Conflict at Kalanadi

Summary

1960 studio recording of Arthur Swinson’s wartime drama, Conflict at Kalanadi, produced in the BBC’s West of England studio.

Theatre play

Conflict at Kalanadi by Arthur Swinson [more information]

Play synopsis

'After months of quiet in an excitable city somewhere in the Middle East there is a sudden outbreak of violence. The mob storms the British Bank, attacks the railway station, cuts off communications with the outside world, and threatens still more trouble. But is this a "riot" or a national "insurrection"? This is the problem that faces Brigadier Guy Ruddock, for on his interpretation of the situation depends the degree of force that the army is permitted to use in order to quell the disturbance’ (Radio Times, 8 January 1960, p. 19).

Production history

Performed at The Leatherhead Theatre, 7 September 1959 by the Leatherhead Repertory Company.

Date of transmission

Saturday 16 January 1960

Time

8.40-10.10pm

Series

Saturday Playhouse

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Brandon Acton-Bond

Writer

Arthur Swinson

Designer

Desmond Chinn

Cast

Michael Barber	Signaller
Arnold Bell	Brigadier Guy Ruddock
Lawrence Brooks
Michael Collins	Sergeant Bolam
Paul Dawkins
Roger Delgado	J. L. Blenkin
Diana Fairfax	Susan Ruddock
Lewis Gedge	Charles Semper
Derek Godfrey	Major Tony Brandon
Ernest Hare	Lord St Chad
Peter Jeffrey	Major Verreker
Harold Kasket	Bardesh Rao
Michael Kelly
Edward Laurence
Keith Marsh	Lance-Corporal Jelley
Drummond Marvin
John Phillips	Jeffrey Bellenger
Charles Rea	Signaller, HQ
Maxwell Shaw	Dubooh Cherrah
Sebastian Shaw	Major-General O’Flaherty
Brian Spink	Captain Henry Tring
Norman Tyrrell	Bak Official
Philip West

Additional details

Origination

Recorded in studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

Middle East, as theme or setting; military / army / navy / air-force

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 8 January 1960 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and caption, p. 19

Title

Television: Worse Confounded (Magazine review)

Author/creator

Peter Forster (Author)

Reference

The Spectator, 22 January 1960, p. 18

Notes

'The Amritsar-like theme supposed a British Brigadier who orders his troops to fire on the mob in an Eastern town, and is subsequently recalled. No fewer than 253 people are said to have been killed, and 500 wounded, which seems a very handsome testimony to the effectiveness of the five soldiers we saw, bunched together to keep in camera, firing away rather languidly with revolvers and sten guns while papier mache stones bounced daintily off their helmets.'