A Fish in the Family

Summary: 1953 BBC live studio production of Basil Bartlett’s Scottish comic fantasy A Fish in the Family.
Theatre play: A Fish in the Family by Basil Bartlett [more information]
Play synopsis: 'The Blairs have lived in Blair Castle off the West Coast of Scotland for a thousand years. They are an old and slightly eccentric family. Legend has it that they are. descended from a mermaid and a fisherman. Mermaids, of course, are still quite common at Blair in the summer time - mermaids and seals. And when Laura appears, complete with tail and golden comb, no one at Blair is in the least surprised... Then the trouble begins. Lady Blair and Jessica team up against her. The servants leave. The family chaplain, Mr Hodgson, finds in her an almost insoluble moral and theological problem. And finally the whole neighbourhood begins to seethe with rumours which are brought to a head by the visit of the special correspondent of a newspaper’ (Basil Bartlett, ‘A Fish in the Family’, Radio Times, 4 September 1953, p. 14).
Production history: Produced at the Boltons Theatre, London, in June 1947.
Date of transmission: Tuesday 8 September 1953
Time: 8.30-10.05pm
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Producer

Stephen Harrison

Playwright

Basil Bartlett

Sets / Settings

Richard Wilmot

Cast

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