Third Programme:
Drama, 1963
Compiled by Alistair Wyper .......many thanks - ND
The BBC Third Programme Plays 1963
01/01/1963 James Saunders Gimlet Producer: John Gibson
rpt 20/01/1963 and 30/06/1963
04/01/1963 Albert Camus Cross Purpose (Le Malentendu) (Translated by Stuart Gilbert) (Produced By: Richard Imison) First broadcast 04/12/1962
05/01/1963 Arnold Hinchliffe In the Flats (Produced By: R. D. Smith) First broadcast 11/12/1962
06/01/1963 Clifford Dyment A Season in Wales (Narrated by the author) (Produced By: Terence Tiller) ('In 1923 I had a holiday. Of course, all holidays are special. but for me this one was especially special because I was returning to the place where I had spent the first four years of mjf life-from 1914 to 1918.... ') rpt 30/01/1963
07/01/1963 Tiber Dery Behind the Brick Wall (Produced By: William Glen-Doepel) rpt 01/02/1963
08/01/1963 August Strindberg Pariah (Adapted for broadcasting By: Max Faber) Produced By: John Gibson) rpt 18/05/1963 First broadcast 20/12/1962
11/01/1963 Alfred de Musset You Can’t Think of Everything (On ne saurait penser à tout) (Translated By: Peter Meyer) (Produced By: Charles Lefeaux) rpt 27/01/1963 and 11/08/1963
12/01/1963 C. Northcote Parkinson Parkinson’s Precepts (Based on material from the book In-Laws and Outlaw) (Produced By: Nesta Pain) (Music composed and conducted by Antony Hopkins) First broadcast 24/12/1962
15/01/1963 William Shakespeare Love’s Labour’s Lost (Produced by Raymond Raikes) rpt 21/04/1963 First broadcast 27/12/1962
17/01/1963 M. Charles Cohen The Flip Side (Production By: H. B. Fortuin) rpt 03/02/1963 and 09/04/1963
21/01/1963 Ted Hughes Difficulties of a Bridegroom (Producer: Douglas Cleverdon) rpt 09/02/1963
25/01/1963 Michel de Ghelderode Lord Halewyn (A play in fourteen scenes translated by Gerard Hopkins) (Produced and Edited By: H. B. Fortuin) rpt 10/02/1963
29/01/1963 Rhys Adrian Too Old for Donkeys (Produced By: Michael Bakewell) rpt 18/02/1963
01/02/1963 Plato Phaedo (Translation By: Hugh Tredennick) (Produced By: Rayner Heppenstall) rpt 16/02/1963 and 23/09/1963
02/02/1963 Zbigniev Herbert The Other Room (Produced By: Christopher Holme) (A young couple are waiting for an old woman to die so that they can have her room. This brief and bitter satire on the behaviour of human beings ' under pressure ' is by one of the leading poets of modern Poland) First broadcast 02/08/1962
05/02/1963 Luigi Pirandello Bitter Waters (Translated and adapted by Frederick May) (Produced By: Robin Midgley) (Special effects by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop) rpt 25/02/1963 and 07/08/1963
08/02/1963 Edward Albee The American Dream (Produced and adapted for broadcasting By: John Gibson) First broadcast 08/05/1962
11/02/1963 Malcolm Quantrill Tea and Yesterday (Produced By: Richard Imison) rpt 07/03/1963
17/02/1963 Anon Aucassin and Nicolette (The thirteenth-century musical fable translated and adapted for broadcasting by Rene Hague with music arranged from contemporary sources ' by Denis Stevens) (Directed by Roy Jesson and Produced by Douglas Cleverdon) rpt 01/06/1963 and 24/12/1963
19/02/1963 Georges Courteline Boubouroche (Translated by Albert Bermel) (Produced By: Martin Esslin) rpt 10/03/1963 and 07/12/1963
22/02/1963 Bernard Kops Home Sweet Honeycomb (Produced By: Michael Bakewell) First broadcast 24/07/1962
26/02/1963 Ray Jenkins Strange Fruit (Production By: John Gibson) First broadcast 23/08/1962
