Pink String and Sealing Wax

Summary

1949 BBC live studio production of Roland Pertwee’s comedy Pink String and Sealing Wax.

Theatre play

Pink String and Sealing Wax by Roland Pertwee (1885-1963) [more information]

Play synopsis

The comedy is set in the sitting room of the Strachan’s house in Brighton during the late 1800s. Edward Strachan controls his family with little tenderness and understanding. His loving, ambitious children despair of his lack of attentiveness. When his eldest son becomes associated with a married woman who plots to incriminate him in the murder of her husband, Edward realises how wrong his priorities were and tries to protect his son and become reunited with his estranged family.

Production history

First produced at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, on 2 September 1943.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 27 September 1949

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Kevin Sheldon

Playwright

Roland Pertwee (1885-1963)

Sets / Settings

Richard R. Greenough

Cast

Margaret Barton	Eva Strachan
Bruce Belfrage	Edward Strachan
John Benson	Ernest O’Shea
Barbara Everest	Mrs Strachan
Eunice Gayson	Emily Strachan
Anne [or Ann] McGrath	Jessie Strachan
Sally Rogers	Pearl Bond
Barry Steele	Albert Strachan / Dr O’Shea

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

19th-century setting; comedy; crime; murder

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 23 September 1949 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 46; article, p. 45