Autumn Crocus

Summary

1952 BBC live studio production of Dodie Smith’s comic drama Autumn Crocus.

Theatre play

Autumn Crocus by Dodie [Dorothy Gladys] Smith (1896-1990) [more information]

Play synopsis

Comic drama. The play follows a single schoolteacher who goes on holiday to the Tyrol and falls in love with the married owner of the hotel in which she is staying. The action of the play takes place within twenty-four hours in a small hotel in a quiet village near Innsbruck.

Production history

Written in 1931 under Smith’s pseudonym C. L. Anthony. Opened at the Lyric Theatre, London in April 1931.

Date of transmission

Sunday 24 August 1952

Time

8.25-10.10pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Harold Clayton

Playwright

Dodie [Dorothy Gladys] Smith (1896-1990)

Sets / Settings

Frederick Knapman

Cast

Terence Alexander	Alaric
Jean Anderson	Edith
Evangeline Banks	Minna
Cecil Bevan	Clergyman
Diana Calderwood	Audrey
Anton Diffring	Steiner
Margaret Johnston	Fanny
Anna Korda	Liese
Phyllis Morris	Miss Mayne
Jane Nicholls	Lenchen
Mignon O’Doherty	Mrs Feldmann
Frederick Schiller	Mr Feldmann

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 7.30pm on Thursday 28 August 1952.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

Austria, as theme or setting; comedy

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 22 August 1952 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 38; article by Lionel Hale, ‘Magic in the Air’, p. 37