A Time to Be Born

Summary

1956 Associated Television production for ITV of A Time to Be Born by Warren Tute.

Theatre play

A Time to Be Born by Warren Tute (1914-1989) [more information]

Play synopsis

'All his life Dr Evans has adored children. But early in their married life Norah, his wife, had an accident and lost the only child she could have. Now at the point of retirement, with a younger doctor taking over his practice in the industrial town of Clegginton in Northumberland, the old Welsh doctor and his wife are faced with the deeply-felt knowledge that there is no son to carry on. The results are unexpected’ (TV Times, 30 November 1956, p. 19).

Production history

Produced by Guildford Theatre Company in 1957. As yet, evidence has to be located for a performance on stage before the 5 December 1956 production on ITV, but a short article in the TV Times, 30 November 1956, p. 5 suggests that it was written with the stage in mind ('Of the "scores of plays" he has written, Tute has offered only one to a management. This was A Time to Be Born which was promptly bought by H. M. Tennent’).

Date of transmission

Wednesday 5 December 1956

Time

8.00-9.30pm

Series

Play of the Week

Channel

ITV

Production company

Associated Television (ATV, 1955-1982)

Credits

Director

Lionel Harris

Producer

Lionel Harris

Playwright

Warren Tute (1914-1989)

Cast

Angela Baddeley	Norah Evans
Basil Dignam	Dr MacDougal
Ronald Howard	Dr Denis Andrews
Mervyn Johns	Dr Evans
Gwen Llewellyn	Mrs Morven
Cyril Luckham	Uncle Sebastian
Nora [or Norah] Nicholson	Aunt Isabel
Margot van der Burgh	Mary Andrews

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

inheritance; marriage; north of England, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

TV Times, 30 November 1956 (Magazine)

Linking notes

short story by Cecilie Leslie about the events before the action of the play, p. 28; short article, p. 5; image, p. 18; listing, p. 19