Misery Me

Summary

BBC Television production of Denis Cannan’s comedy Misery Me!

Theatre play

Misery Me! by Denis Cannan [more information]

Play synopsis

Misery Me!, described by the Radio Times (14 October 1955, p. 39) as a ‘comedy of woe’ and by The Listener (27 October 1955, p. 717) as ‘an intellectual farce’, is set in a mountain inn where a young man and woman engage in conversation about ‘hope and anguish, love and hate, life and death’, undercut by moments of slapstick.

Production history

Radio Times (14 October 1955, p. 39) notes that the play had ‘a discouragingly brief career’ in the theatre.

Date of transmission

Thursday 20 October 1955

Time

7.30pm (90 mins)

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Hal Burton

Playwright

Denis Cannan

Designer

Hal Burton

Cast

Robert Beaumont	Julius Ring
Gordon Bell	Dr Vince
Michael J. Harrison	a minor part
Marilyn James	Romilda
Dermot MacMahon	a minor part
John Maxwell	a minor part
Noëlle Middleton	Cornelia
Hugh Morrison	a minor part
Laurence Payne	Adam
Norman Taylor	a minor part
Charles Victor	Carlo Bombas
George Woodbridge	Prosper

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy

Print sources

Title

Parlour Game (Magazine review)

Author/creator

Philip Hope-Wallace (Reviewer)

Reference

The Listener, 27 October 1955, p. 717

Linking notes

with b&w image of a scene from the production

Title

Radio Times, 14 October 1955 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and article on pp. 38 and 39; article is illustrated with an image of actors Noëlle Middleton and Laurence Payne in character