep 83. By Mo Greenwood. With George A Cooper, Clive Francis, Jason Littler. 55m. Producer Trevor Hill.

GREAT FAMILIES OF BRITAIN....1982 and 1988
By Alison Plowden. This series was marked by a full-colour front page on Radio Times issue no. 3036 plus an illustrated three-page article by the author. An article on the complete series was published in The Listener, 4 Feb 1982. The series producer was Trevor Hill.

17.01.82 The Russells of Woburn
24.01.82 The Princely House of Hamilton
31.01.82 The Noble House of Howard
07.02.82 The Fitzgeralds of Leinster
14.02.82 The Percy out of Northumberland
21.02.82 The Mostyns of Mostyn

Series 2 had the title "Lords of the Land":
27.04.88 The Herberts of Wilton
04.05.88 The Noble House of Cavendish
11.05.88 The Stanleys of Knowsley
18.05.88 The Sidneys of Penshurst

THE HORNBLOWER STORY....1968-9
Dramatised by Val Gielgud in 20 half-hour parts from four of the Hornblower books by C.S.Forester. John Westbrook as Hornblower. Other details: producer Trevor Hill, music by Johnny Pearson, special effects by David Fleming-Williams, Jack Hollinshead in conjunction with the Sea Training Association.

Trevor Hill, in 'Radio Times', 1968:

....The 'story' began, for me, in the Isle of Man in the summer of 1955 when I followed the thin piping sound of a recorder being played - and there, enjoying the peace of the mountain scenery, was Cecil Scott Forester.

It seemed wrong to intrude on his music-making, but I couldn't let the chance pass of talking to the man who created one of the best characters in modern fiction - Horatio Hornblower. The author agreed that the stories he had written so far would make good radio, but at that time the rights on Mr. Midshipman Hornblower and Lieutenant Hornblower were not available. It wasn't until the end of last year that the series as a whole became available to the BBC for broadcasting. Had C.S.Forester lived (he died before completing Hornblower and the Crisis, then I think this master of combining detailed fact with fiction would have wholeheartedly approved of the choice of adapter for The Hornblower Story.

Not only is Val Gielgud a master at the business of radio drama; he has an enthusiasm and understanding of the characters which Forester created. And he shares with the author a detailed and accurate knowledge of the period in the The Hornblower Story is set - the Napoleonic Wars.

Such was Forester's own interest and belief in the character, that having published Lord Hornblower in 1946, he then went back in time and after paintaking research, provided an equally detailed background to Hornblower as Mr. Midshipman and then as Lieutenant Hornblower - both of these appearing in 1952. For the radio series we have chosen the first three books in chronological order, Hornblower and the Hotspur being the third book in the series. But then we jump to Lord Hornblower for the fourth and final adaptation. The story is told by Admiral Lord Hornblower, now in retirement and in his seventies.

CAST for the early episodes in the two series: (1979/1968)

Admiral Lord Hornblower the narrator: Nigel Anthony/ John Westbrook
Mr Midshipman Hornblower as a youth: Nicholas Fry/ Derrick Gilbert
Capt Sir Edward Pellow of HMS Indefatigable [pt 2-4]: Ronald Herdman/ David Mahlowe

Lt Masters of HMS Justinian: Anthony Wingate/ Geoffrey Banks
Mr Midshipman Simpson: Ralph Lawford/ Paul Bond
Capt Keene of HMS Justinian: Charles Foster/ Roy Barraclough
Mr Midshipman Cleveland : Paul Herzberg/ Paul Webster
Lt Chalk of HMS Goliath: Ian Flintoff/ David Scase
Mr Midshipman Caldwell: Keith Ladd /Bruce Bould
Directed by Trevor Hill and Christopher Hayton Webb

THE EPISODES:

The Hornblower Story
Adapted for radio in 20 s by Val Gielgud
From four of the Hornblower books by C.S. Forester

Book 1: Mr Midshipman Hornblower
1: The Even Chance
2: The Cargo of Rice
3: The Man Saw God
4: The Examination for Lieutenant
5: The Duchess and the Devil

Book 2: Lieutenant Hornblower
1: The Peculiar Captain
2: Sealed Orders
3: The Landing
4: Court of Inquiry
5: Home and Beauty

Book 3: Hornblower and the Hotspur
1: Hotspur Sails
2: Hotspur and the Loire
3: The Raid
4: Blockade
5: The Treasure Fleet

Book 4: Lord Hornblower
1: The Mutiny
2: Plan for Rebellion
3: Counter-Stroke
4: Out of the Past
5: Story's End

The Night of Caesar's Knives*....1976

BBC Radio 4: Saturday Night Theatre

Broadcast: Saturday 14th February 1976 @ 8:30 p.m.

Doris and Michael return from their honeymoon when Michael receives a call from Tom Renshawe, offering him a second honeymoon in Rome for Michael and his wife, complimentaries of British Intelligence. They wanted to thank him for his earlier work in Germany. Though while he is there in Rome, they want him to shadow a gentlemen call Gerald Picton. British Intelligence wants to know where he goes and who he meets.

But while in Rome, Michael is approached by a good friend of Picton's who asks to set up a meeting with Michael. When Michael shows up he finds himself on a murder scene with he being the prime suspect.

With Anna Cropper [Doris Hayward], John Bennett [Michael Hayward], Elizabeth Kelly [Aunt Claire O'Connell], Geoffrey Matthews [Tom Renshawe], Ronald Herdman [Gerald Picton], Geoffrey Wheeler [Sven Best / Count Galetao], Peter Bell [Captain Averno of the Rome Police], David Marlowe [Colonel Boris Balakev of the KGB], Geoffrey Banks [Rodson, Head of the German Section of British Intelligence], Graham Tenant [Harry Carson], Meera Stowe [Jean Tyler, Gerald Picton's secretary]. (review by 'J' - thank you)

Produced by Trevor Hill

...note from Adrian Stephens, correcting an error of mine ... "Tom Renshawe is most particularly 'with an "e"' as this is a running joke through the play" ...

thanks Adrian - N.D.

THE LATE CHRISTOPHER BEAN....1969
"The Late Christopher Bean","Rene Fauchois","R4","5.4.1969/2030","Meg Wynn Owen/Lockwood West". Well-known play about a painter becoming famous after his death; I'd describe it as a comedy-drama. Trevor wrote the following remarks about it for Radio Times" back in 1969 (edited slightly for clarity):

Few artists appear to gain recognition in their own lifetime. Such a man was 'the late Christopher Bean', whose works of art, in various shapes and sizes, serve to prevent rain leaking through attic windows, to stop up holes in the chicken house, and for other purely domestic purposes, until a pack of London art dealers get on the scent. The trail leads them to a remote Cheshire village and the house of Arthur Haggett, a typical country doctor of the early 1930s.

I am grateful to Emlyn Williams for allowing me to set the play more firmly in Cheshire by substituting a Cheshire lad for the Scot who is in love with the girl. 'David Pickford' is based on a young decorator who lives in the Cheshire village of Bollington, whilst our local grocer, Geoff Bann, assisted with the dialect.

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