Jenny Villiers

Summary: 1948 BBC live studio production for Easter Day of J. B. Priestley’s play Jenny Villiers.
Theatre play: Jenny Villiers by J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) [more information]
Play synopsis: 'A successful but dispirited playwright is supervising the rehearsals of his new play, The Glass Door, at an old theatre in North England. The actors are irritated by his cynical attitude, but when left alone in the darkened green room he experiences visions of a 19th-century tragedy which alter his outlook on his profession.' (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Villiers; accessed 31 August 2014)
Production history: Produced as a play under the joint sponsorship of the Arts Council, The Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells Trust at the Theatre Royal, Bath on 13 March 1946. It did not achieve a London run and was then published by J. B. Priestley as a novel in 1947.
Date of transmission: Sunday 28 March 1948
Time: 8.30-10.15pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Harold Clayton

Playwright

J. B. Priestley (1894-1984)

Sets / Settings

Barry Learoyd

Cast

Joy Adamson	First Actress
Daphne Arthur	Ann Seward / Jenny Villiers
Robert Atkins (1886-1972)	Edmund Ludlow
Leslie Banks	Martin Cheveril
Joan Berly
Beckett Bould	Jacob G. Mangles
Joan Carol	Pauline Fraser
Stuart Chedburn
Charles Cornock	Doctor
Julian Dallas	Wing-Commander Robert Peak Julian Napier
Elizabeth Danby
Howard Douglas	Spragg
Donald Eccles	Walter Kettle
Fred Groves	Alfred Leathers / John Stokes
Cameron Hall	Otley
Winifred Hill	Nurse
Jane Holland	Second Actress
Agnes Lauchlan	Fanny Ludlow
Duncan Lewis	Sam Moon
Norma Ludlow
William Lynton
Sidney Monckton	Mayor of Barton Spa
Charles Lloyd Pack	Augustus Ponsonby
William Roderick	James Whitefoot
Frederick Ross	Sir Romford Tiverton
Robert Sansom	Dr Cave
Arthur Seaton	Landlord
Donald Tandy	Journalist
Barbara Trevor
Stella Wilkinson
Robert Wilson

Origination: Live from studio
Vision original: Monochrome
Later transmissions: Presented again at 3.00pm on Friday 2 April 1948.
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: north of England, as theme or setting; theatre or acting, as theme

Title: Radio Times, 26 March 1948 (Magazine)
Linking notes: listing, p. 26; article by John Swift, ‘Television - A New Art’, p. 25; article, p. 24

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