The Mortimer Touch

Summary

1957 ABC Television production for ITV of The Mortimer Touch by Eric Linklater.

Theatre play

The Mortimer Touch by Eric Linklater [more information]

Play synopsis

This play is a re-working of Ben Jonson’s 17th-century comedy The Alchemist. Jonson’s charlatan-alchemist Subtle is transformed into Professor Mortimer who spouts pseudo-scientific patter.

Production history

Staged at the Edinburgh Festival in 1950 under the title The Atom Doctor; later at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London (sources: Radio Times, 16 August 1962, p. 15; http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsL/linklater-eric.html#107264).

Date of transmission

Sunday 8 December 1957

Time

9.30-10.30pm

Series

Armchair Theatre

Channel

ITV

Production company

ABC Television (1955-1968)

Credits

Director

Philip Dale

Producer

Philip Dale

Playwright

Eric Linklater

Adapted for Television by

Peter John Dyer

Designer

Bertram Tyrer

Cast

Gerald Andersen	Major Kemnay
James Belchamber	Batman
Richard Butler	Tom Thistleton
John Crocker	Constable
Margo Cunningham	Miss Sobieski-Smith
Gretchen Franklyn	Miss Julia
Angus Lennie	Alfred Shinney
Roddy McMillan	Shurie
Katharine Page	Mrs Bonamy
Kynaston Reeves	The Duke of Appplecross
Molly Urquhart	Mrs Shinney
Thorley Walters	Professor Mortimer
Billie Whitelaw	Connie May O’Leary

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy

Print sources

Title

The Armchair Theatre: How to Write, Design, Direct, Act and Enjoy Television Plays (Book)

Reference

London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1959

Linking notes

pp. 106-7

Title

TV Times, 6 December 1957 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, with image, p. 25; articles, pp. 5, 6 and 17