Grand National Night

Summary

1950 BBC production of the thriller Grand National Night by Dorothy Christie and Campbell Christie.

Theatre play

Grand National Night by Dorothy Christie and Campbell Christie (1893-1963) [more information]

Play synopsis

Setting: Liverpool. Racehorse orainer Gerald Coates kills his wife Babs during an argument. Gerald is likeable and successful; Babs, however, is an alcoholic. Their marriage is on the rocks. The play is less a whodunnit than a question of whether he will get away with her death.

Production history

Dated to 1946.

Date of transmission

Sunday 4 June 1950

Time

8.15-10.15pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Fred O’Donovan (1889-1952)

Playwright

Campbell Christie (1893-1963)

Playwright

Dorothy Christie

Sets / Settings

James Bould

Cast

John Byron	Gerald Coates
Charles Cullum	Sergeant Gibson
Stanley Drewitt	Morton
John Harvey	Detective Inspector Ayling
Joyce Heron	Babs Coates / Pinkie Collins
Patricia Jessel	Joyce Penrose
Humphrey Lestocq	Buns Darling
Ronald Simpson	Philip Blafour

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 8.30pm on Thursday 8 June 1950

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

crime; murder; north of England, as theme or setting; thriller

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 2 June 1950 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article, p. 37; listing, p. 38