Third Programme:
Drama, 1960

The BBC Third Programme Plays 1960

03/01/1960  Arthur Adamov En Fiacre
(Translated from the French by Humphrey Hare) (Produced by Barbara Bray) rpt 01/08/1960

05/01/1960 Ingeborg Bachmann The Good God of Manhattan
(Translated by Christopher Holme) Production by Douglas Cleverdon) ' Love is on the nocturnal side of the world ..." A love affair in New York between an American college girl and an overseas student, ending in a suicide pact, is the subject of an argument between two supernatural beings-the Judge, and the Good God of Manhattan who is accused of causing the girl's death. rpt 29/01/1960

06/01/1960 A programme of scenes from plays
by Guillaume ApollinaireTristan Tzara, E. E. Cummings, Louis Aragon , Roger Vitrac and Pablo Picasso Art-Anti-Art « WE CALLED OUR HIPPOPOTAMUS " IT'S TOASTED " Introduced by Jacques Brunius Scenes performed bv members of the BBC Drama Repertory Company Produced by Barbara Bray. Rpt 24/01/1960

07/01/1960 Peter Everett 'DAY AT IZZARD'S WHARF'
(A Dockside Eclogue) The music arranged and composed by A. L. Lloyd and Freddie Phillips and played bv Freddie Phillips (guitar) Produced by Terence Tiller (First broadcast 19/08/1959)

08/01/1960  Louis MacNeice ' THEY MET ON GOOD FRIDAY'
A sceptical historical romance. The battle of Clontarf was fought in A.D. 1014, just north of Dublin, between the Irish and the Vikings. This is a dramatisation of an odd bit of history. with members of the BBC Drama Repertory Company Harp played by Mary Rowland Music and specially devised sounds by Tristram Cary Production by Louis MacNeice.

09/01/1960 Georg Büchner Lenz Read by Paul Schofield
(Translated by Goronwy Rees) (Music composed by Humphrey Searle played bv a section of the Sinfonia of London conducted by the composer) (Production by H. B. Fortuin) In this analytical documentary story-begun about 1836 but unfinished because of other pressing literarv tasks. Büchner gives a moving picture of how the poet and playwright Reinhold Lenz (1751-1792) while staying in the Vosges with the kind Pastor Oberlin was engulfed by madness.

10/01/1960 Sophocles The Antigone
(A new translation by C. A. Trypan) (Music composed and conducted by John Hotchkis) (Chorus directed by Colette King) (Production by Val Gielgud) rpt 29/05/1960

11/01/1960 G. W. Ireland An Evening with Mallarmé (
Production by Anthony Thwaite) rpt 06/02/1960 & 23/07/1960

12/01/1960  Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman
(Adapted for broadcasting by Peter Watts) (With members of the BBC Drama Repertory Company Incidental music by Alex North conducted by Marcus Dods) (Produced by Peter Watts)

14/01/1960 Jules Supervielle The Ox and the Ass
(Translated and adapted by Dorothy Baker with musique concrete composed by Andre Almuro) (Production by Douglas Cleverdon) (First broadcast 24/12/1959)

15/01/1960  Robert Pinget Dead Letter
(Translated from the French and produced by Barbara Bray) (First broadcast 21/07/1959 rpt 14/08/1959)

16/01/1960 Sydney Carter The Professional Life of Mr. Dirdin
(Based upon the songs, operas and autobiographical writings of Charles Dibdin 1745-1814) (Orchestra conducted by Patrick Savill)  (Produced by Terence Tiller)

17/01/1960 Henrik Ibsen Peer Gynt
(English version by Norman Ginsbury) (Music by HARALD SAEVERUD) (Produced by Donald McWhinnie) (First broadcast 30/12/1959) rpt 10/06/1960

20/01/1960 Ivy Compton-Burnett A Heritage and Its History
(Adapted for radio bv Christopher Sykes in collaboration with the author) (Narration by John Sharp) (Production by Christopher Sykes) (First broadcast 16/09/1959 rpt 09/10/1959))

21/01/1960 W. H. Auden The Dark Valley
(A radio monologue) (Music by Matyas Seiber with BEATRIX LEHMANN as the Old Woman and Harold Reese as the Goose) (This work was first performed in the U.S.A. in 1940 in the Columbia Workshop Programme, a series distinguished for the experimental nature of its broadcasts. This is its first performance in this country). Rpt 13/02/1960 and 16/07/1960

