Third Programme:
Drama, 1961

The BBC Third Programme Plays 1961

01/01/1961 Jean-Paul Sartre La Nausée
(A radio script by Barbara Bray, also the Producer, from the novel) rpt 30/05/1961 (First broadcast 07/12/1960)

03/01/1961 Jean-Paul Sartre L’Etranger
(Produced by  Rayner Heppenstall) rpt 31/05/1961 (First broadcast 09/12/1960)

04/01/1961 Seumas O'Kelly The Weaver’s Grave
(Arranged for radio by Mícheál Ó hAodha) (Produced by John Gibson) rpt 27/01/1961 and 22/07/1961

05/01/1961 Rayner Heppenstall The Generations
(Produced by Rayner Heppenstall) (First of a group of three imaginary conversations illustrating changes of belief and attitude in our time) rpt 21/01/1961

07/01/1961 N. F. Simpson  A Resounding Tinkle
(Produced by Charles Lefeaux) (First broadcast 20/07/1960)

08/01/1961 Henry James The Spoils of Poynton
(Adapted and produced by Mary Hope Allen) (First broadcast 21/12/1960)

11/01/1961 W. H. Auden The Sea and the Mirror Parts 1 and 2
(A Commentary on Shakespeare's ' ‘The Tempest') (Produced by R. D. Smith) (First broadcast 18/11/1960)

13/01/1961 Amphitryon
A Roman comedy by PLAUTUS c. 255 B.c.-184 B.C. (Translated by Patric Dickinson) (Music by Thomas Eastwood) (Production By: Raymond Raikes) rpt 01/02/1961 and 17/09/1961

15/01/1961 William Shakespeare Hamlet
(No information in Genome re the production)

16/01/1961 Jules Supervielle La Première Famille
(Translated by Patric Dickinson) (Produced by R. D. Smith) (First broadcast 25/12/1960)

17/01/1961 Jessie Kesson The Childhood
( Produced by David Thomson in the BBC's Scottish studios) (A new production of the programme first heard in 1952) rpt 04/02/1961 and 15/09/1961

18/01/1961 Miguel De Unamuno Two Mothers
(Translated by Angel Flores) (Produced by Cedric Messina) rpt 09/02/1961 and 29/06/1961

20/01/1961 Zofia Ilinska Night at Lamorran or Bow to find a poet
( A kind of fairy story') (Produced by Louis MacNeice) (First broadcast 27/12/1960) rpt 02/07/1961

22/01/1961  John Milton Samson Agonistes
(Produced by R. D. Smith) (Third broadcaster, first broadcast18/05/1960)

25/01/1961 Armand Salacrou Boulevard Durand
(Translated by Barbara Wright) (Produced by William Glen-Doepel) rpt 12/02/1961

29/01/1961 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) (First broadcast 23/12/1960)

03/02/1961 Ugo Betti The House on the Water
(La Casa sull' Acqua) (Translated and adapted for radio by Henry Reed) (Production: Raymond Raikes) rpt 19/02/1961

05/02/1961 Philip Massinger A New Way to Pay Old Debts
(Music composed by Anthony Bernard) (Edited for radio and produced by Raymond Raikes) (First Broadcast 06/05/1960)

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

10/02/1961 Rayner Heppenstall The Generations
(Produced by Rayner Heppenstall) (Second of a group of three imaginary conversations illustrating changes of belief and attitude in our time) rpt 25/02/1961

11/02/1961 Terence Tiller The Baker’s Daughter
(Produced by the author) (A new production of a play first broadcast 25/04/1950, this production first broadcast 26/07/1960))

14/02/1961 W B Yeats Two Plays : Calvary and The Resurrection
(Songs and incidental music composed by John Buckland conducted by Eric Wetherell) (The plays produced by John Gibson) rpt 09/03 /1961

15/0961 Muriel Spark The Danger Zone (An Elemental Drama)
(Produced by Christopher Holme) 04/03/1961 and 24/09/1961

17/02/1961 Lord De Tabley Jael
(A dramatic monologue) (Introduced by Ian Fletcher) (Read by Jill Balcon) rpt 03/04/1961

18/02/1961 Rhys Adrian Betsie
(Production by Michael Bakewell) (First broadcast 03/08/1960)

