Adam’s Apple

Summary

1952 BBC live studio production of N. C. Hunter’s Adam’s Apple, a ‘Victorian fairy tale in three acts’.

Theatre play

Adam’s Apple by N. C. [Norman Charles] Hunter (1908-1971) [more information]

Play synopsis

'In the year 1891 there stands an ancient apple tree on Henry Blessington’s peaceful country estate in Wiltshire; a most remarkable tree, for it seems to be an offshoot from that fatal apple tree in Eden long ago. At all events, Goodbody the gardener informs Blessington’s inquisitive daughter, Penelope, that its fruit will change the personality of any man who eats it. Whereupon she straightway takes an apple into the house...' (Peter Forster, Radio Times, 28 November 1952, p. 46).

Production history

First performed as Now the Serpent... at the Theatre Royal Brighton in April 1951, then as Adam’s Apple at the Golders Green Hippodrome in April 1952.

Date of transmission

Sunday 30 November 1952

Time

8.40-10.10pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Desmond Davis

Playwright

N. C. [Norman Charles] Hunter (1908-1971)

Adapted for Television by

Desmond Davis

Sets / Settings

John Clements (1910-1988)

Cast

Peter Barkworth	Captain Horace Parkes
Frank Birch	Dr Gathorpe-Wehterby
John Burch	Arthur Medlicott
Wynne Clark	Philippa Blessington
Howell Davies	Goodbody
Frances Hyland	Penelope Blessington
Robert Irvine	Fairbanks
Agnes Lauchlan	Lady Mabel Parkes
Roger Livesey	Henry Blessington
Joan Marlowe	Mortimer
Raymond Rollett	Sir Edward Parkes
John Stratton	Stephen Binns

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

19th-century setting

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 28 November 1952 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and caption by Peter Forster, p. 46