Poison Pen

Summary

BBC production of Richard Llewellyn’s play Poison Pen. Several of the original stage cast appeared in this television production, including Dorothy Black, Roddy Hughes and Neville Brook.

Theatre play

Poison Pen by Richard Llewellyn (1907-1983) [more information]

Play synopsis

This play deals with the sinister effect of poisen-pen letters on a small community and investigates the mentality and motives of the sender. The action of the play takes place in the vestry and the rectory of a village somewhere in the West Country.

Production history

First staged in London’s West End in the mid-1930s.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 18 January 1949

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Douglas Allen

Playwright

Richard Llewellyn (1907-1983)

Sets / Settings

Stephen Bundy

Cast

Dorothy Black	Phryne Rainrider
Neville Brook	Inspector Colelough
Nell Carter	Mrs Reynolds
Erik Chitty (1907-1977)	Len Griffin
Andrew Cruickshank	Rev. John Rainrider
Amy Dalby	Mrs Harboard
David Greene	Sam Hurrin
May Hallatt	Mrs Scaife
Roddy Hughes	Mr Fullergrave-Rees
Sam Lysons	Badham
Elizabeth Maude	Mrs Colelough
Evelyn Moore	Mrs Mellowes
Geoffrey Murphy	Malcolm McLeod
Patrick Waddington	Colonel Cashelton
Sonia Williams	Rose Rainrider
Marjorie Zeidler	Mrs Cashelton

Additional details

Origination

Live from theatre

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 2.45pm on Friday 21 January 1949

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

Welsh drama

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 14 January 1949 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 26

Title

Radio Times, 9 November 1956 (Magazine)

Linking notes

p. 27 (in a notice about a 1956 production of the play)

Title

Television (Newspaper listing)

Reference

The Times, 18 January 1949, p. 8