01/03/1963 Sophocles Philoctetes (Translated By: Kenneth Cavander) (Music composed and conducted By: Christopher Whelen) rpt 17/03/1963 and 27/10/1963
03/03/1963 Thomas Middleton Women Beware Women (Arranged for broadcasting and produced by Raymond Raikes) First broadcast 14/09/1962
06/03/1963 Gwyn Thomas The Walk Out (Produced By: Elwyn Evans) rpt 23/03/1963
08/03/1963 Arthur Adamov Spring ‘71 (A radio play based on his stage play concerning the Paris Revolution in 1871 translated by Peter Meyer) (Produced By: Michael Bakewell) rpt 24/03/1963
12/03/1963 Ray Jenkins The Testifiers (Produced By: John Gibson) rpt 31/03/1963
13/03/1963 L. J. Witts The Professor (A medical man looks back) (Produced By: Nesta Pain) rpt 30/03/1963 and 06/08/1963
15/03/1963 Frolic Wind (The novel by Richard Oke and the play by Richard Pryce adapted by Jonquil Antony) (Produced By: Archie Campbell) First broadcast 11/04/1962
19/03/1963 Paul Claudel Proteus (Translated by Nora Ratcliff) (Music By:Antony Hopkins) (Produced By: Raymond Raikes) rpt 07/04/1963
22/03/1963 Wolfgang Hildesheime Under Ground (Translated and produced by Christopher Holme) rpt 06/04/1963
26/03/1963 Arthur Schnitzler Lieutenant Gustl (A dramatic monologue translated by Sheila Stern) (Produced By: Martin Esslin) First broadcast 02/09/1962
29/03/1963 Philip Massinger The Bondman (Adapted for radio and produced by Raymond Raikes) (Directed By: Thurston Dart) rpt 16/04/1963 and 28/06/1963
02/04/1963 Zbigniew Herbert The Philosopher's Den (Translation by Paul Mayewski arranged by Rayner Heppenstall) (Music composed and directed by Roberto Gerhard) (Produced by Rayner Heppenstall) rpt 20/04/1963
05/04/1963 The Lincoln Passion (Edited from the 15th-century Lincoln Cycle of Mystery Plays arranged for broadcasting in three parts and produced by Raymond Raikes with music by Christopher Whelen) Part 1: Prologue of Demon; The Council of the Jews; The Entry into Jerusalem; The Last Supper; The Conspiracy of the Jews and Judas; The Betrayal; The Lament of the Virgin
12/04/1963 The Lincoln Passion (Edited from the 15th-century Lincoln Cycle of Mystery Plays arranged for broadcasting in three parts and produced by Raymond Raikes with music by Christopher Whelen) Part 2: Prologue of Expositor; King Herod; The Trial before Annas, Cayphas, Pilate, and Herod; Pilate's Wife's Dream; Condemnation and Scourging; Procession to Calvary; Crucifixion; Blind Longeus
14/04/1963 The Lincoln Passion (Edited from the 15th-century Lincoln Cycle of Mystery Plays arranged for broadcasting in three parts and produced by Raymond Raikes with music by Christopher Whelen) Part 3: The Burial; The Guarding of the Sepulchre; The Harrowing of Hell; The Resurrection; The Announcement to the three Maries; The Appearance to Mary Magdalen ; The Appearance to Cleophas and Lucas; The Appearance to Thomas; Lament of Thomas
22/04/1963 Caryl Churchill The Ants (Produced By: Michael Bakewell) (Special effects by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop) First broadcast 27/11/1962
23/04/1963 Eugene lonesco Bedlam Galore or Two or More (Translated by Bernard Frechtman) (Produced by R. D. Smith)) rpt 13/05/1963 and 18/12/1963
26/04/1963 Nelly Sachs Eli (Adapted for broadcasting by Heinz Schwitzke) (With music by Hans Kelier) (Translated from the German and produced by Christopher Holme) rpt 12/05/1963
28/04/1963 William Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida (Music composed by Geoffrey Wright) (Producer Peter Watts) (Originally broadcast 22/03/ 1959)
