British Universities Film & Video Council

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For Dear Life

Summary
1955 live BBC studio production of Lionel Brown’s comedy For Dear Life, which was tele-recorded and broadcast three weeks later.
Theatre play
For Dear Life by Lionel Brown [more information]
Date of transmission
Tuesday 8 March 1955
Time
9.15-10.30pm
Channel
BBC Television
Production company
BBC

Credits

Producer
Barbara Burnham
Playwright
Lionel Brown
Designer
John Clements (1910-1988)
Cast
Patricia BurkeMyfanwy Grey
Hamilton DyceDr Hedley Yates
Dorothy GordonMegs Hayes
Malcolm KeenBishop of Bethesda
Joyce MarlowEllen Hayes
Anthony OliverLucian Evans
Paul Whitsun-JonesAbraham Watkin

Additional details

Origination
Live from studio
Vision original
Monochrome
Later transmissions
Repeated as a tele-recording on 29 March 1955 as a replacement for The Unguarded Hour.
Extant status
No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags
comedy; music, as theme; Wales, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title
Children (Magazine review)
Author/creator
Philip Hope-Wallace (Author)
Reference
The Listener, 7 April 1955, p. 633
Notes
Details that the production of The Unguarded Hour was not broadcast as planned because of copyright problems. Of the repeated For Dear Life, Philip Hope-Wallace wrote: ‘I am bound to say [the production] stood up far better to second sight than I expected. The quality of the tele-film was excellent.' Also briefly discussed Broken Silence, with a production photograph.
Title
Oft in Sorrow (Magazine review)
Author/creator
Philip Hope-Wallace (Author)
Reference
The Listener, 17 March 1955, p. 493
Title
Radio Times, 4 March 1955 (Magazine)
Linking notes
listing, p. 26

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