Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, Part 1

Summary: 1965 BBC production of Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance by John Arden, transmitted in three parts for schools.
Theatre play: Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance by John Arden [more information]
Play synopsis: 'Arden’s portrait of four Victorian deserters who turn up in a northern mining town to exact retribution for an act of colonial violence: one based on an incident in Cyprus in 1958, when British soldiers killed five innocent people in an anti-terrorist reprisal’ (Michael Billington, ‘Serjeant Musgrave rides again’, The Guardian, 23 September 2003.)
Production history: Premiere: Roayl Court Theatre, 1959.
Date of transmission: Tuesday 2 November 1965
Time: 2.05-2.35pm
Series: Schools
Channel: BBC1
Production company: BBC

Director

Michael Simpson

Playwright

John Arden

Adapted for Television by

Michael Simpson

Designer

Gordon Roland

Introduced by

Geoffrey Whitehead

Cast

Later transmissions: Repeated on 3 November 1965, 11.05-11.35am.
Play tags: 19th-century setting; Cyprus, as theme or setting; north of England, as theme or setting
Programme context tags: schools television programming

Title: Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance (BBC, 1965)
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