30/04/1963 Rhys Adrian Room to Let (Produced by Michael Bakewell) rpt 19/05/1963 and 21/11/1963
01/05/1963 Ray Bradbury There Will Come Soft Rains (Adapted and produced by Nesta Pain) (Music composed and conducted by Anthony Hopkins) (First broadcast 12/09/ 1962)
03/05/1963 Kay Cicellis A Taste of Madeleine (Produced by David Thomson) (Music composed and played by John Beckett) (First broadcast 11/11/ 1962)
06/05/1963 Rene de Obaldia Edward and Agrippina (Translated by Donald Watson) (Produced by H. B. Fortuin) rpt 30/05/1963
07/05/1963 Samuel Beckett Words and Music (Produced By: Michael Bakewell) (Music By: John Beckett) (First broadcast 13/11/1962)
10/05/1963 Sophocles The Electra (Translated by C. A. Trypanis) (Produced By: Val Gielgud) rpt 26/05/1963
14/05/1963 Arnold Weinstein Red Eye of Love (Produced By: H. B. Fortuin) rpt 06/07/1963
21/05/1963 Marguerite Duras L’ Après-Midi de Monsieur Andesmas (Translated and adapted by Barbara Bray) (Producer: Michael Bakewell) rpt 09/06/1963
22/05/1963 Peter Redgrove The White Monument (Produced By: Christopher Holme) rpt 08/06/1963
28/05/1963 Dannie Abse Gone (Produced By: John Gibson) rpt 15/06/1963 and 29/10/1963
31/05/1963 Max Frisch Andorra (Translated by Michael Bullock) (Produced by Martin Esslin) First broadcast 08/06/1962
03/06/1963 John O'Donovan The Fiddler and the Dean (Production By: Christopher Sykes) First broadcast 29/10/1962
04/06/1963 Jean Genet The Maids (Translated by BERNARD FRECHTMAN with an introduction by MARTIN ESSLIN) (Produced by JOHN TYDEMAN) rpt 23/06/1963
07/06/1963 Colley Cibber and others The Double Gallant (Produced By: Raymond Raikes) First broadcast 12/10/1962
13/06/1963 Slawomir Mrozek Out at sea (Translated By: Maia Rodman) (Produced By: R. D. Smith) rpt 03/07/1963 and 08/10/1963
18/06/1963 David Tutaev Then Went the Devils Out (A radio play by David Tutaev based on Dostoevsky's novel The Possessed) (Produced By: William Glen-Doepel rpt 12/07/1963
25/06/1963 Bertolt Brecht Fears and Miseries of the Third Reich (Production By: H. B. Fortuin) rpt 14/07/1963
28/06/1963 D. G. Bridgson Panurge Would Take A Wife (An entertainment drawn from Francois Rabelais) (Produced By: D. G. Bridson) rpt 18/07/1963
02/07/1963 Euripides The Hyppolytus (Translated By: Ian Fletcher and D. S. Carne-Ross) (Music By: Thomas Eastwood) (Produced By: Raymond Raikes) rpt 21/07/1963
09/07/1963 Bernie Bishop Today Was Eddie’s Day (A monologue set in Bath, New York, in which the speaker, going from bar to bar, muses about a unique character, Eddie; and traces back Eddie's life, as well as his own, in New York's Lower East Side) (Produced By: H. B. Fortuin and David Knight) (Music composed by Carl Davis) rpt 29/07/1963
16/07/1963 Bernard Shaw The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet (Produced By: John Gibson) (A Sermon in Crude Melodrama)
19/07/1963 Bill Naughton November Day (Producer: Douglas Cleverdon) (In this play, set in Bolton in 1933, Bill Naughton creates the image of a young husband who, after months of unemployment, gets a day's job as a coal-bagger) rpt 08/08/1963 and 19/10/1963
23/07/1963 Barry Bermange No Quarter (Produced By: John Gibson) First broadcast 14/11/1962
26/07/1963 I. L. Caragiale The Lost Letter (Translated by FRIDA KNIGHT Adapted for radio and produced by R. D. SMITH) rpt 13/08/1963
28/07/1963 Anthony Powell Venusberg (Produced for the Rothwell Group and adapted for broadcasting by BENNETT MAXWELL) (The BBC Rothwell Group consists of a number of radio actors, producers, and studio managers who experiment with acting and studio techniques in an attempt to bring something new to radio drama) First broadcast on February 4 in the Home Service
