Mr Gillie

Summary

1950 BBC live studio presentation of Alastair Sims’ Garrick Theatre production of James Bridie’s comedy Mr Gillie.

Theatre play

Mr Gillie by James Bridie (1888-1951) [more information]

Play synopsis

Bridie’s comedy ‘calls upon us to view the life of an obscure Scottish schoolmaster, as seen by a heavenly Judge and Procurator who speak the Prologue and Epilogue. Before the play opens, Mr. Gillie has in fact been knocked down and killed by a furniture van, and the flashback on his life in the Scottish village of Crult is the evidence on which he is ultimately allotted a place in Heaven next to no other than Abraham Lincoln. [...] The play is marked by Mr. Bridie’s customary dry humour and penetrating wit’. Source: http://www.alastairsim.net/Theatre/mrgillie.htm.

Production history

First staged in Glasgow in 1950.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 25 July 1950

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Presented for Television by

Kevin Sheldon

Stage Producer

Alastair Sim

Playwright

James Bridie (1888-1951)

Sets / Settings

Hendrik Baker (based on his stage designs)

Cast

Robert Adam	Mr Gibb
Janet Brown	Nelly Watson
George Cole	Tom Donnelly
Megs Jenkins	Mrs Gillie
Gordon McLeod	Doctor Watson
Douglas Muir	The Procurator
Alastair Sim	Mr Gillie
H. G. Stoker	The Judge

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

afterlife; comedy; Scotland, as theme or setting; Scottish drama

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 21 July 1950 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 38; article by Lionel Hale, ‘Mr Gillie Goes to Heaven’, p. 36