The Devil’s Disciple

Summary

This BBC Television production of Shaw’s melodrama The Devil’s Disciple, presented in the Sunday-Night Theatre series, was part of the BBC’s 90th birthday celebrations for the playwright. These also included a glimpse of the man himsel in a telerecording included in the week’s Panorama programme.

Theatre play

The Devil’s Disciple by [George] Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) [more information]

Play synopsis

The action of G. B. Shaw’s comic melodrama The Devil’s Disciple takes place in a small New Hampshire town in 1777 during the American War of Independence. John Wyver writes (on the Screen Plays blog): ‘The charming, rogue-ish and instantly sympathetic Dick Dudgeon returns to the community to inherit his father’s estate just as the British soldiers arrive. In a case of mistaken identity, Dick allows himself to be arrested and threatened with the gallows instead of Pastor Anderson. Neither he nor we are quite sure why he does this (which is part of how smart Shaw is) but his reasons certainly include his feelings for Anderson’s wife, Judith’.

Production history

The Radio Times, 20 July 1956, p.15 states that the play was publicly performed for the first time in New York in 1897; before that there had been a single performance, in which Shaw himself acted, in order to establish copyright.

Date of transmission

Sunday 22 July 1956

Time

8.30pm (100 mins)

Series

Sunday-Night Theatre

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Alan Bromly

Playwright

[George] Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Designer

Stephen Bundy

Cast

Jean Anderson	Mrs Dudgeon
Robert Brown	Anthony Anderson
Peggyann Clifford	Mrs Titus Dudgeon
Andrew Cruickshank	General Burgoyne
Colin Douglas	Sergeant
Raymond Francis	Major Swindon
William Franklyn	Dick Dudgeon
Esther McPherson	Mrs William Dudgeon
Carole Shelley	Essie
Tony Sympson	Titus Dudgeon
Sylvia Syms	Judith Anderson
Sidney Vivian	William Dudgeon
Lockwood West	Lawyer Hawkins
Nevil Whiting	Christy
Robert Young	Mr Brudenell

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

18th-century setting; America, as theme or setting; comedy; melodrama; wartime, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

Electronic G.B.S. (Newspaper review)

Author/creator

Maurice Richardson (Reviewer)

Reference

The Observer, 29 July 1956, p. 10

Title

Radio Times, 20 July 1956 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing pp. 14-15, with drawing and article by Peter Forster

Title

The Devil’s Disciple (Audience Research Report)

Archive

BBC Written Archives Centre (WAC) [more information]

Address

Peppard Road
Caversham Park
Reading
Berkshire
RG4 8TZ
UK

Telephone

+44 (0)118 948 6281

Email

heritage@bbc.co.uk

Website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/research/wac

Access

The WAC is open from 9.30am to 5.00pm on Wednesdays to Fridays throughout the year to academics, postgraduate students and writers by appointment.

Reference

Report reference VR/56/384, held in file R9/7/23