22/01/1960 Jessie Kesson ...And Barley Riggs
(An impression of a way of life, of a man derived from it, and of his particular problem) (Produced by James Crampsey)

23/01/1960 Tyrone Guthrie Idols of Wood and Stone
(A monologue for radio) (Produced by John Gibson) (A spinster living in the shadow of a cathedr.l talks about her father and the past). Rpt 27/02/1960

26/01/1960 Anon The Damask Drum
(A Japanese Noh Play) (A programme in two parts arranged by Geoffrey Bownas) (Produced by David Thomson) Part I: THE MEDIEVAL PLAY attributed to Seami Motokiyo translated by Arthur Walev. Part 2: THE MODERN PLAY on the same theme by Yukio Mishima, translated by Donald Keene. rpt 17/02/1960 & 27/09/1960

27/01/1960 William Golding Free Fall
(From the novel) (Radio script by Donald McWhinnie) (Produced by Donald MeWhinnie) rpt 14/02/1960 & 24/08/1960

04/02/1960 H. A. L. Craig The Children of Lir
(An Irish legend) (Sound by Tristram Cary) (Production by Douglas Cleverdon) (First broadcast 21/09/1959)

10/02/1960 Bertolt Brecht Galileo Galilei
(English version by Charles Laughton) (Edited for radio by H. B. Fortuin and W. A. Glen-Doepel) (Music by Hanns Eisler) (First broadcast 09/09/1959)

16/02/1960 John Webster The White Devil
(British Drama 1600 – 1642: Adapted and produced by R. D. Smith) (Music composed by Marcus Dods) (The series edited by Raymond Raikes) rpt 06/03/1960

21/02/1960 East of the Sun and West of the Moon
(A Norwegian folk tale dramatised by Louis MacNeice) (Music and specially devised sounds by Tristram Cary)  (Production by Louis MacNeice) (First broadcast 25/07/1959)

23/01/1960  Alfred Jarry Art-Anti-Art : Ubu Roi
(Translated by Barbara Wright) (Production by Barbara Bray) rpt 13/03/1960

24/02/1960 Molière Don Juan
(Translated by George Graveley) (Produced by R. D. Smith) (First broadcast 15/09/1959)

25/02/1960 Raymond Queneau Exercises in Style
(English version by Barbara Wright with music by Pierre Philippe conducted by Charles Mackerras) (Production by Douglas Cleverdon) (First broadcast 25/12/1959) rpt 16/04/1960

28/02/1960 William Shakespeare The Tempest
(Music composed by Elizabeth Poston and conducted by Douglas Robinson) (Produced by Charles Lefeaux) (First broadcast 25/07/1959)

01/03/1960 Harold Pinter A Night Out
(Production: Donald McWhinnie) rpt 24/03/1960 and 12/09/1960

02/03/1960 Henry de Montherlant Don Juan
(English version by Robert Baldick) (Music composed by Manuel Lazareno) (Guitarist, Freddie Phillips) (Radio adaptation and production by H. B. Fortuin)

08/03/1960 Peter Gurney The Guilt of King Polycrates
(A Melodrama for an Age of Prosperity) (A verse play for radio based on Herodotus) (Music by Humphrey Searle) (Production by Raymond Raikes) rpt 27/03/1960 and 10/09/1960

10/03/1960 John McGrath The Tent
(Egypt-the Canal Zone: 1953) (Produced by Alan Hancock) rpt 02/04/1960 and 31/07/1960 (This play was written for improvisation, a technique in which playwright, director, and actors adapt themselves spontaneously to each other's work-the actors even during the final performance.)

