Thunder Rock

Summary

1946 BBC live studio production of Robert Ardrey’s drama Thunder Rock.

Theatre play

Thunder Rock by Robert Ardrey (1908-1980) [more information]

Play synopsis

An ambitious, campaiging newspaper journalist, having failed to alert Britain to the dangers of fascism, retreats from the world by taking a lonely job as keep of Thunder Rock lighthouse in the middle of Lake Michigan. He is visited by the ghostly souls of people who died in a shipwreck nearly a century beforehand, and these spirits eventually persuade him to return to continue his fight.

Production history

Produced by the Group Theatre in New York for a three week run from 14 November 1939. It was far more successful in London, and it was adapted into a 1942 British feature film.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 29 October 1946

Time

3.00-4.30pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Jan Bussell

Playwright

Robert Ardrey (1908-1980)

Adapted for Television by

Peter Sims

Cast

Robert Berkeley	Streeter
Edmund Clowes	Briggs
Frank Foster	Captain Joshua
Mollie Looe	Anne Marie
Robert Sansom	Charleston
Rupert Siddons	Inspector Flanning
Irmgard Spoliansky	Melanie
Frederick Valk	Dr Stephen Kurtz
Elsie Wagstaff	Miss Kirby
Dudley Williams	Nonny

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented later on the same day at 8.40pm.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

American drama; fascism; journalism / the press / newspapers; supernatural

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 18 October 1946 (Magazine)

Linking notes

brief article by ‘The Scanner’, p. 29

Title

Radio Times, 25 October 1946 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 30