A Valuable Rival

Summary

1938 BBC Television studio production of Neil F. Grant’s one-act Scottish comedy A Valuable Rival.

Theatre play

A Valuable Rival by Neil F. Grant [more information]

Play synopsis

A Scottish comedy about ‘the conflict between two small-town newspaper owners in a north Scottish town, Jameson and Bain, and Jameson’s confession when given the power to smash his rival that he finds Bain’s competition a necessary part of his pleasure.' (Alastair Cording, Twentieth Century Scottish drama, University of Glasgow PhD thesis, 1974, p. 148.)

Production history

Performed by the Scottish National Theatre Society for the royal family at Balmoral in October 1922, and published Gowans & Gray (London, 1922).

Date of transmission

Thursday 24 March 1938

Time

9.00pm (20 mins)

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Moultrie R. Kelsall (1901-1980)

Playwright

Neil F. Grant

Cast

Ethel Glendinning	Maggie Jameson
Jack Lambert	William Bain
James Woodburn	Alexander Jameson

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 3.10pm on Saturday 26 March 1938.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

journalism / the press / newspapers; Scotland, as theme or setting; Scottish drama

Print sources

Title

Broadcasting: Queen’s Hall Concert (Newspaper listing)

Reference

The Times, 24 March 1938, p. 7

Title

Radio Times, 18 March 1938 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 17