22/02/1961 John Marston, George Chapman and Ben Jonson Eastward Ho !
(Produced by Raymond Raikes) rpt 12/03/1961 and 11/08/1961

24/02/1961 Maurice Cranston A Dialogue on Democracy
(Production by Douglas Cleverdon ) rpt 11/03/1961 and 06/09/1961

26/02/1961 Samuel Beckett All That Fall
(Production by Donald McWhinnie) (First broadcast 13/01/1957)

28/02/1961  Evelyn Waugh The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
(Script and production by Michael Bakewell) (First broadcast 07/06/1960)

01/03/1961 Naoya Uchimura Marathon
(Translated by Geoffrey Bownas) (Music by Wataru Saito) (Production by Anthony Thwaite) rpt 18/03/1961 and 19/08/1961

03/03/1961 Shelagh Delaney A Taste of Honey
(Performed by The Company of the Library Theatre, Manchester) (Production by David Scase) (Presented for radio by Alfred Bradley) rpt 19/04/1961 and 04/09/1961

05/03/1961 Henrik Ibsen The Wild Duck
(Adaptation by Max Faber) (Produced by Frederick Bradnum) rpt 03/05/1961 and 30/09/1961 (First broadcast 30/09/1960)

 06/03/1961 Rayner Heppenstall The Generations
(Produced by Rayner Heppenstall) (Last of a group of three imaginary conversations illustrating changes of belief and attitude in our time) rpt 30/03/1961

08/03/1961 Giles Cooper Unman, Wittering and Zigo
(Production: Donald McWhinnie) (First broadcast 23/11/1958)

10/03/1961 Louis MacNeice The Administrator
(Production by Louis MacNeice) rpt 25/03/1961 and 20/08/1961

15/03/1961 Nathanael West Miss Lonelyhearts
(Music arranged by Walter Goehr played by William Davies, organ) (Adapted and produced by D. G. Bridson) (First broadcast 25/05/1960)

16/03/1961 W B Yeats Two Plays:  At the Hawk's Well (1916) and Purgatory (1939) 
(Production by Anthony Thwaite) rpt 29/08/1961 and 24/09/1961

17/03/1961 George Bernard Shaw Major Barbara
(Produced by Martyn C Webster) rpt 05/04/1961

19/03/1961 Jan Carew and Sylvia Wynter The University of Hunger
(Produced by Charles Lefeaux) (First broadcast 17/08/1960)

21/03/1961 Bertolt Brecht St. Joan of the Stockyards
(English version by Charlotte Lloyd and A. L. Lloyd) (Produced by H. B. Fortuin) (Songs composed by Hans-Dieter Hosalla) (Incidental music composed by Humphrey Searle) rpt 09/04/1961 and 11/09/1961

26/03/1961 The Mystery of the Passion
(Taken from the York Cycle, the Wakefield Conspiracy and Crucifixion, the Ludus Coventriae Betrayal, the Chester Bakers' play, and "the Digby Burial’’) (The programme arranged for broadcasting by John Barton) (Produced by aymond Raikes)

28/03/1961 T.S. Gregory Concerning Authority
(A Conversational Fragment) (Producer: Christopher Holme) rpt 15/04/1961 and 23/07/1961

29/03/1961 William Shakespeare The Life of Timon of Athens
(Produced by Charles Lefeaux) rpt 16/04/1961 and 10/10/1961

02/04/1961 Peter Gurney The Treasure House
(Production by Robin Midgley) (First broadcast 04/11/1960)

07/04/1961 Nicolai Gogol The Overcoat
(A radio play by Joan Littlewood based on the translation by Constance Garnett with sound and music by Roberto Gerhard) (Producer: Charles Lefeaux) rpt 22/04/1961 and 03/12/1961

08/04/1961 Ted Hughes The House of Aries
(A dramatic poem) (Producer: Sasha Moorsom) (First broadcast 16/11/1960)

11/04/1961 Beaumarchais The Marriage of Figaro
(Translated and adapted by Thomas Walton) (Music composed by Freddie Phillips) (Produced by R. D. Smith) rpt 30/04/1961

21/04/1961 Georg Büchner Woyzeck
(Newly translated by John Holmstrom) (Music by Roberto Gerhard) (Produced by H. B. Fortuin) rpt 07/05/1961

