The Truth about Blayds

Summary: 1948 BBC live studio production of A. A. Milne’s drama The Truth about Blayds.
Theatre play: The Truth about Blayds by A. A. Milne (1882-1956) [more information]
Play synopsis: Blayds is a grand old man of ninety who is revealed as a fraud. ‘Everyone imagines him a great Victorian poet and when the play opens Royce, a critic, is presenting him with a complimentary address. There is talk of burying him in Westminster Abbey. On his death-bed, the old man confesses that he did not write the poems at all and that they were all the work of a friend, long since dead. The whole household, particularly his daughter, who is bitter at having given up her entire life to looking after the great celebrity, goes round in a state of consternation. Also there is controversy because the money has been acquired by false pretences. However, it appears that the real poet had genuinely left everything to Blayds and the family gradually adjust themselves to the situation, since Royce suggests that everything be allowed to remain as it is’. (The Scanner, ‘Truth Will Out’, Radio Times, 30 July 1948, p. 24)
Production history: First produced in 1921.
Date of transmission: Friday 6 August 1948
Time: 8.30-10.00pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Fred O’Donovan (1889-1952)

Playwright

A. A. Milne (1882-1956)

Sets / Settings

James Bould

Cast

This record has been viewed 269 times.