'It is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer’

Summary: 1953 live studio production of Gilbert Cesbron’s play adapted for television by Rudolph Cartier. This is the earliest television drama of which a full-length tele-recording exists; the recording is of the second presentation.
Theatre play: 'It is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer’ by Gilbert Cesbron [more information]
Play synopsis: The action takes place at night at Dr Schweitzer’s hospital in Lambaréné, French Equatorial Africa. The time is 2 August 1914, the day before the outbreak of the First World War. The playwright imagines that Schweitzer was interned, as a German subject, at the start of the war, when in fact this took place in 1917.
Production history: [to come]
Date of transmission: Sunday 22 February 1953
Time: 8.40-10.20pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Rudolph Cartier

Playwright

Gilbert Cesbron

Adapted for Television by

Translator

Translator

Sets / Settings

Cast

Origination: Live from studio
Vision original: Monochrome
Later transmissions: Presented again at 7.00pm on Thursday 26 February 1953.
Play tags: Africa, as theme or setting; colonialism; First World War, as theme or setting; French drama; wartime, as theme or setting

Title: 'It is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer’ (BBC, 1953)
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Title: It Is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer’ (BBC, 1953) (Blog article)
Author/creator: John Wyver (Author)
Reference: http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/it-is-midnight-dr-schweitzer-bbc-1953, published 12 September 2011

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British Universities Film & Video Council