Ladies in Retirement

Summary

BBC Television production of Ladies in Retirement by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham.

Theatre play

Ladies in Retirement by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham [more information]

Play synopsis

'Set in the year 1885, the action of the play takes place in an old farmhouse situated on a lonely stretch of marsh-land near the Thames Estuary. Leonora Fiske, a retired musical-comedy artist, lives alone with her companion, Ellen Creed. Ellen has two eccentric and completely dependent old sisters who come to stay, and it is their presence in the house which unwittingly sparks off the frightening chain of circumstances. Only the arrival of Albert, their ne’er-do-well nephew, prevents the mysterious "crime" -- if crime there be -- from remaining undetected forever’ (source: Radio Times, 4 April 1958, p. 19).

Production history

Ladies in Retirement premiered on 12 December 1939 at St James’s Theatre, London. It transferred to Broadway in 1940 with Flora Robson in the lead role; it was turned into a film in 1941 (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_in_Retirement). Published London and New York: English Theatre Guild, 1940.

Date of transmission

Saturday 12 April 1958

Time

9.00pm (90 mins)

Series

Saturday Playhouse

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Dorothea Brooking

Playwright

Reginald Denham

Playwright

Edward Percy

Designer

Roy Oxley

Cast

Joan Hickson	Emily
Dorothy Holmes-Gore	Sister Theresa
Janet Joye	Louisa
David McCallum	Albert Feather
Prunella Scales	Lucy
Ivy St Helier	Leonora Fiske
Valerie Taylor	Ellen Creed

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

19th-century setting; crime; supernatural

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 4 April 1958 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and article on p. 19

Title

The Widow’s Triumph (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Irish Times, 17 April 1958, p. 6