The Importance of Being Earnest

Summary

1949 BBC live studio production of Oscar Wilde’s comedy The Importance of Being Earnest.

Theatre play

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde [more information]

Play synopsis

'A farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play’s major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways’ (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest).

Production history

First performed on 14 February 1895 at St James’s Theatre in London.

Date of transmission

Sunday 2 January 1949

Time

8.30-10.15pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Harold Clayton

Playwright

Oscar Wilde

Sets / Settings

Barry Learoyd

Cast

Edith Evans (1888-1976)	Lady Bracknell
William Fox	Algernon Moncrieff
Joan Greenwood	Cecily Cardew
Joan Harben	Miss Prism
Anthony Ireland (1902-1957)	John Worthing, J.P.
Rosamund John	Gwendolen Fairfax
Sidney Monckton	Merriman
J. H. Roberts	Rev. Canon Chasuble
Deering Wells	Lane
Kenneth Young	Footman

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

19th-century setting; comedy; Edwardian drama

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 31 December 1948 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 30; article by J. C. Trewin, p. 29; and brief article about the cast, p. 28