The Old Lady Shows Her Medals

Summary

1956 ABC Television production of The Old Lady Shows Her Medals by J. M. Barrie, presented live from the Manchester studios and starring Gracie Fields: ‘how fitting that she should be the star of the first live play to be shown to the Yorkshire viewers who join the ITA network for the first time this weekend’ (TV Times, 2 November 1956, p. 3).

Theatre play

The Old Lady Shows Her Medals by J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) [more information]

Play synopsis

The play follows an old charwoman who, without a husband or child fighting in the Great War, cannot boast about heroic exploits. Instead, she finds the name of a soldier who she passes off as her own son. He returns and is shocked but, being an orphan, takes her as his surrigate mother. He dies in battle on his return to the Front, leaving her proudly grieving.

Production history

Opened in 1917. Written to raise funds for victims of the war and their families.

Date of transmission

Sunday 4 November 1956

Time

9.00-10.00pm

Channel

ITV

Credits

Director

Dennis Vance

Playwright

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937)

Adapted for Television by

Robert Anderson

Designer

Bertram Tyrer

Cast

Hilda Barry	Mrs Haggerty
Robert Brown	Kenneth Dowey
Gracie Fields (1898-1979)	Mrs Dowey
Violet Gould	Mrs Mickleham
Evelyn Kerry	Mrs Twymley
Jack Newmark	Postal Clerk
Charles Lloyd Pack	Rev. Willings
Anthony Parker	Dixon
John Vere	Butler
Russell Waters	Narrator

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

First World War, as theme or setting; wartime, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

TV Times, 2 November 1956 (Magazine)

Linking notes

cover image; article, p. 3; listing, p. 13