A Woman of No Importance

Summary

1948 BBC live studio production of Oscar Wilde’s comedy A Woman of No Importance.

Theatre play

A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde [more information]

Play synopsis

The play explores secrets among the upper-classes: Lord Illingworth discovering that the young man he has employed as a secretary is in fact his illegitimate son.

Production history

Premièred on 19 April 1893 at London’s Haymarket Theatre.

Date of transmission

Thursday 8 January 1948

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Stephen Harrison

Arranged for Television by

Stephen Harrison

Playwright

Oscar Wilde

Sets / Settings

Barry Learoyd

Cast

Angela Baddeley	Mrs Arbuthnot
Vivienne Bennett	Mrs Allonby
Derek Blomfield	Gerald Arbuthnot
John Burch	Sir John Pontefract
Walter Fitzgerald	Lord Illingworth
Winifred Hill	Maid
Agnes Lauchlan	Lady Hunstanton
Phillip Leaver	Ven. Archdeacon Daubeny
Peter Mullins	Footman
Sally Rogers	Hester Worsley
Una Venning	Lady Caroline Pontefract

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 3.00pm on Friday 9 January 1948.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

19th-century setting; comedy

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 2 January 1948 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 27, article, p. 25