Quartet

Summary

1946 BBC live studio production of Cedric Wallace’s musical drama Quartet.

Theatre play

Quartet by Cedric Wallis [more information]

Play synopsis

'The background is musical, but the story - toid with intense feeling - is concerned rather with the members of a world-famous quartet and their clashes of temperament than with the music they play. Jealousy is the prime emotion - jealousy of the Second Violin who, blessed with the possession of a cherished Amati outshines the others in musicianship’ ('The Scanner’, ‘Tele-Flashes’, Radio Times, 11 October 1946).

Production history

'George More O’Ferrall produced Quartet at the Arts Theatre a few years before the war’ ('The Scanner’, ‘Tele-Flashes’, Radio Times, 11 October 1946).

Date of transmission

Friday 18 October 1946

Time

9.00-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

George More O’Ferrall (1907-1982)

Playwright

Cedric Wallis

Cast

Laurence Payne	Second Violin
Sebastian Shaw	First Violin
Philip Stainton	Violoncello
Mackenzie Ward	Viola

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Two further performances were presented on Thursday 29 January (at 8.40pm) and Friday 30 January (at 3.00pm) 1948.

Notes

For the repeat performances in January 1948 John Byron took the role of Second Violin; otherwise the cast was unchanged.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

music, as theme

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 11 October 1946 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 32 and brief article, p. 29

Title

Radio Times, 23 January 1948 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article, p. 24, listing, p. 27