Marjorie Fry Radio Plays
In December 2024 I was pleased to be contacted by Graham Fry, whose mother was a playwright. and who wrote several interesting plays set in Singapore for the BBC, broadcast in the 1960s. I was lucky enough to meet Graham a few weeks later when I was giving a talk at the Soho Poly Theatre: "The Art and Craft of Radio Drama", and he gave me a copy of the existing recordings.
Here's what Graham had to say:
Marjorie Pratt was born on 16 March 1918. As you have seen from the cutting I sent you, she was keen on acting and writing even as a small girl, and by the age of ten she already wanted to be an “authoress”.
She spent the war in South Devon as a “land girl”, and in 1947, she married my father, Richard Fry, an RAF officer. Their only child, me, was born in 1949.
She was keen on amateur dramatics and wrote at least one play for the stage, but she only started to write plays for radio when my father was posted to Singapore in 1958. There was no TV in Singapore then, so the radio was a prime source of entertainment. I believe that someone at the local radio station gave her a lot of encouragement and guidance, but I cannot remember his name.
Shortly before “Singapore Sling” was broadcast, she wrote: “I have now lived in Singapore for two years. My first play, “The Night of the Key”, was written for the stage and performed in England. Subsequently it was accepted, subject to adaptation, by Radio Singapore. My second radio play, “Three Days to Friday”, was broadcast last Easter … I have studied the radio medium with great care, and have fallen in love with it! I have also fallen in love with South East Asia, and hope to do more plays with this locale! I have done a good deal of stage work, from an acting point of view … Frankly, I believe that acting experience is very helpful to a playwright, because although some lines read delightfully, they are impossible to say! (Or at least unlikely!) I have acted in two radio plays here in Singapore. An experience that has made me aware of the limitations and the possibilities of the microphone. It takes me about six months to write a play, and for every word in the final draft, I write about a hundred. I know the entire life history of all my characters and even what sort of parents they had!!!”
You already have the dates and recordings of the plays which were broadcast by the BBC. I don’t know how this came about. I do remember that she was pleased to have been allowed to attend the recording of “They Walk in Circles”, and pleased even then that the cast included Judi Dench.
Unfortunately, after that, she found it increasingly difficult to write material of the same standard, and I believe that her last broadcast play was the short one from 1967.
RADIO PLAYS
1960-??-??, Radio Singapore, The Night of the Key
1960-04-17, Radio Singapore, Three Days to Friday
1960-09-26, Radio Singapore, Singapore Sling
1961-05-04, 19-30, Home Service, Thursday Play, Singapore Sling (as above)
1961-07-26, 15-00, Home Service, Afternoon Theatre, They Walk in Circles
1962-10-06, 14-10, Home Service, Afternoon Theatre, Coffee in Penang
1964-09-02, 15-00, Home Service, Afternoon Theatre, The Maker of Orchids
1967-01-03, 11-30, Home Service, Stop That Clock
NOTES ON THE PLAYS
THREE DAYS TO FRIDAY .... 1960
This play was broadcast by Radio Singapore but not by the BBC (see note below). It concerns a woman living on a remote farm; whilst her husband is away she encounters a stranger who has spent the night in her barn. Who is he?
GF adds:
This play was broadcast on Radio Singapore on 17 April 1960. I have found a document from the Department of Broadcasting, Singapore, which shows that she received the princely sum of 50 (Singapore) dollars for her work. "Singapore Sling" was broadcast by the same station on 26 September 1960. For some reason it seems that the BBC were not interested in broadcasting "Three days to Friday", though I think it is the best of her plays. It was the second of her plays broadcast in Singapore; I do not have a recording of the first, "Night of the Key".
SINGAPORE SLING .... 1960 (R.Sing) and 1961 (BBC)
This play is listed as the Thursday Play but the writer is not credited in RT and there is no synopsis. 60m. The story - Charles Spencer receives a phone call from a man demanding money from someone he knows, for 'insurance'. If he doesn't pay up, there will be consequences ... I have taken the cast list from the recording; apologies for any spelling mistakes: Charles Spencer: Austin Trevor, Lim: Tom Watson, Rich Harrington: Leon Pears, Chan Son Li: Hamilton Dyce, Violetta Snow: Gwen Burrows, Tan: Julian Summers, Julie Chan: Ewan Morgan. Producer: not known; the recording cuts off at that point. Betty Davies, possibly?
Stephen Shaw, who once lived in Singapore, writes:
The story was well put together, the pacing and drama well done. Interesting ending which even in 1961 would have been a bit of a meme but you have only limited endings to such situations.
