Whiteoaks [excerpts]

Summary

BBC production of excerpts from Nancy Price’s Playhouse Theatre production of Mazo de la Roche’s play Whiteoaks. The Radio Times Television Supplement, 22 January 1937, p. 6, notes that ‘Two of the principal characters will be seen—the formidable grandmother, and Finch, the sensitive and artistic young man’, and also that ‘Nancy Price has been a prominent theatrical figure for nearly forty years. She is a fine actress and one of the most enterprising West-End stage producers. It was she who was instrumental in founding the People’s National Theatre in 1930’.

Theatre play

Whiteoaks by Mazo de la Roche (1879-1961) [more information]

Play synopsis

'This play, which was written by Mazo de la Roche, is taken from the second of the series of six books dealing with the history of a Canadian family’ (source: Radio Times Television Supplement, 22 January 1937, p. 6). The Wikipedia page for de la Roche attributes the play both to her and to Nancy Price (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazo_de_la_Roche, accessed 12 November 2012).

Production history

Whiteoaks: A Play (adapted from the book Whiteoaks of Jalna) was first produced in London at the Little Theatre in the Adelphi in April 1936; it was produced on Broadway in 1938 (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazo_de_la_Roche, accessed 12 November 2012).

Date of transmission

Monday 25 January 1937

Time

3.01pm (19 mins)

Series

Theatre Parade

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Television Presentation by

Stephen Thomas

Theatre Producer

Nancy Price (1880-1970)

Playwright

Mazo de la Roche (1879-1961)

Cast

Patrick Boxill	Finch
Nancy Price (1880-1970)	Grandmother

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Broadcast again on Monday 25 January 1937 at 9.01pm.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

adaptation of novel; Canada, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

BBC Television Programme Records: vol. 1, 1937-38 (Book)

Reference

London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1938

Linking notes

listing on p. 6

Title

Other Broadcasting Stations (Newspaper listing)

Reference

The Manchester Guardian, 25 January 1937, p. 2

Title

Radio Times, 22 January 1937 (Magazine)

Linking notes

p. 6