The Tempest

Summary

1939 BBC Television studio production of Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest.

Theatre play

The Tempest by William Shakespeare [more information]

Play synopsis

Teh Tempest is set on a remote island, ‘where Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skillful manipulation. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to lure his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island. There, his machinations bring about the revelation of Antonio’s lowly nature, the redemption of the King, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso’s son, Ferdinand.' (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest.)

Production history

Believed to have been written 1610-11, published in the First Folio 1623.

Date of transmission

Sunday 5 February 1939

Time

9.05-10.35pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Dallas Bower (1907-1999)

Playwright

William Shakespeare

Music

Sibelius

Musical Arrangements by

Hyam Greenbaum

Designer

Malcolm Baker-Smith

Choreographer

Antony Tudor (with members of the London Ballet)

Cast

John Abbott (1905-1996)	Prospero
Richard Ainley	Ferdinand
Peggy Ashcroft	Miranda
Charlotte Bidmead
Oliver Burt	Sebastian
Erik Chitty (1907-1977)	Boatswain
George Devine	Caliban
Charles Farrell	Stephano
Richard Goolden	Trinculo
Stephen Haggard	Ariel
Elizabeth Hamilton
Hugh Laing
Thérèse Langfield
Basil Langton	Antonio
Stuart Latham	Adrian
Vera Lindsay	Iris
Guy Massey
Graham Payn	Francisco
Dennis Price (1915-1973)	Ship’s Master
John Regan
John Turnbull	Gonzalo
Peggy van Praagh
Alan Wheatley	Alonso

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 3.00pm on Wednesday 8 February 1939.

Notes

'A field-day for experimental-minded Dallas Bower on Sunday, February 5—he will produce The Tempest, a play that cries aloud for special television treatment [...] There will be two penumbrascopes (popularly called "umbrellascopes" at Alexandra Palace), and Ariel will be made far more of a tricksy spirit with the help of the cameras’ ('The Scanner’, ‘Intelligent "Ribbernecks" ', Radio Times, 27 January 1939, p. 16).

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 27 January 1939 (Magazine)

Linking notes

brief article by ‘The Scanner’, p. 16

Title

Radio Times, 3 February 1939 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 14

Title

Shakespeare on Screen: An International Filmography and Videography (Book)

Author/creator

Kenneth S. Rothwell and Annabelle Henkin Melzer (Authors)

Reference

London: Mansell, 1990

Linking notes

entry 610, p. 283

Title

To-Day’s Home Programmes (Newspaper listing)

Reference

Sunday Times, 5 February 1939, p. 22