23/04/1961 William Shakespeare Hamlet
(Production by  Cedric Messina) (This production was first broadcast 23/10/1960)

25/04/1961 James Hanley Say Nothing
(Produced by John Gibson) rpt 14/05/1961 and 24/11/1961

26/04/1961 Allan Sillitoe The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
(Music composed and conducted by Antony Hopkins) (Adapted for broadcasting and produced by Nesta Pain) rpt 19/05/1961 and 17/06/1961

02/05/1961 Gerard McLarnon The Knocking
(Produced by David Thomson) (Music composed and played by Humphrey Searle) rpt 21/05/1961 and 30/09/1961

05/05/1961 Josef Sryk What Killed Goliath?
(Translated by Charlotte and A. L. Lloyd) (Produced by Cedric Messina) rpt 25/05/1961

10/05/1961 Allan McClelland Bloomsday
(A radio script by the author from his stage version of excerpts from the James Joyce novel) (Production by Michael Bakewell) rpt 02/06/1961

11/05/1961 Rayner Heppenstal Redbrick Revisited
(Produced by the author) (The author studied at Leeds University from 1920 to 1933. In February this year he returned there to address an undergraduate society started by him more than twenty-eight years before. The experience is here presented with some imaginative freedom) rpt 01/06/1961

16/05/1961 Nicolai Gogol Dead Souls
(A dramatic version by Arthur Adamov) (Translated by Peter Meyer) rpt 04/06/1961

17/05/1961 Henry Reed A Very Great Man Indeed
(Produced by Douglas Cleverdon) (A new production of the programme first broadcast on September 7, 1953) rpt 06/06/1961

21/05/1961 Gerard McLarnon The Knocking
(Produced by David Thomson) (Music composed and played by Humphrey Searle) rpt 30/09/1961

23/05/1961 Patric Dickinson The Orphan
(A study of Edgarr Allan Poe 1809-1849) (The extracts from Poe's prose and verse read by Anthony Quayle) rpt 23/06/1961 and 14/10/1961

26/05/1961 Sheila Cregeen Raise the Wind
(Producer: Robin Midgley) (The play is set in the town of Tranent and in the court of James VI of Scotland, in the year 1590) rpt 11/06/1961

27/05/1961 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) First broadcast 26/10/1960

31/05/1961 Albert Camus L’Etranger
(Translated and adapted by Sasha Mooreom) (Music composed and directed by Roberto Gerhard) rpt 09/12/1961

07/06/1961 William Shakespeare Richard II
(Production by John Richmond) (with John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson) rpt 25/06/1961

09/06/1961 J. I. M. Stewart (« Michael Innes »)
The Bagpipes and the Bells (A portrait of an expatriate Scot) (Produced by Rayner Heppenstal) rpt 27/06/1961

13/06/1961 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) (First broadcast 28/06/1960)

14/06/1961 Albert Camus The Fall
(Paul Scofield gives a performance of La Chute) (The novel translated by Justin O'Brien) (Produced by H B Fortuin) rpt 06/07/1961

16/06/1961 Kwanami Sotoba Kamachi
(A Japanese Noh Play)Part 1 (The medieval play by Translated by Arthur Waley) rpt 05/07/1961 and 15/12/1961 Part 2 The Modern Play on the same theme by Yukio Mishima (Translated by Donald Keene (Adapted for radio by David Thomson)

18/06/1961 Jean Cocteau 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) (First broadcast 23/11/1960)

21/06/1961 Max Frisch Mr. Bierdermann and the Raisers
(A play for broadcasting translated by Michael Bullock) rpt 08/07/1961 and 21/10/1961

22/06/1961 Robert Browning Bishop Blougram’s Apology
(Read by Marius Goring) (This dramatic monologue was first published in Men and Women in 1855)

28/06/1961 H. A. L. Craig The Flight of the Earls
(Production by Douglas Cleverdon) rpt 21/07/1961 and 16/12/1961

30/06/1961 Albert Camus Caligula
(Translated by Stuart Gilbert) (Produced by Michael Bakewell) rpt 16/07/1961

