Haul for the Shore

Summary

1959 BBC Television production of Jean McConnell’s comedy Haul for the Shore, from the BBC’s West of England television studio. Parts of the play were filmed at Port Isaac in north Cornwall, ‘with actors and local people mingling. To get local colour the producer, Patrick Dromgoole, twice went for twelve-hour trips with lobster fisherman’ (Radio Times, 16 October 1959, p. 5).

Theatre play

Haul for the Shore by Jean McConnell [more information]

Play synopsis

A comedy in three acts about smuggling, set in a West Country fishing village. The Rev. Fox makes the locals see the error of their ways in trying to deceive the Customs and Excise men.

Production history

First published in 1953. Highly popular on amateur stages; the details of its stage premiere have yet to be ascertained.

Date of transmission

Saturday 24 October 1959

Time

8.35pm

Series

Saturday Playhouse

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Patrick Dromgoole

Film Cameraman

Denis Towler

Playwright

Jean McConnell

Composer

Sidney Sager

Designer

Desmond Chinn

Narrator

Bernard Fishwick

Cast

Daphne Anderson	Polly Ipplepen
June Barrie	Maisie
Robert Brown	Richard Pengelly
Constance Chapman	Sarah Trowt
William Devlin (1911-1987)	The Rev. Leslie Fox
Bernard Fishwick	Second Visitor
Lewis Gedge	First Visitor
Hedley Goodall	Jem Burden
Reginald Smith	Petrock Pook
George Woodbridge	PC Widdon
Joan Young	Dr Clifford

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

comedy; Cornwall, as theme or setting; smuggling

Print sources

Title

BBC Programmes for the Weekend (Newspaper listing)

Reference

The Times, 24 October 1959, p. 3

Title

Radio Times, 16 October 1959 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article and listing on p. 25; another article on p. 5