The Young Elizabeth [excerpt]

Summary

1953 BBC live broadcast from the Criterion Theatre, London of an excerpt (four scenes of twelve) from the historical drama The Young Elizabeth by Jennette Dowling Letton and Francis Letton, performed before an invited audience.

Theatre play

The Young Elizabeth by Jennette Dowling Letton and Francis Letton [more information]

Play synopsis

Two-act play in twelve scenes, by American playwrights, set in 1547 to 1558, from the death of Henry VIII to the accession of the young Elizabeth. This historical drama depicts the early life of Elizabeth I, showing her varying fortunes during the reigns of her father Henry VIII , and then her half-brother Edward VI and her half-sister Mary Tudor.

Production history

First produced at the New Theatre, London in 1952.

Date of transmission

Monday 12 January 1953

Time

8.15-9.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Presented for Television by

Michael Henderson

Theatre Director

Charles Hickman

Playwright

Francis Letton

Playwright

Jennette Dowling Letton (credited as ‘Jennette Dowling’)

Cast

Beryl Andrews	Katherine Ashley
Beckett Bould	Thomas Parry
John Crocker	Sir Thomas Wyatt
Roy Dean	Sir Francis Verney
Basil Dignam	Lord Robert Tyrwhitt
Eric Dodson	Bishop Gardiner
Betty England	Lady Tyrwhitt
John French	Sir Peter Carew
Godfrey Kenton	William Cecil
Mary Morris	Elizabeth Tudor
Joseph O’Conor	Lord Thomas Seymour
Michael Plant	Page
Margaretta Scott	Katherine Parr
Peggy Thorpe-Bates	Mary Tudor
Alan Wilson	Abel Cousins

Additional details

Origination

Live from theatre

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

16th-century setting; American drama; historical drama; monarchy, British; royalty

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 9 January 1953 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 38; brief article, p. 36