Murder on the Second Floor

Summary

1947 BBC live studio production of Frank Vosper’s thriller Murder on the Second Floor.

Theatre play

Murder on the Second Floor by Frank Vosper [more information]

Play synopsis

The action takes place in a Bloomsbury boarding house. A novelist imagines the murders of his fellow tenants.

Production history

Premiered at the Lyric Theatre on 21 June 1929 and in the United States on 11 September 1929 at New York’s Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre. The play was made into a 1932 British film directed by William C. McGann.

Date of transmission

Thursday 17 April 1947

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Stephen Harrison

Playwright

Frank Vosper

Cast

Muriel Aked	Miss Snell
Jane Barrett	Sylvia Armitage
Joan Sterndale Bennett	Lucy
Kathleen Boutall	Mrs Armitage
Peter Coke (1913-2008)	Hugh Bromilow
Basil Cunard	P. C. Williams
James Dale	Mr Reynolds
Desmond Keith	P. C. Rogers
Olaf Olsen	Jam Singh
Jack Raine	Inspector
Douglas Tyrrell	P. C. Thomson

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Notes

Four of the cast (Muriel Aked, Kathleen Boutall, Eliot Makeham and Olaf Olsen) played in Stephen Harrison’s pre-war television production of the play in 1939.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

murder; poetry and literature, as theme; thriller

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 11 April 1947 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article, p. 7; listing, p. 23