04/07/1961 John Hersey The Child Buyer
(Adapted for radio by Dorothy Baker) (Produced by Laurence Gilliam) rpt 24/07/1961

07/07/1961 John Vanbrugh The Confederacy
(Production by Raymond Raikes) rpt 26/07/1961

11/07/1961 Daryl Hine A Mutual Flame
(Production by Douglas Cleverdon) rpt 03/08/1961

12/07/1961 Robert Pinget Clope
(Translated and adapted for radio by Barbara Bray) rpt 29/07/1961

18/07/1961 Gerald Hakley A Voice from the Top
(Production by Christofher Sykes) rpt 05/08/1961 and 07/12/1961

19/07/1961 Rhys Adrian The Bridge
(Produced by Michael Bakewell) rpt 06/08/1961

25/07/1961 Giles Cooper The Return of General forefinger
(A Comedy of Motives) (Producer: Michael Bakewell) rpt 18/08/1961

31/07/1961 John Vanbrugh The Relapse or Virtue in Danger
(Radio adaptation and production by Raymond Raikes) rpt 25/08/1961

07/08/1961 H. A. L. Craig and Dominic Behan A Grand Year for Mushrooms
(Music arranged and orchestra conducted by Max Saunders) (Produced by Francis Dillon) rpt 30/08/1961

09/08/1961 Fyodor Dostoevsky A Gentle Creature
(A Fantastic Story translated by David Magarshack) (Edited for radio by David Tutaev) Produced by H. B. Fortuin) rpt 28/08/1961

14/08/1961 Muriel Spark Memento Mori
(A radio play from the novel) (Script and production by Christopher Holme) rpt 03/09/1961

16/08/1961 Robert Baldrick Victor Hugo, Alas
(Readings in the original French by Antoine Bulpetre and Jean Topart) (Extract from Ruy Blas taken from the Comedie Française production) rpt 08/09/1961

21/08/1961 Eugene Ionesco Victims of Duty
(A pseudo-drama translated by Donald Watson) (Production by Martin Esslin) (With Harold Pinter as The Detective) (Special effects by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop) rpt 10/09/1961

26/08/1961 Dieter Wellershoff The Minotaur
(Translated from the German by Martina Mayne) (Production By: Christopher Sykes) rpt 20/09/1961

01/09/1961 Alan Badel gives a performance of A Fantastic Story
- translated by David Magarshack Edited for radio by David Tutaev

01/09/1961 Henrik Ibsen The Lady from the Sea
(Translated by Ann Jellicoe, Margaret Leighton and John Clements) (Produced by Charles Lefeaux) rpt 19/09/1961

07/09/1961 Guy Compton Chez Nous
(Produced by Robin Midgley) rpt 26/09/1961

14/09/1961 Cousin Bazilio
(A radio script by William Glen-Doepel from the novel by EC¸A DE QUEIROZ translated by Roy Campbell) (Production By: William Glen-Doepel) rpt 01/10/1961

16/09/1961 T. S. Gregory
The Case of Satan versus Job - A Celestial Interlude (Was Job a victim of the naturalistic fallacy, vainly seeking reasons where none exist?) (Produced by Christopher Holme) rpt 13/10/1961

22/09/1961 Henry de Montherlant Queen in Death
(Translated by Robert Baldick) (Produced by Charles Lefeaux) rpt 08/10/1961

27/09/1961 Jules Renard Poile de Carotte
(Produced by Rayner Heppenstall) (A version by Rayner Heppenstall translated in part from the prose sketches of 1894 and in part from the one-act play of 1900) rpt 17/10/1961

29/09/1961 George Farquhar The Beaux Strategem
(Radio adaptation and production by Raymond Raikes) rpt 18/10/1961

03/10/1961 Edward Albee The Zoo Story
(Produced by John Gibson) rpt 27/10/1961

11/10/1961 Dominic Behan Anybody Here Seen Friday?
(A sound portrait af a Dublin childhood adapted by the author from his new autobiographical novel "Terms of Times and Happy Returns") (Produced by H. B. Fortuin) rpt 03/11/1961

15/10/1961 Francis Dillon The World Encompassed
(The story of Francis Drake 's voyage round the world, 1577-1580 told as a play for radio written and produced by Francis Dillon) rpt 07/11/1961

