Radio Plays, 1962

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Three men in a boat....1962
Done as a musical, with K.Horne and L.Phillipps, 26.12.1962. Relaxing, nostalgic, sentimental - the essence of Jerome K. Jerome. ....Recording from Jeremy Stevenson - many thanks. [Note....this recording was subsequently broadcast on BBC7 - I think from Jeremy's original - and it has been repeated a few times since]

The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton....1962
24 Dec 62; Home Service. A story from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, adapted and produced by Charles Lefeaux. Told by Ralph Richardson. Incidental music composed and conducted by Christopher Whelen, with the Ambrosian Singers and Wilfred Brown (tenor) as King of the Goblins.

"A Study In Scarlet"....1962
"Arthur Conan Doyle","Home","22.12.1962/2030","Carleton Hobbs/Norman Shelley". Another excellent tale by Conan Doyle. Produced by Graham Gauld.

"Unlawful Occasions","Henry Cecil","Home","8.12.1962/2030","Alan Badel/Patrick Barr/Catherine Dolan/Marjorie Mars". Another full-length legal drama from the author of "Brothers in Law".

Scott & Wilson of the Antarctic....1962
Feature, 60m, broadcast Tues 6 Nov 62, 8.30-9.30pm. Narration by Noel Johnson. Home Service. From the Pat Hetherington collection.

TROUBLE WITH LICHEN....1962
26 Nov 62. 90m sci-fi tale of a potion which extends life significantly. By John Wyndham. Can't remember the dramatist or producer at the time of writing.

IT WAS ONLY A JOKE....1962
By Jon Rollason & Keith Williams. Home Service, 29.9.1962. 53m. Some working-class lads are impressed by a student from the university who tells them of a prank he and his friends pulled during rag week. They decide on a rag stunt of their own, in the factory where they work. Unfortunately the boss does not find it amusing. The play is somewhat dated, but it neatly illustrates the town - gown divide. Shaun Barratt, Anthony Hall, Nigel Anthony, Shirley Cooklin, George Merritt, Andrew Irvine, Charles Hodgson, Peter Howell, Janet Burnell, Kenneth Hyde, Elizabeth Morgan, Peter Pratt, Lee Fox, George Hagan. Producer Peter Bryant.

DEADLY NIGHTINGALE....1962
15 Aug 62. By Emery Bonet. Play involving a recording: two boys get a nightingale on tape, but accidentally record a conversation which they were not meant to hear. It lands them in trouble. Cast: Anthony Reese, Geoffrey Wincott, Pat Gilbert, George Hagan, Will Leighton. Produced by Archie Campbell.


FREEDOM HOURS....1962
20 jul 62: By Barry Bermange. Not a play; old people talk about the way they spend their time. An old man talks about his gardening and his home-made wine. "The days are not long enough ..." An old man, 95 years old, describes his daily round. "I don't worry at all, there's no point in it, but it would be nice to have someone to talk to ... An old man, 80 years old this year, with a very pronounced theatrical manner, has written a play called Leonardo, and is trying to get it produced. He also teaches dress design at an evening institute, and mentions its name - "I'm advertising but I don't care". He is never sorry for himself - "My heart is as young as it was at 18"... An old woman says she is "a bit lonely sometimes", but is rarely depressed - "I like my wireless". Nowadays she goes seldom to the pictures - "they've fallen off". She ends, unexpectedly, "Oh, dear, that tea has given me indigestion again - I've got a couple of tablets in here". The programme was compiled by Barry Bermange, and produced by David Thomson. The speakers were recorded at an old people's club; sometimes a piano is heard behind the voices, but the music is not identifiable.

THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK....1962
by Jaroslav Hasek, translated by Paul Selver, adapted for radio by R.D. Smith; produced by John Griffiths in Swansea and London. First broadcast 16th July 1962. Selected at the Drama Annual Review 1963 as an outstanding production.

At the outbreak of World War I, Schweilk, a citizen of Prague in the Austro-Hungarian empire, displays such enthusiasm about faithfully serving the Emperor in battle that no one can decide whether he is merely an imbecile or is craftily undermining the war effort. Through a series of seemingly innocent mistakes, he brings disaster on those around him.

