Shadow of Heroes

Summary

1959 BBC Television production of Shadow of Heroes by Robert Ardrey. This was Ashcroft’s first appearance in a television play in Britain. Peggy Ashcroft, Alan Webb and others were here reprising their roles from the 1958 stage production at the Piccadilly Theatre, London.

Theatre play

Shadow of Heroes by Robert Ardrey (1908-1980) [more information]

Play synopsis

The action takes place in and near Budapest between 1944 and the uprising of 1956. It is written in documentary form, based on fact, and depicting actual people. (The playwright was an American foreign correspondent in Geneva when the Hungarian revolt broke out.)

Production history

Produced at the Piccadilly Theatre in London in October 1958, and possibly elsewhere earlier. It had also been produced under the alternative title Stone and Star.

Date of transmission

Sunday 19 July 1959

Time

8.30-10.00pm

Series

Sunday-Night Theatre

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Michael Barry

Playwright

Robert Ardrey (1908-1980)

Designer

Reece Pemberton

Cast

Louis Adams	unnamed part
Raymond Adamson	Viktor Babits
Peggy Ashcroft	Julia Rajk
John Berger	unnamed part
Gisela Birke	unnamed part
Paul Bogdan	unnamed part
Walter Brown	unnamed part
William Lyon Brown	unnamed part
Keith Buckley	unnamed part
Peter Noel Cook	unnamed part
Michael da Costa	unnamed part
Ronald Govey	unnamed part
Raymond Graham	unnamed part
Nanette Green	unnamed part
Brian Harrison	unnamed part
Denys Hawthorne	unnamed part
Bill Horsley	unnamed part
Charles Houston	The Author
Richard Huggett	unnamed part
Ian Hughes	unnamed part
Maisie MacFarquhar	unnamed part
Laurie Main	Mihaly Farkas
Martin Miller	Matyas Rakosi
Norman Mitchell	Capt. Gyula Szabo
Lilian Moubrey	Mrs Kovacs
Bartlett Mullins	Gabor Peter
Simon Oates	unnamed part
John Pike	Laszlo Rajk, Junior
Steve Plytas	Yuri Andropov
Eric Porter	Laszlo Rajk
Mary Ellen Ray	unnamed part
Michael Robbins	unnamed part
Ray Smith	Col. Vladimir Farkas
Roger Snowdon	Doctor
Ann Tirard	Julia’s Mother
Alan Webb	Janos Kadar
Gabor Weiner	unnamed part
Bruce Wightman	Imre Nagy
Noel Willman	Erno Gero
Margaret Wolfit	Student
John Wood	Sandor Horvath
Sam Woodcock	unnamed part
George Zenios	unnamed part

Additional details

Play tags

Hungary, as theme or setting; Second World War, as theme or setting; wartime, as theme or setting

Audiovisual sources

Title

Shadow of Heroes (BBC, 1959)

Archive

BBC Information and Archives [more information]

Address

White City
London
UK

Telephone

+44 (0)20 8008 2288

Website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/informationandarchives/

Access

BBC Information and Archives is not open to the public.

Print sources

Title

Humdrum Aspect of Revolution (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Times, 20 July 1959, p. 8

Title

Radio Times, 17 July 1959 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 9; article, with photographs, p. 3

Title

The Tragedy of Rajk and Nagy: Shadow of Heroes (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Manchester Guardian, 20 July 1959, p. 5