Sweeney Todd; or The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Summary: 1947 BBC live studio production of George Dibdin Pitt’s Victorian melodrama Sweeney Todd, presented by a company called (in the Radio Times listings) ‘The Television Barnstormers’.
Theatre play: Sweeney Todd by George Dibdin Pitt [more information]
Play synopsis: This 19th-century melodrama focuses on a barber who slits the throats of his customers.
Production history: Sweeney Todd first appeared in a story titled The String of Pearls: A Romance, a ‘penny dreadful’ published in 18 weekly parts 1846-1847. It was probably written by James Malcolm Rymer, though Thomas Peckett Prest has also been credited with it. In February/March 1847, before the serial was even completed, George Dibden Pitt adapted The String of Pearls as a melodrama for the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton.
Date of transmission: Thursday 6 November 1947
Time: 8.30-10.00pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

John Glyn-Jones

Playwright

George Dibdin Pitt

Music

Anthony Spurgin

Sets / Settings

James Bould

Cast

Title: Radio Times, 31 October 1947 (Magazine)
Linking notes: listing, p. 32; article by John Swift, ‘The Riddle of Sweeney Todd’, p. 30

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