Ten Little Niggers

Summary

1949 BBC live studio production of Agatha Christie’s mystery play Ten Little Niggers.

Theatre play

Ten Little Niggers by Agatha Christie [more information]

Play synopsis

'In [Agatha Christie’s1939] novel, ten people are enticed into coming to an island under different pretexts, ... All have been complicit in the death(s) of other human beings but either escaped justice or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction. The guests are charged with their respective "crimes" by a gramophone recording after dinner the first night and informed that they have been brought to the island to pay for their actions. They are the only people on the island, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainland and the inclement weather, yet gradually all ten are killed in turn, in a manner that seems to parallel the ten deaths in the nursery rhyme... In 1943, Agatha Christie adapted the story for the stage. In the process of doing so, she and the producers agreed that audiences might not flock to such a grim tale and it would not work well dramatically as there would be no one left to tell the tale. Thus, she reworked the ending’ (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None; accessed 2 August 2014).

Production history

'After a try-out at the Wimbledon Theatre starting on 20 September 1943, the play opened in the West End at the St James’s Theatre on 17 November’ (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None_(1943_play); accessed 2 August 2014); published London: French 1944.

Date of transmission

Saturday 20 August 1949

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Kevin Sheldon

Playwright

Agatha Christie

Sets / Settings

Richard R. Greenough

Cast

Bruce Belfrage	Dr Armstrong
John Bentley	Philip Lombard
Margery Bryce	Sir Lawrence Wargrave
Douglas Hurn	Antony Marston
Stanley Lemin	Rogers
Elizabeth Maude	Mrs Rogers
Sally Rogers	Vera Claythorpe
Campbell Singer	William Blore
Barry Steele	Narracot
Arthur Wontner	General Mackenzie

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

adaptation of novel; Devon, as theme or setting; mystery

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 12 August 1949 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 39, brief article, p. 37