15/03/1960  Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage
(Adapted for radio by H. A. L. Craig) ‘Music composed by John Buckland conducted by Lawrence Leonard Songs arranged by Freddie Phillips sung by Andrew Downie and Uriel Porter Produced by John Gibson rpt 03/04/1960 and 19/08/1960

18/03/1960 A. Edward Richards Master Mariner
(A story for voices) (Production by John Griffiths) rpt 09/04/1960 and 13/08/19

19/03/1960 Jeremy Sandford Not Wishing to Return
(A young woman's experiences in Ireland early in this century) (Adapted from his grandmother's diaries and introduced by the author) (Produced by Terence Tiller) (First broadcast 04/07/1959)

20/03/1960 Giinter Eich The Girls from Viterbo
(Translated from the German by Michael Hamburger) (First broadcast 31/08/1959)

22/03/1960 W. B. Yeats The Countess Kathleen
(Music composed by John Buckland) (Adapted for radio and produced by Frederick Bradnum) rpt 10/04/1960 and 03/07/1960

26/03/1960 The Book of the Dead - The Egyptian Ritual
(Adapted and produced by Douglas Cleverdon) (Music by Anthony Milner conducted By: Bryan Balkwill) rpt 13/09/1960

30/03/1960 Eugene Ionesco Rhinoceros
(Translated by Derek Prouse) (Production by Michael Bakewell)  (First broadcast 20/08/1959)

30/03/1960 William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra
(Incidental music composed by Elisabeth Lutyens conducted by Edward Clark) (Produced by R. D. Smith ) rpt 10/04/1960 and 22/04/1960

01/04/1960 Denis Saurat The End of Fear
(Translated by Philip Mairet Adapted for broadcasting and produced by Terence Tiller with musique concrète by Tristram Cary) rpt 21/04/1960

05/04/1960 Henry de Montherlant The Land Where the King is a Child
(' La Ville dont le Prince est un Enfant ') (Translated by Henry Reed) (Produced by Archie Campbell)

06/04/1960 Thomas Middleton The Changeling
(Edited for radio and produced by Raymond Raikes) (Music by Christopher Whelen) rpt 24/04/1960 and 09/10/1960

09/04/1960 A. Edward Richards Master Mariner
(Production by John Griffiths) A story for voices. In this story the author takes for his background a seaside village on the Cardigan coast and recalls the excitement on the day eleven-year-old Shami Wil Hwyle lcavei home to go to sea.

12/04/1960 William Alfred Agamemnon
(A verse play)  (Adapted for broadcasting by Cynthia Pughe rpt 01/05/1960

13/04/1960 Philip O'Connor Blind Tom
(Based on research by Mildred Stock with Jane Jordan Rogers and Marvin Kane Music, including excerpts from Blind Tom's own compositions for the piano played by Peter Gellhorn) (Production by David Thomson) rpt 07/05/1960

17/04/1960  Dorothy Baker In the Bosom of the Family
(Production by Christopher Sykes) (First broadcast 20/12/1954)

19/04/1960 James Hanley The Queen of Ireland
(Produced by John Gibson) rpt 08/05/1960

20/04/1960  William Golding Miss Pulkinhorn
(Produced by David Thomson) rpt 07/02/1961

23/04/1960 James Saunders Barnstable
(Production by Donald McWhinnie) (First broadcast 20/11/1959)

26/04/1960 Laurie Lee I Call Me Adam
(Production by Louis MacNeice)

27/04/1960 Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot
(Translated from his original French text by the author) (Production by Donald McWhinnie) (This is its first radio production) rpt 17/05/1960

03/05/1960 Henrik Ibsen A Doll’s House
(Translated by William Archer) (Production by Frederick Bradnum)

04/05/1960 Henry Reed Return to Naples
(Production by Douglas Cleverdon) (Eighth broadcast of the programme originallv heard in 1950: the revised production of 1953) (First broadcast 17/08/1950)

06/05/1960 Philip Massinger A New Way to Pay Old Debts
(Music composed by Anthony Bernard) (Edited for radio and produced by Raymond Raikes) rpt 22/05/1960

11/05/1960 Maurice Cranston Sovereignty
(A conversation in May 1660) (Produced by Douglas Cleverdon) rpt 09/06/1960 and 11/12/1960

12/05/1960 J.E. Hinder Paste and Paper Everywhere
(A satire on light documentary programmes) (Music arranged by Alan Paul) (Production: Martyn C. Webster)

14/05/1960 Meander Misanthrope
(‘Dyscolos': the only complete comedy by Menander in existence, a discovery first reported in 1957) (English translation by Philip Vellacott) (Textual adviser, Hugh Lloyd-Jones) (Music composed by Thomas Eastwood) (Radio adaptation and production by Raymond Raikes) (First broadcast 30/10/1959)

