Goodness, How Sad!

Summary

BBC presentation of the production of Robert Morley’s comedy Goodness, How Sad! which was playing at the Vaudeville Theatre, London.

Theatre play

Goodness, How Sad by Robert Morley (1908-1992) [more information]

Play synopsis

A three-act gentle comedy about a struggling repertory company, set in a theatrical digs in a Midlands town.

Production history

The play, which premiered on the stage in 1937, was turned into a 1940 Ealing Studios film Return to Yesterday directed by Robert Stevenson. It was first performed at the Perranport Beach Theatre in Bristol and then had a West End run at the Vaudeville Theatre in London.

Date of transmission

Sunday 6 November 1938

Time

9.05-10.50pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Tyrone Guthrie

Television Presentation by

Lanham Titchener

Playwright

Robert Morley (1908-1992)

Cast

Frith Banbury
Kathleen Boutall
Jill Furse
Judith Furse
Arthur Hambling
Mary Merrall
Hugh Sinclair

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 9.05pm on Sunday12 March 1939.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy; Midlands, as theme or setting; theatre or acting, as theme

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 4 November 1938 (Magazine)

Linking notes

p. 18

Title

Televised Plays: Shaw, Gogol, and Bernard (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Times, 13 March 1939, p. 10