The Ticket-of-Leave Man

Summary

1963 Granada Television production for ITV of The Ticket-of-Leave Man by Tom Taylor, presented in the eight-play series The Victorians. All eight plays were performed by the Company of Seven, a group especially formed for the series.

Theatre play

The Ticket-of-Leave Man by Tom Taylor (1817-1880) [more information]

Play synopsis

Melodrama. ‘Robert Brierly, a young Lancashire lad, is tasting the pleasures of London for the first time. He falls easy prey to a pair of criminals, Melter Moss and James Dalton. Dalton lends him money in the form of a forged note. When Brierly changes this for gold sovereigns, he is arrested and imprisoned for four years. A young girl May, to whom he had shown kindness, waits patiently for his release from jail as a "ticket-of-leave man", a form of parole. When Brierly discovers that his forged note caused the ruin of May’s loquacious landlady Mrs Willoughby, he secretly repays the money. Brierly and May arrange to marry, and he gets a job as messenger in a brokerage firm. When his employer learns that he is a "jailbird", he is dismissed. Brierly tries to find any kind of employment, but even navvies will not let him work with them. Moss and Dalton imagine that he will now be forced to assist them to rob the firm he was sacked from. Brierly pretends to agree, but betrays them to the police. In a dramatic ending the criminals are apprehended, and the wounded Brierly has his honour restored.' Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Plays (OUP, 2005).

Production history

First performed in London in 1863.

Date of transmission

Friday 21 June 1963

Time

9.15-10.15pm

Series

Victorians

Channel

ITV

Production company

Granada Television (1956-)

Theatre company

Company of Seven

Credits

Director

Stuart Latham

Producer

Philip Mackie

Playwright

Tom Taylor (1817-1880)

Adapted for Television by

Gerald Savory (1909-1996)

Composer

Derek New (theme music)

Designer

Roy Stonehouse

Cast

Michael Barrington	Mr Gibson
Geoffrey Bayldon	Hawkshaw
Peter Brett	Waiter
Alan Foss	Angry Customer
Patricia Garwood	May Edwards
Barrie Ingham	Robert Brierley
Frederick Jones	Maltby
Charles Kay	Moss
Robert Sansom	Mr Sharpe
Vi Stevens	Mrs Willoughby
John Wood	Dalton

Additional details

Play tags

19th-century setting; crime; prison

Print sources

Title

TV Times, 14 June 1963 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article, p. 15; listing, p. 39