15/05/1960 Harley Granville-Barker Waste
(Adapted for broadcasting by Cynthia Pughe) (Production by Val Gielgud) (First broadcast 08/11/1959)

18/05/1960  John Milton Samson Agonistes
(Produced by R. D. Smith) rpt 05/06/1960

25/05/1960 Nathanael West Miss Lonelyhearts
(Music arranged by Walter Goehr played by William Davies, organ) (Adapted and produced by D. G. Bridson) rpt 17/06/1960

26/05/1960 Voices in the Air
(Words and Music from North, South, East, and West,Right, Left, and Centre) (Devised and produced by Douglas Cleverdon and introduced by Donald Cotton) Words by: John Betjeman, David Climie, Donald Cotton, Michael Flanders, Harold Pinter, N. F. Simpson and Sandy Wilson Music by: Antony Hopkins, Alan Langford, John Pritchett, James Stevens and Donald Swann and Sandy Wilson. rpt 21/06/1960

27/05/1960 August Strindberg Easter
(Translated by Peter Watts) (Produced by Peter Watts) rpt 12/06/1960

01/06/1960 George Etherege The Man of Mode
(Produced By: Charles Lefeaux) rpt 01/11/1960

06/06/1960 V. S. Pritchett Imaginery Conversations:  Maisie 
(Produced by Rayner Heppenstall) Some considerations affecting the origins and subsequent history of a character in fiction with Felix Aylmer as Henry James. First broadcast 24/04/1949

07/06/1960  Evelyn Waugh The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
(Script and production by Michael Bakewell) rpt 26/06/1960

11/06/1960 Fr. Rolfe (Baron Corvo) Hadrian VII
(Adapted by Rayner Heppenstall) (Produced by Douglas Cleverdon)  First broadcast 04/12/1959

14/06/1960 William Wycherley Restoration Drama Programme 2: The Country Wife
(Music by Solomon Eccles adapted and arranged by Lionel Salter) (Produced by Charles Lefeaux) rpt 30/11/1960

18/06/1960 The Noble Savage
(Diderot's Supplément au ' Voyage' de Bougainville newly translated by Rayner Heppenstall)  (Produced by Rayner Heppenstall) First broadcast 27/02/1959

22/06/1960 William Shakespeare King Lear
(Produced by Charles Lefeaux) ( Music composed by Tristram Cary conducted by Maurice Miles) rpt 20/09/1960

23/06/1960 William Faulkner As I Lay Dying
(Adapted for radio by Dorothy Baker) (Produced by D. G. Bridson) rpt 10/07/1960

25/06/1960 John Mortimer Lunch Hour
(The scene is the bedroom of a small hotel near King's Cross station) (Production: Martyn C. Webster) rpt 11/07/1960

28/06/1960 William Congreve Restoration Drama: Programme 3: The Way of the World
(Music by John Eccles adapted and arranged by Lionel Salter) (Produced by Charles Lefeaux) rpt 30/12/1960

01/07/1960 Henry Reed Musique Discrete
(A request programme of music by Dame Hilda Tablet by courtesy of Henry Reed and Donald Swann) (Production by Douglas Cleverdon with the London String Quartet and Stephen Whittaker (percussion) conducted by Donald Swann) (First broadcast 27/10/1959)

02/07/1960 Lady Sarashina The Sarashina Diary
(Written by a court lady of eleventh-century Japan and newly translated and adapted for broadcasting by Geoffrey Bownas) (The music composed and played by Yuize Shinichi (koto)) (Produced by Terence Tiller) (First broadcast 17/04/1959)

05/07/1960  Ivan Turgenev Rudin
(A radio script by Barbara Bray based on the translation by Richard Hare) (Produced by Barbara Bray) rpt 25/07/1960

06/07/1960 Donald Cotton The Salvation of Faust
(Another Play on Words and Music) (The Words by Donald Cotton and the Music by James Stevens) (Production by Douglas Cleverdon)  rpt 30/07/1960

13/07/1960 Gunter Eich Omar and Omar
(Translated from the German by Martina Mayne) (Music composed and played by Na'im al-Basri with Lionel Solomon (bass flute) (BBC recording) (Production: Christopher Holme) rpt 06/08/1960

