While the Sun Shines

Summary

1959 BBC Television production of While the Sun Shines by Terence Rattigan, f’rom the BBC’s North of England television studio’ (Radio Times, 20 March 1959, p. 25).

Theatre play

While the Sun Shines by Terence Rattigan (1911-1977) [more information]

Play synopsis

'A farcical frenzy of rival suitors, mistaken identities and crossed wires [...] It is the morning before dashing young Earl, Bobby Harpenden’s marriage to the beautiful, but dangerously impressionable heiress Lady Elisabeth Randall. From the moment Bobby encounters a drunk and charmingly mischievous American soldier, things begin to go horribly wrong and a dizzying whirl of mistakes and mishaps ensue’ (source: http://www.giantolive.com/pages/whilethesunshines.html).

Production history

Open 24 December 1943 at the Globe Theatre, London; the American premiere was at the Lyric Theatre, New York from 19 September 1944.

Date of transmission

Saturday 28 March 1959

Time

8.50pm

Series

Saturday Playhouse

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Vivian A. Daniels

Playwright

Terence Rattigan (1911-1977)

Designer

Kenneth Lawson

Cast

Diana Fairfax	Mabel Crum
Graydon Gould	Lieutenant Mulvaney
Elvi Hale	Lady Elizabeth Randall
William Kendall	Horton
Clive Morton	The Duke of Ayr and Stirling
Robert Rietty	Lieutenant Colbert
Jeremy Spenser	Earl of Harpenden

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy; marriage; military / army / navy / air-force; Second World War, as theme or setting; wartime, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

BBC Programmes for the Weekend (Newspaper listing)

Reference

The Times, 28 March 1959, p. 4

Title

Radio Times, 20 March 1959 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and illustrated article on p. 25