Music at Night

Summary

1952 BBC live studio production of J. B. Priestley’s drama Music at Night. The television co-producer Michael MacOwan had produced the stage premiere of the play just before World War Two.

Theatre play

Music at Night by J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) [more information]

Play synopsis

An assortment of middle- and upper-class people come to the house of the widowed Mrs Amesbury to hear a new violin concerto by David Shiel. As the music plays their minds wander, and their reveries are theatrically performed. Each act of the play corresponds with a movement of the concerto: Allegro capriccioso, Lento, and Allegro — agitato — maestoso nobile. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_at_Night_(play); accessed 4 October 2014)

Production history

Written for and performed at the Malvern Drama Festival in 1938; presented at the Westminster Theatre on 10 October 1939. Published 1944.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 25 March 1952

Time

9.00-10.30pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producers

Michael MacOwan, Dennis Vance

Playwright

J. B. Priestley (1894-1984)

Adapted for Television by

Michael MacOwan

Introduced by

J. B. Priestley (1894-1984)

Cast

Hugh Burden	Philip Chilham
Jean Cadell	Mrs Amcabury
Joan Carol	Lady Sybil Linchester
Edward Chapman	Sir James Dirnie
Josephine Griffin	Deborah
Rachel Gurney	Katherine Shiel
Thomas Heathcote	Tom
Geoffrey Keen	David Shiel
Fulton Mackay	Rupert Amesbury
Gordon Phillott	Parks
Nancy Roberts	Mrs Chilham
Abraham Sofaer	Nicholas Lengel
Harcourt Williams (1880-1957)	Charles Bendrex

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Notes

'[Michael] MacOwan, who regards television as the ideal medium for soliloquy will make considerable use of close-up’ ('Talk of the Week’, Radio Times, 21 March 1952, p. 40).

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 21 March 1952 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and article by Lionel Hale, p. 43; article, pp. 40-41