Home and Beauty

Summary

1948 BBC live studio production of Somerset Maugham’s farce Home and Beauty.

Theatre play

Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) [more information]

Play synopsis

In this light-hearted farcical comedy, which includes some serious social commentary too, Victoria wishes to divorce her two buffoonish husbands (the first of whom was presumed dead in WWI; the second is his friend). They, in turn, compete in their renunciations of her.

Production history

First staged in 1919.

Date of transmission

Sunday 4 April 1948

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Desmond Davis

Playwright

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

Cast

Hélène Burls	Mrs Pogson
Helen Cherry	Victoria
Basil Cunard	Mr Leicester Paton
Genine Graham	Miss Dennis
Meriel Hunn	Taylor
Fred Kitchen	Frederick
Barbara Nixon	Nannie
Harold Scott	Mr A. B. Rahan
Joan Sterndale-Bennett	Miss Montmorency
Ruth Taylor	Mrs Shuttleworth
Desmond Walter-Ellis	William

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy; farce; marriage

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 2 July 1948 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article, p. 24; listing, p. 26