15/07/1960 John Dryden All for Love
Restoration Drama: Programme 4 (Produced By: R. D. Smith) rpt 16/10/1960

19/07/1960  T. H. White The Goshawk
(Adapted and produced by Nesta Pain) (First broadcast 14/01/1952) rpt 12/08/1960

20/07/1960 N.F. Simpson A Resounding Tinkle
(Producer: Charles Lefeaux) rpt 07/08/1960

22/07/1960  Henry de Montherlant Port-Royal
(Translated from the French by Robert Speaight) (Produced By: Michael Bakewell) (First broadcast 14/12/1956)

24/07/1960 Bill Naughton June Evening
(Production by Douglas Cleverdon) (First broadcast 29/07/1958)

26/07/1960 Terence Tiller The Baker’s Daughter
(Produced by the author) (A new production of a play first broadcast 25/04/1950) rpt 14/08/1960

27/07/1960 Nathaniel Lee Restoration Drama Programme 5: Lucius Junius Brutus
(Radio adaptation and production by Raymond Raikes) (Music by Elizabeth Poston based on Purcell's music for Lee's ' Theodosius 1680) rpt 13/11/1960

03/08/1960 Rhys Adrian Betsie
(Production by Michael Bakewell) rpt 21/08/1960

10/08/1960 Thomas Otway Restoration Drama Programme 6: Venice Preserved
or A Plot Discovered (Radio adaptation/Production: Raymond Raikes) rpt 13/12/1960

15/08/1960  Martin Shuttleworth A Candle on a Cactus Leaf
(Produced by David Thomson) rpt 06/09/1960

17/08/1960 Jan Carew and Sylvia Wynter The University of Hunger
(Produced by Charles Lefeaux) rpt 09/09/1960

23/08/1960 Robert Pinget The Old Tune
('La Manivelle') (A conversation piece written for the Third Programme) (English text by Samuel Beckett) (Produced by Barbara Bray) rpt 11/09/1960

29/08/1960  W. B. Yeats Two Plays
(Music by Max Saunders Orchestra conducted by Max Saunders) (Production by Anthony Thwalte) rpt 24/09/1960

31/08/1960 August Strindberg Playing with Fire
(Translated and adapted' for radio by Frederick Bradnum) (Production by H. B. Fortuin) rpt 18/09/1960

05/09/1960 Edouard Dujardin The Green Bay Tree
(Translated and arranged by Rayner Heppenstall from the short novel ' Les Lauriers sont coupés (Produced by Rayner Heppenstall) rpt 25/09/1960

06/09/1960 Martin Shuttleworth A Candle on a Cactus Leaf
(Produced by David Thomson)

07/09/1960 James Saunders Alas, Poor Fred
(A suburban dialogue after the manner of lonesco) (Produced by Michael Bakewell and Alfred Bradley) rpt 01/10/1960

16/09/1960 Jean-Jacques Bernard Invitation to a Voyage
(Arranged as a radio play by Raymond Raikes from the English translation by John Leslie Frith) (Music by John Hotchkis based on the setting by Duparc of Baudelaire's poem 'L'Invitation au Voyage ') (The Goldsbrough Orchestra (leader. Emanuel Hurwitz ) conducted by John Hotchkis) (Production by Raymond Raikes) rpt 02/10/1960

21/09/1960 Leslie Dalken The Circular Road
(An Epiphany of Childhood in Dublin from things remembered in troubled times) (Produced By: H. B. Fortuta)

29/09/1960 Bill Naughton Wigan to Rome
(A Holiday Coach-Tour) (Production by Douglas Cleverdon) rpt 18/10/1960 & 31/12/1960

30/09/1960 Henrik Ibsen The Wild Duck
(An adaptation by Max Faber) (Produced by Frederick Bradnum)

04/10/1960 Giles Cooper Pig in the Middle
(Produced by H. B. Fortuin) rpt 28/10/1960

07/10/1960  Muriel Spark The Ballad of Peckham Rye
(Text from Muriel Spark's novel with lyrics by Muriel Spark and music by Tristram Cary) (Adaptation and production by Christopher Holme) rpt 29/10/1960 & 28/12/1960

