Nurse Cavell

Summary

1948 BBC live studio production of the 1933 drama Nurse Cavell by C. E. Bechhofer Roberts and C. S. Forester, broadcast on the evening of Armistice Day.

Theatre play

Nurse Cavell by C. E. Bechhofer Roberts and C. S. Forester [more information]

Play synopsis

A documentary play about the British nurse who served on the Western Front during the First World War, and who was arrested by the Germans for allowing Allied soldiers to escape. Despite an international outcry she was executed by a German firing squad in October 1915.

Production history

First performed in 1933.

Date of transmission

Sunday 7 November 1948

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Douglas Allen

Playwright

C. S. Forester

Playwright

C. E. Bechhofer Roberts

Sets / Settings

Stephen Bundy

Cast

Michael Ashwin	Freiherr Adalbert von Hausmann
Julian d’Albie	A Spanish Diplomat
William Fox	A Refugee
Marion Gerth	Nurse Dubois
Wyndham Goldie (1897-1957)	An English Chaplain
Richard Hurndall	An American
Michael Lewer	Philip Gautier
Joan Matheson	Sister Johnson
Elizabeth Maude	Nurse Kroll
Olaf Olsen	A German Soldier
Aletha Orr	Ada Gauthier
Nancy Price (1880-1970)	Edith Cavell
Gerik R. Schjelderup	The Baron
Patrick Troughton	An English Soldier
Percy Walsh	Phillippe Baucq
Martin Wyldeck	Hans Stolz

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 8.00pm on 11 November 1948.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

documentary theatre; First World War, as theme or setting; wartime, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 5 November 1948 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 26; article by John Swift, ‘Edith Cavell - A Tragic Memory’, p. 25; article, p. 24