Jeannie

Summary

1954 live BBC studio production of Aimée Stuart’s comedy Jeannie.

Theatre play

Jeannie by Aimée Stuart (1885-1981) [more information]

Play synopsis

The comedy ‘opens in a spotless but small kitchen-cum-living room, scullery and wash-house in a grey village in Scotland. Romance and domesticity are brought together during the final scenes where Jeannie is offered relief from drudgery by the introduction of domestic appliances into her life.' (Maggie Gale, West End Women: Women and the London Stage, 1918-1962, London: Routledge, 2008, p. 189).

Production history

Originally a radio play, then a West End success when it was staged in 1940.

Date of transmission

Sunday 4 April 1954

Time

8.40-10.10pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Director

David Macdonald

Producer

Dennis Vance

Playwright

Aimée Stuart (1885-1981)

Music

Malcolm Rayment

Sets / Settings

John Cooper

Cast

Frank Atkinson	Porter
Michael Barber	Page
Cecil Brock	Second Waiter
[W.] Thorpe Devereux	Maître d’hôtel
Olga Dickie	Jeannie’s Mistress
Diana Fairfax
Hilda Fenemore	Mrs Whitelaw
Margaret Gordon	Bessie
John G. Heller	Attendant / First Waiter
Lesley Jackson
Carl Lacey
John Laurie	Father
Peter Morny
Barbara Mullen	Jeannie
Katherine Page	Maggie
Mila Parely	Blonde
Eric Portman	Stanley Smith
Hedi Schnabel
Paul Sheridan	Hotel Clerk
Robert Stead
Nickola Sterne
André Van Gyseghem	Count

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 9.10pm on Thursday 8 April 1954.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy; Scotland, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 2 April 1954 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and extended picture caption, p. 14

Title

Wee Jeanie (Magazine review)

Author/creator

Philip Hope-Wallace (Author)

Reference

The Listener, 8 April 1954, pp. 624-25