12/10/1960 Henrik Ibsen An Enemy of the People
(Translated by Max Faber) (Production by R. D. Smith) rpt 30/10/1960

17/10/1960 Edwin Brock Night Duty on Eleven Beat
(Produced by Terence Tiller) rpt 12/11/1960

19/10/1960 Thomas Hardy England’s Harrowing PART 1:
TRAFALGAR (A script for broadcasting by Frederick Bradnum from "The Dynasts" by Thomas Hardy With music by Humphrey Searle ) (Production by R. D. Smith) rpt 06/11/1960

21/10/1960 Thomas Hardy England’s Harrowing PART 2:
WATERLOO (A script for broadcasting by Frederick Bradnum from "The Dynasts" by Thomas Hardy With music by Humphrey Searle ) (Production by R. D. Smith) rpt 09/11/1960

23/10/1960 William Shakespeare Hamlet
(Production by  Cedric Messina)

26/10/1960 H. A. L. Craig The School of Night
(Production by Douglas Cleverdon) ('The School of Night' was Shakespeare's nickname for an Elizabethan literary group founded by Sir Walter Ralegh. Among its members were such nobles as the Earl of Northumberland (known as ' The Wizard Earl') and such poets as Marlowe and Chapman. Under the tutelage of Thomas Harriot, the mathematician, they studied theology, astronomy, philosophy, geography, and chemistry). Rpt 19/11/1960

04/11/1960 Peter Gurney The Treasure House
(Production by Robin Midgley) rpt 26/11/1960

08/11/1960 Bill Naughton Thirty- Sixty
(Production by  Douglas Cleverdon) rpt 04/12/1960

11/11/1960 Harley Granville Barker The Madras House
(Adapted for broadcasting by Cynthia Pughe) ( Production by Val Gielgud) rpt 27/11/1960

15/11/1960 Henry Reed Emily Butter An Occasion Recalled
(The first performance of Hilda Tablet 's opera at Covent Garden) (Production suddenly realised by) (Fifth broadcast, first broadcast 14/11/1954)

16/11/1960 Ted Hughes The House of Aries
(A dramatic poem) (Producer: Sasha Moorsom) rpt 03/12/1960

18/11/1960 W. H. Auden The Sea and the Mirror Parts 1 and 2
(A Commentary on Shakespeare's ' ‘The Tempest') (Produced by R. D. Smith)

21/11/1960 Henry Mayhew The Running Patterer
(First broadcast 05/12/1952) (Produced By: Douglas Cleverdon)

23/11/1960 The Infernal Machine
(The English version by Carl Wildman edited for radio by Carl Wildmao and H. B. Fortuin) (Production By: H. B. Fortuin) (Music by Tristram Cary with special effects by the Radiophonic Workshop) rpt 16/12/1960

02/12/1960 Harold Pinter The Dwarfs
(Production: Barbara Bray) rpt 20/12/1960

06/12/1960 Francis Watson The Odd Business of the Opium War
(Production By: Christopher Sykes) rpt 29/12/1960

01/12/1960 Jean-Paul Sartre La Nausée
(Radio script and production by Barbara Bray)

09/12/1960 Albert Camus L'Étranger
(Translated and adapted by Sasha Moorsom) (Produced by Rayner Heppenstall) (Music composed and directe) by Roberto Gerhard 

21/12/1960 Henry James The Spoils of Poynton
(Adapted and produced by Mary Hope Allen)

23/12/1960 Shikitei Samba The Bath-House of the Floating World
(Translated and adapted by Geoffrey Bownas) (Samisen music composed by Yuize Shinichi played bv the composer and Matsuo Keiko) (Produced by  Terence Tiller)

01/12/1960 Jules Supervielle La Première Famille
(Translated by Patric Dickinson) (Produced by R. D. Smith)

26/12/1960  Ian Fletcher  The Corrupted Feast
(A literary miscellany of The Nineties with poems and prose passages from the works of John Davidson , Ernest Dowson John Gray , Lionel Johnson, Theodore Julius Marzials) (Produced by George MacBeth)

27/12/1960 Zofia Ilinska Night at Lamorran or Bow to find a poet
( A kind of fairy story') (Produced by Louis MacNeice)

Alistair Wyper, March 2021 (.....Many thanks - Ed)

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