The Lake

Summary

1953 BBC live studio production of The Lake by Dorothy Massingham and Murray Macdonald.

Theatre play

The Lake by Murray Macdonald and Dorothy Massingham [more information]

Play synopsis

The action of the play takes place in Mildred Surrege’s house in Buckinghamshire, and a marquee in the grounds of the house. Upper-class Stella has to choose between a respectable man, John Clayne, who would be a very good marriage partner, and the handsome but married Cecil Harvey.

Production history

Opened on Broadway on 26 December 1933, when it was a cricial and popular flop.

Date of transmission

Sunday 29 March 1953

Time

8.40-10.20pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Harold Clayton

Playwright

Murray Macdonald

Playwright

Dorothy Massingham

Sets / Settings

Richard Wilmot

Cast

Margaret Balfry	Maud
John Barron	Cecil Hervey
Fabia Drake	Lady Kerron
Audrey Fildes	Marjorie Hervey
Ruth Goring	Ethel
Walter Horsbrugh	Williams
Douglas Jefferies	Henry Surrege
Marie Ney	Lena Surrege
Eileen Thorndike	Mildred Surrege
Peter Williams	John Clayne
Irene Worth (1916-2002)	Stella

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 7.30pm on Thursday 2 April 1953

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

marriage

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 27 March 1953 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, brief article and photograph, p. 14