David Garrick

Summary

1951 BBC studio production of Constance Cox and Donald Wolfit’s romance about the great 18th-century actor David Garrick.

Theatre play

The Romance of David Garrick by Donald Wolfit and Constance Cox (1912-1998) [more information]

Play synopsis

A fanciful romance in which a young woman becomes infatuated across the footlights with the great actor. Garrick and her father contrive a plot to show that the actor is just a common man, but then he finds himself falling in love with her.

Production history

First produced by Donald Wolfit at St James Theatre, London in 1942.

Date of transmission

Sunday 21 January 1951

Time

8.30-10.05pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Stephen Harrison

Playwright

Constance Cox (1912-1998)

Playwright

Donald Wolfit

Cast

Eileen Barry	Mrs Prichard
Joseph Chelton	Charles Macklin
Anthony Cope	Simon Ingot
John Gill	James Quin
Geoffrey Hodson	Captain Barry
Rosalind Iden	Ada Ingot
Bryan Johnson	Hon. Edward Farren
Desmond O’Malley	Ingot’s Servant
Douglas Quayle	Garrick’s Servant
Iris Russell	Kitty Clive
Donald Wolfit	David Garrick

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

18th-century setting; theatre or acting, as theme

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 19 January 1951 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 44 and article by Lionel Hale, ‘A Theatrical Romance’, p. 43