It Depends What You Mean

Summary

1946 BBC live studio production of James Bridie’s wartime comedy It Depends What You Mean.

Theatre play

It Depends What You Mean by James Bridie (1888-1951) [more information]

Play synopsis

The play is set in the Prouts’ studio in northern Britain and in an Army Recreation Hut. Time, 1942. The focus of the comedy is the setting up of a Brains Trust-type entertainment. The play is subtitled An Improvisation for the Glockenspiel.

Production history

Premiered in Glasgow, September 1944, and at the Westminster Theatre, London one month later. Published in London in 1948. The British feature film Folly to be Wise (1953) is an adaptation of the play.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 25 June 1946

Time

8.50-10.05pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Desmond Davis

Playwright

James Bridie (1888-1951)

Cast

O. B. Clarence	Hector Macadam
Geoffrey Edwards	Rev. William Paris
Patricia [Pat] Gilder	Pte Jessie Killigrew
Dennis Harkin	Pte Walter Glekie
Oliver Johnston	James Mutch
Fred Kitchen	George Prout
Pauline Letts	Angela Prout
Susan Richmond	Viscountess Dodd
Walter Roy	Joe Byres, M. P.

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 3.00pm on Wednesday 3 July 1946.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy; military / army / navy / air-force; wartime, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 21 June 1946 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 26