01/08/1963 Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz The Tutor (adapted for the modern stage by Bertolt Brecht translated by Richard Grunderger) (Production by H. B ; Fortuin) rpt 19/08/1963
04/08/1963 Bernard Shaw The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posmet (Producer: John Gibson)
05/08/1963 Jacques Perret and Jean Forest The Cello (Translated from the French by Humphrey Hare) (Produced by David Thomson) rpt 29/08/1963
09/08/1963 Lionel and Clarissa or The School for Fathers by Isaac Bickerstaffe (Adapted for broadcasting by Raymond Raikes with music by Charles Dibdin orchestrated and edited by Roger Fiske) rpt 25/08/1963 and 29/12/1963
12/08/1963 Gerard McLarnon THE OLD BELPHEGOR GAG (Music arranged and played by Alt Edwards Produced by Francis Dillon) rpt 04/09/1963
16/08/1963 Bernard Kops The Lemmings (Music composed and conducted by John Beckett) (Produced by Michael Bakewell) rpt 01/09/1963
18/08/1963 Colin Finbow Tonight is Friday (Produced By: Charles Lefeaux) First broadcast 02/10/1962
21/08/1963 Vernon Scannell A Door with One Eye (Produced By: Rayner Heppenstall) rpt 12/09/1963
23/08/1963 Claude Aveline Androcles' Lion (Translated by Mervyn Savill) (Produced by Archie Campbell) rpt 07/09/1963
30/08/1963 Louis MacNeice Persons from Porlock (Produced by Louis MacNeice) rpt 30/09/1963
06/09/1963 Arthur Schnitzler Fraulein Else (Translated by F. H. Lyon with Hilda Schroder) (Produced By: William Glen-Doepel) rpt 22/09/1963
08/09/1963 Carlo Goldoni Mine Hostess (La Locandiera) (Translated by Clifford Bax) (Produced By: Charles Lefeaux) (The action takes place at Mirandolina's inn in Florence, 1751. Music selected from records of the works of Vivaldi) First broadcast 13/07/1962
13/09/1963 Giles Cooper All the Way Home (Produced By: Charles Lefeaux) rpt 29/09/1963
15/09/1963 Louis MacNeice The Dark Tower (A parable play on the ancient theme of the Quest) (Written and produced by Louis MacNeice) (Music by Benjamin Britten conducted by Charles Mackerras) (The Dark Tower was first broadcast in 1946: this is a recording of the new production in 1956)
17/09/1963 Henrik Ibsen Pillars of Society (Translated and adapted for radio by Max faber) (Produced By: Charles Lefeaux) First broadcast 28/09/1962
18/09/1963 Claude Crebillon The Wayward Head and Heart (Translated and arranged by Barbara Bray) (Produced By: Rayner Heppenstall) rpt 04/10/1963
19/09/1963 Ingmar Bergman The City (Translated from the Swedish by Paul britten Austin) (Special effects by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop) (Produced by JOHN GIBSON) rpt 06/10/1963
25/09/1963 Lord Byron Cain (Adapted for radio by J.H.Watson (Produced By: R. D. Smith) rpt 12/10/1963
26/09/1963 A Scholar in Tramp's Clothing (The English Journey of Pastor C. P. Moritz in 1782) (Adapted for broadcasting with a commentary by RUTH SPALDING) (Produced By: Terence Tiller) rpt 13/10/1963
27/09/1963 Henry Reed Not a Drum Was heard (The War Memoirs of General Gland) (Produced By: Douglas Cleverdon) First broadcast 06/05/1959
01/10/1963 Arthur Adamov Professor Taranne (Translated by Peter Meyer) (Produced By: William Glen-Doefel)
02/10/1963 Christine Brooke-Rose A Round of Silence (An imaginative treatment of the problem of noise in modern life, and its effect on a man who finds it increasingly hard to endure) (Produced by NESTA PAIN)