20/10/1961 From the Fifties: John Whiting Saint's Day
(Adapted and produced by Robin Midgley) rpt 08/11/1961

21/10/1961 Max Frisch Mr. Bierderrmann and the Fire-Raisers
(Translated by Michael Bullock) (Produced by H. B. Fortuin)

24/10/1961 Colin Finbow As Soon As Thursday
(Produced by Charles Lefeaux) rpt 11/11/1961

25/10/1961 Diego Fabbio Vigil at Arms
(Adapted for the French stage by Thierry Maulnier and Costa du Relte under the title of Le Signe du Feu) (Translated and adapted for broadcasting by Cynthia Pughe)
(Produced by Val Gielgud) rpt 12/11/1961

29/10/1961 Miodrag Pavlovic Footsteps in the Next Room
(Adapted from the Serbian by Dorian Cooke) (Produced by Christopher Holme) rpt 18/11/1961

01/11/1961 From the Fifties: Jean-Paul Sartre Nekrassov
(Translated by Sylvia and George Leeson) (Produced by R. D. Smith) rpt 19/11/1961

05/11/1961 Patric Dickinson James Thomson (B.V.)
(Production By: Joe Burroughs) rpt 29/11/1961

09/11/1961 Arthur Adamov Living Time
(Translated by Peter Meyer) (Produced by Michael Bakewell) (Special effects by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop) rpt 25/11/1961

10/11/1961 George Etherege The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter
(Produced by Charles Lefeaux) (First broadcast 01/06/1960)

14/11/1961 Louis MacNeice One Eye Wild
(A romance in commonplace) (Produced by the author) rpt 02/12/1961

15/11/1961 Nigel Dennis From the Fifties:
Cards of Identity (Adaptation of the novel and production by Michael Bakewell) rpt 05/12/1961

22/11/1961 Dino Buzzati A Hospital Case

(Adapted by Henry Reed) (Production By: Martin Esslin) (Special effects by the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop) rpt 10/12/1961

26/11/1961 Günter Eich The Year Lacertis

(Translated by Michael Hamburger) (Produced by Christopher Holme) rpt 20/12/1961

01/12/1961 William Golding From the Fifties: Pincher Martin
(Adaptedand and produced by Archie Campbell) (Music composed and conducted by Christopher Whelen) (First broadcast 23/03/1958)

08/12/1961 John Gay Polly
(A Ballad-play (1788) being the second part of The Beggar's Opera) (The traditional ballads newly arranged by Christopher Whelen) rpt 26/12/1961

13/12/1961 Brendan Behan From the Fifties: The Hostage
(A melodrama of Dublin life arranged for broadcasting by Dominic Behan and H. A. L. Craig) (Directed by Kathleen O'Connor with production by H. B. Fortuin)

17/12/1961 George Bernard Shaw Captain Brassbound’s Conversion
(Produced by Cedric Messina)

19/12/1961 Louis MacNeice Let’s Go Yellow
(Production by Louis MacNeice) (Malcolm Hayes in the story of a reporter in a world of doublethink)

22/12/1961 William Wycherley The Country Wife
(Music By: Solomon Eccles, adapted and arranged by Lionel Salter) (Produced by Charles Lefeaux)

24/12/1961 Terence Tiller the Death of Adam
(Translated into English verse from the medieval Cornish and adapted for broadcasting with additional passages in verse by Terence Tiller) (A new version of the programme first broadcast in 1949) (Production by Terence Tiller)

25/12/1961 Jacques Perret and Jean Forest
(The story of a contemporary John Lackland) (Translated by Dorothy Baker) (Produced by David Thomson)

29/12/1961 Jean Anouilh From the Fifties: The Lark
(Translated by Christopher Fry and adapted for broadcasting by Cynthia Pughe) (Production By: Val Gielgud)

31/12/1961 Peter Gurney The Foundling
(Music by Humphrey Searle) (Production by Raymond Raikes) (Voices of gravestones, dolphin, unicorn, griffin, winged honse, pelican roof-boss, dog-tooth, gargoyles, churchgoers, boys, and searchers; John Cazabon William Eedle) (BBC Chorus Sinfoniia of London conducted by the composer) (First broadcast 28/12/1958)

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

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