I didn't like the Chinese accents , not apparently played for laughs, which were wrongly and inaccurately sterotyped. #
The storyline was probably inspired by a then current news story- For 10 months between late 1959 and 1960, a series of wealthy tycoons were abducted in Singapore and Johor Bahru for payment of ransom money. One case in August 1960 included death threats against a daughter. In real life the gang boss was shot by the police. .
I heard a phrase I have not heard for 60 plus years, and I am sure no-one at the BBC knew it.... Keng Hwa. We had a Keng Hwa flower one night, and it was something to stay up for and invite people round for and photograph! (I have a photo...). It is an epiphyllum, also known as Queen of the Night or Dutchman's Pipe- but unrelated to the selenicereus we have grown here in Stockport which are also called Queen of the Night. The large flowers start to open about 10pm and by morning are dead- normally they seek to attract bats to pollinate them and have a powerful perfume. Well known in Malaya even though originating in Central America.
Criminal gangs in the 60s Singapore were into extortion and tattood IDs as gang ID (Tattoos were likely to get you into trouble with the police....).
Singapore Sling is a drink is attributed to a barman at the Raffles Hotel, Singapore. "Causeway" is a link between the island of Singapore and the Malay peninsula carrying road and rail traffic.
# The accents used by the English actors were more
what an Englishman who had never met someone Chinese might imagine if
they were brought up on Charlie Chan.
GF adds:
I agree with Stephen about the fake Chinese accents, and he is right about the Keng Hwa flower. I can remember as a nine-year old finding it hard to understand why my parents were so excited when our plant flowered one night.
THEY WALK IN CIRCLES .... 1961
Afternoon Theatre; rpt. 11 Apr 62 on Light programme as Midweek Theatre. A projected dam for a pleasure resort in Malaya is the cause of a violent upheaval in the lives of two brothers and a Eurasian girl. Cast in order of speaking:
Clive Forster: Derek Blomfield,
Silva Chen: Judi Dench,
Bruce Innis: Anthony Hall,
Peter Forster: Brewster Mason,
Aborigine child: Hilda Kriseman,
Malay Police Sergeant: Julian Somers,
Chabai: Michael Turner,
Produced by Cedric Messina.
COFFEE IN PENANG .... 1962
A thriller for radio by Marjorie Fry. Midweek Theatre, Light Programme. Rpt. 16 Jan 1963. A beautiful Chinese girl, a photographer, is murdered, and the motive is obscure. Was it an emotional crime, or was Anna Chan, perhaps, involved in something more than just a love affair? Allice Dalton , flying to Bangkok with a roll of Anna's film, is followed and attacked and at the end of a long and dangerous chase it is at last clear who killed Anna and why. Second broadcast.
Paula Trent .......... Gretel Davis,
Sqdn -Ldr Andrew MacLeish .......... Timothy West,
Allice Dalton .......... Elizabeth Morgan,
Yong Siew Kee .......... Geoffrey Matthews,
Inspector Lei .......... John Ruddocke,
Taxi driver .......... Kristophen Kum,
Temple guide .......... Eric Young.
Other parts played by Kristopher Kum , Eric Young , and members of the BBC Drama Repertory Company.
Producer .......... Betty Davies.
THE MAKER OF ORCHIDS .... 1964
With Mary Wimbush and Andrew Sachs. ' It was something inside myself. Something I wouldn't face up to. Joseph was right. Self-deception is not only cowardly, it's dangerous.'
Lim: Malcolm Hayes,
Quentin Loring: Peter O'Shaughnessy
Ellie Cavendish: Mary Wimbush
Nina Dereham: Branwen Iorwerth,
Joseph: Andrew Sachs,
Mr Cray: John Ruddock
Secretary: Patricia Leventon.
Produced by Charles Lefeaux.
STOP THAT CLOCK....1967
Home Service; first broadcast: Tue 3rd Jan 1967, 11:30 on BBC Home Service Basic. In the series 'Tales Out of School'; three Tuesday-morning plays about young people. Play 3: Stop that Clock, by Marjorie Fry. 'He wouldn't climb down because of the others. They said he wouldn'have the guts.' ' The guts to do what? You must tell me please.'
Cast in order of speaking :
Stella Corbitt: Joan Matheson,
Frankic Corbitt: Hilda Schroder,
Trudy: Betty Huntley-Wright,
Colonel Dubois: Arthur Cox,
Herr Carlberg: Harold Kasket,
Paul Corbitt: Nigel Anthony,
Christine West: Barbara Mitchell,
Hans: Leroy Lingwood,
Jon: Clive Merrison.
Produced by Ronald Mason.
Nigel Deacon / Diversity Website, with thanks to Graham Fry.
