Androcles and the Lion

Summary

1946 BBC Television studio production of George Bernard Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion, a retelling of the fable set in ancient Rome.

Theatre play

Androcles and the Lion by [George] Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) [more information]

Play synopsis

A dramatization of ths classic fable in which a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw is spared from death in Rome’s Colosseum as a result of his kind act.

Production history

Written in 1912.

Date of transmission

Sunday 3 November 1946

Time

8.40-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Desmond Davis

Playwright

[George] Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Cast

Basil Appleby	Menagerie Keeper
Clifford Buckton	Editor
Basil Cunard	Centurion / Retiarius
Michael Gough	Spintho
Richard Hurndall	Captain
Elaine Innescort	Megaera
Andrew Leigh	Androcles
Pauline Letts	Lavinia
Ronald Mansell	Lentulus; Secutor
Torin Thatcher	Ferrovius
Ernest Thesiger	Caesar
Victor Woolf	Lion / Call Boy
Brian Worth	Metellus

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented at 3.00pm on Tuesday 5 November 1946.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

ancient Rome and colonies; Christianity; comedy

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 1 November 1946 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and article, p. 34

Title

Today’s Radio (Newspaper listing)

Reference

Sunday Times, 3 November 1946, p. 7