The End Begins

Summary

BBC Television production of Ray Rigby’s The End Begins.

Theatre play

The End Begins by Ray Rigby [more information]

Play synopsis

This play tells of an group of survivors from the ruin of civilisation, isolated on a small island off the coast of Ireland. The ‘end of the world’ came about after a cataclysmic Third World War. A small assortment of individuals - an Afican-American serviceman, an elderly doctor, an Englishman who owns the island, and some locals - shelter from the radioactive mainland, but find they have to cope with the racial and civilian vs. military tensions of their old, wider world.

Production history

The End Begins was staged at the Q Theatre, London in February 1956, and possibly earlier (source: http://theatricalia.com/play/9ch/the-end-begins/production/k7f).

Date of transmission

Thursday 17 May 1956

Time

8.00pm (90 mins)

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Hal Burton

Playwright

Ray Rigby

Designer

Hal Burton

Cast

John Arnatt	Hugh Pakenham
Earl Cameron	Hank Christians
Peter Copley (1915-2008)	Tom Jarrow
Tom Criddle	Private Wells
Leslie Dwyer	Sergeant Marks
Michael Goodliffe	Colonel Ridgewell
Natalie Kent	Mrs O’Donnell
Cyril Luckham	Dr Wincot
Brian O’Higgins	Shaun O’Donnell
Jack Rodney	Smithers
Anna Turner	A Middle-Aged Woman
Margaret Tyzack	Valerie Hollis

Additional details

Play tags

end-of-the-world; military / army / navy / air-force; race relations; Republic of Ireland, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

BBC Programmes (Newspaper listing)

Reference

The Times, 17 May 1956, p. 6

Title

Radio Times, 11 May 1956 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and photograph on p. 38