Next to No Wife

Summary

1959 BBC Television production of Next to No Wife, a comedy by Charles Campbell Gairdner and C. B. Pulman, transmitted from the BBC’s television studio in Scotland.

Theatre play

Next to No Wife by Charles Campbell Gairdner and C. B. Pulman [more information]

Play synopsis

Comedy set in the ancestral home of the Brodies. The laird, with one wife dead, and the other having divorced him, dedicates himself to getting his two daughters married and off his hands. The play opens as he is arranging a large wedding reception. One complication after another ensues. (Source: adapted from Radio Times, 13 November 1959, p. 15).

Production history

Performed at the Dundeed Repertory Theatre in 1956, but possibly elsewhere earlier. Source: http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/cnmi/inventories/acc11617.pdf.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 17 November 1959

Time

8.45-9.45pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Finlay J. Macdonald

Playwright

Charles Campbell Gairdner

Playwright

C. B. Pulman

Designer

Robert Macgowan

Cast

Sheila Ballantine	Elin
William Cormack	Taxi Driver
Lisa Daniely	Lisette
Esmond Knight	Archibald Brodie
John McGregor	Lord Shiel
Robert Robinson	Perry Dixon
Joseph Tomelty	Canon Fergus Brodie
Elaine Wells	Maria

Additional details

Play tags

comedy; marriage; Scottish drama

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 13 November 1959 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, article and photograph on p. 15

Title

Scottish Television Nightmare: Next to No Wife (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Times, 18 November 1959, p. 4