Radio Times: "Schweik stands, sausage in hand and inscrutable, before a clouded tapestry of oppression and slaughter... Hasek exposes the horrors of the Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy...his weapon is laughter, not nightmare..."

"The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Svejk During the World War", a novel, was unfinished at the time of Hasek's death from tuberculosis in 1923. Hasek originally intended Svejk to cover a total of six volumes, but had completed only four. Many of the situations and characters seem to have been inspired, at least in part, by Hasek's service in the 91st Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Schweik......................................Norman Wynne
Mrs. Muller.................................Rachel Thomas
Chaplain Katz.................................John Darran
Lt. Lukash................................Anthony Viccara
Palivecs....................................Dewi Williams
Mrs. Palivacs.............................Catherine Dolan
Bretschneider.................................D.I. Davies
Blahnik......................................George David
Justice....................................Godfrey Kenton
Dr. Bautze....................................Haydn Jones
Col. K. von Zittergut........................Anthony Shaw
Vanek.................................Ieuan Rhys Williams

Also taking part: Evan Morgan; Leigh Crutchley; Emlyn James; Hubert Hughson; Eric Ellis; Arthur Games; Denya Hawthorne; William Eedle; Wildred Babbage; John Scott; Charles Simon; Stanley Lebor; Anthony Hall; Rolf Lefebvre; John Bryning; Keith Buckley; Derek Birch. Music by A.L.Lloyd (singer), Alf Edwards (concertina) and chorus (cast members). ...information supplied by Roger Bickerton...many thanks....

THE REVENGE OF SOLOMON SCHWARTZ ....1962
14 Jul 62. By Richard Huggett. The rise and fall of a Jewish entrepreneur. 59m. Henry Wolf as Solly, with David Heather, John Gabriel, Cyril Shaps, Earl Grey, Donald McCulloch, Hilda Chriseman. Produced by Archie Campbell.


*JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH....1962
BBC 25/5/62 - 6/7/62 7eps x 40min re-edited, with a running time of about 180min; from the novel by Jules Verne, adapted by Lance Sieveking .


The English Tibetan Lama, Lobsang Rampa.... 1962.
Feature: a story of human credulity stretched to the limit. In series entitled "The Imposters", prog. 3, 15 May 1962. 60min, Home Service.

Lobsang Rampa is the spirit of a dead Tibetan Lama which allegedly took over the body of Cyril Hoskin (1910-1981), a British-born plumber living in Ireland, in the mid-1950s.

Hoskin submitted a manuscript to the publishing firm of Secker & Warburg entitled The Third Eye, allegedly authored by the long-dead Lama Lobsang Rampa, by whom he said he was possessed.

Secker published it; the British editions sold around eighty thousand copies, the German translation sold slightly more, and comparable numbers were sold in other European languages.

Hoskin was traced by the Press and found living in Ireland. He told them that he'd been knocked out when he'd fallen from a tree in Surrey and when he recovered consciousness the spirit of the Tibetan monk had taken over his body.

The articles they wrote to ridicule him increased his popularity. He published several more books and eventually emigrated to Canada. Nothing was too fantastic for some of his followers to believe. He said, for example, that his 1964 book Living with the Lama was dictated to him telepathically by his cat, Miss Fifi Greywhiskers. He was industrious and prolific, eventually publishing twenty books.

Lobsang Rampa continues to gain followers; there is a flourishing website.

Cyril Hoskin died in 1981.

Recording from the Pat Hetherington collection

A PERFECTLY GHASTLY JOKE....1962
By Giles Cooper. 30 minute ghostly tale with Kathleen Helme and Gabriel Wolf.

NO QUARTER....1962
By Barry Bermange. Felix Felton version of a group of people trapped in a doomed hotel. But this isn't anything like a disaster movie; it's more like Kafka. 60min (I think). There's also a 1976 version with a different cast. See BB's page.

CHOCKY....1962
A creature from another world befriends a child. Spooky little tale. John Wyndham again. ....Recording from Bob Thirsk - many thanks.

THE DEMON KING....1962
No other details.

THE BALLAD OF PECKHAM RYE....1962
No other details.

Above plays known to exist in VRPCC collections.

Nigel Deacon / Diversity website

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