03/10/1963 Max Frisch Rip Van Winkle (Production By: H. B. Fortuin) rpt 25/10/1963
10/10/1963 Ray Jenkins Boy Dudgeon (Produced By: John Gibson) rpt 26/10/1963
11/10/1963 Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood (Under Milk Wood was commissioned by the BBC and originally produced in the Third in 1954. It has been chosen by the European Broadcasting Union as the dramatic work to be broadcast in the Radio in Europe series. This is a new production also by Douglas Cleverdon) rpt 10/11/1963
17/10/1963 Friedrieh Durrenmatt The Physicists (Translated by James Kirkup) The Royal Shakespeare Company's production (Production By: Peter Brook) rpt 08/11/1963
23/10/1963 Eric Ewens Whistler at the Plough (A portrait of William Cobbett drawn from recollections of his children and his contemporaries) (Produced By: Christopher Sykes) rpt 15/11/1963
24/10/1963 Rhys Adrian A Nice Clean Sheet of Paper (Produced By: Michael Bakewell) rpt 26/11/1963
30/10/1963 Terence Tiller Verlaine in England (Compiled and produced By: Terence Tiller) First broadcast 25/03/1958 rpt 18/11/1963
31/10/1963 Fernando Arrabal Fando and Lis (Produced By: John Tydeman) rpt 16/11/1963
03/11/1963 Jennifer Dawson The Ha-Ha (Adapted from the novel by/Producer: Michael Bakewell) rpt 14/11/1963
06/11/1963 Denis Goacher Rimbaud in London (Produced By: Terence Tiller) rpt 23/11/1963
11/11/1963 Harold Kurtz Genius and Liberty (Produced By: Christopher Sykes) rpt 30/11/1963
13/11/1963 James Hanley A Dream Produced By: John Gibson) rpt 01/12/1963
17/11/1963 Franz Grillparzer Medea (Translated by Peter Fison) (Production By: William Glen-Doepel) rpt 12/12/1963
24/11/1963 Laurence Kitchin The Trial of Lord Byron (An experiment in biography) (Produced By: Douglas Cleverdon)
24/11/1963 Thought to be Writ by Shakespeare: The Reign of King Edward III, published anonymously 1596; adapted for broadcasting by Raymond Raikes. Produced by RR. rpt 14/12/1963
26/11/1963 A Nice Clean Sheet of Paper by Rhys Adrian with Donald Wolfit as The Business Man. John Wood as The Applicant. Produced by Michael Bakewell. Second broadcast.
28/11/1963 Thought to be Writ by Shakespeare
Stephen Murray and Googie Withers in The Reign of King Edward III.
Published anonymously 1596 adapted for broadcasting by Raymond Raikes.
29/11/1963 Conversation at Night
A dialogue for radio by Friedrich Durrenmatt translated and produced by Christopher Holme.
To be repeated on December 14. With Michael Hordern and Carleton Hobbs.
02/12/1963 Richard Kell Screwballs and Iron Bars An imaginary dialogue relating general poetic theory to poems by Robert Lowell and Ted Hughes. Produced By: Dorothy Baker
06/12/1963 Anton Chekhov Platonov Newly translated and abridged for radio by David Magarshack. Production by H. B. Fortuin, rpt 22/12/1963
08/12/1963 Colin Finbow Before Tomorrow A boy and a girl are celebrating their engagement in a cafe, the scene of their first outing a year ago. Produced by Charles Lefeaux. rpt 28/12/1963
20/12/1963 John Whiting - The Devils of Loudun from the book by Aldous Huxley adapted for radio by Archie Campbell rpt 09/01/1964
25/12/1963 John Mortimer A Voyage Around My Father Produced By: Nesta Pain rpt 11/01/1964 and
26/12/1963 Noel Langley Cage Me A Peacock Adapted and produced by Raymond Raikes 11/01/1964 and 19/11/1964
27/12/1963 Anita Loos Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Adapted for broadcasting and produced by Douglas Cleverdon.
Alistair Wyper, March 2026.
