The Mayerling Affair

Summary

1956 BBC Television production of R. F. Delderfield’s The Meyerling Affair.

Theatre play

The Mayerling Affair by R. F. [Ronald Frederick] Delderfield (1912-1972) [more information]

Play synopsis

'On a January morning the bodies of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria and Mary Vetsera were found in the hunting lodge at Mayerling. They had committed suicide. [Their] illicit love affair had become known and things had been made worse when a letter that the Prince had sent to the Pope requesting a divorce so that he could marry Mary was sent by the Pope to Rudolph’s father the Emperor.' Source: http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsD/delderfield-r-f.html#9279.

Production history

The Times suggests that the premiere took place at the Pitlochry Festival of 1957 (5 December 1956, p. 3).

Date of transmission

Sunday 11 March 1956

Time

9.15pm (90 mins)

Series

Sunday-Night Theatre; Henry Sherek Presents

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Rudolph Cartier

Playwright

R. F. [Ronald Frederick] Delderfield (1912-1972)

Translator

Humbert Wolfe (translator of Epilogue)

Designer

Stephen Taylor

Epilogue by

Heinrich Heine (written by)

Epilogue by

Michael Hordern (spoken by)

Cast

Beryl Baxter	Stephanie
Rupert Davies	Maurice Szeps
Anthony Dawson	Archduke Johann Salvator
Sonia Dresdel	Countess Larisch
Keith Michell	Rudolf
Margaretta Scott	Elizabeth
Cyril Shaps	Johann Loschek
André Van Gyseghem	Franz Joseph I
Charles Victor	Bratfisch
Mai Zetterling (1925-1994)	Baroness Mary Vetsera

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

19th-century setting; Austria, as theme or setting; royalty

Print sources

Title

BBC Television: The Mayerling Affair (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Times, 12 March 1956, p. 3

Title

Radio Times, 9 March 1956 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing on p. 1

Title

The Mayerling Affair (Website)

Reference

http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b8bba7388 (accessed 14 November 2013)