Sounding Brass

Summary

1957 BBC production of Leslie Burgess’ Sounding Brass. Four years earlier Andrew Osborn had first produced the play for the BBC, again with Edward Chapman in the lead role.

Theatre play

Sounding Brass by Leslie Burgess [more information]

Play synopsis

A portrait of a self-made-man, George Hudson, whose enterprises as a ‘railway king’ were the talk of Victorian England; he attained great wealth, but then was ruined by embezzling. Set in York and London.

Production history

Performed at the Theatre Royal, York, in 1951, and possibly elsewhere earlier.

Date of transmission

Sunday 22 September 1957

Time

8.30-10.15pm

Series

Sunday-Night Theatre

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Andrew Osborn

Playwright

Leslie Burgess

Designer

Frederick Knapman

Cast

Sheldon Allan	a minor part
Bart Allison	a minor part
Gene Anderson	Anne Hudson
David Aylmer	Captain Marchant
Carl Bernard	Richard Nicholson
Owen Berry	a minor part
Gladys Boot	Lady Eskdale
Edgar K. Bruce	Jonathan Gray
Peter Bryant	John Close
Ursula Camm	Sarah
Edward Chapman	George Hudson
Richard Cuthbert	a minor part
William Devlin (1911-1987)	James Meek
Frances Guthrie	Anne Hudson, as a child
Arthur Hosking	a minor part
Arthur Howard	Perks
Henry Kay	a minor part
Philip Lennard	Prance
Arthur Lowe	Albert Davies
Donald McCollum	a minor part
John Miller	Sir John Lowther
Peter Morny	a minor part
Edna Morris	Mrs Hudson
Alun Owen	George Hudson, Junior
James Raglan	Lord Eskdale
Nigel Sharpe	a minor part
Richard Sullivan	A Footman
Ralph Tovey	a minor part
Stanley Vine	a minor part
Freddie Watts	a minor part

Additional details

Play tags

19th-century setting; north of England, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

BBC Television: Sounding Brass (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Times, 23 September 1957, p. 3

Title

Radio Times, 20 September 1957 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article, listing and illustration on p. 13; mention on p. 4