5.3.1
The number of play nights throughout the previous year, 1924, numbered 11. R.E. Jeffrey was now in his first full year and 1925's total of 2LO and Daventry play nights now rose to the following:
| Total play nights | 44 |
| Total pieces | 51 |
| Number of originations | 10 |
| Number of Shakespeare productions | 5 (2 full-length) |
| Number of one-act plays adapted from stage |
5.3.2
In this discussion of originations for 1925, and in the future, it is to be taken for granted that the script has been lost, unless stated otherwise. Only 'The White Chateau' script survives of these ten originations.
The first originations on 3 February 1925 (High-Power Station Daventry and London) have already been discussed in 5.2.1. R.E. Jeffrey directed these twenty minute plays: 'Christopher Columbus' an episode in the voyage of the Santa Maria (Richard Hughes) and 'Check-mate' a modern cave-man comedy (P.L. Kim).
Vernon Bartlett then had his 'Entertaining Mr. Waddington' broadcast 14 April 1925 5XX 8.15-8.45) with the following cast:
Richard Hilton - Raymond Trafford
Constance Hilton - Phyllis Panting
Silas Waddington - Henry Oscar
Mrs. Stone - Mabel Constanduros
Bartlett has no listing in Firkins or Wearing. He was however a regular broadcaster, giving talks, and later 'The Radio Times' publicised him as one of the 'Masters of the Microphone' with an artist's portrait, and this copy:
Mr. Vernon Bartlett
Whose weekly talks under the title 'The Way of the World' give every listener a change to keep himself acquainted with the course of events at home and abroad.
('The Radio Times' 26 April 1928 9.15-9.30)
Bartlett later co-wrote the screen version of Sherriff's 'Journey's End' with Reginald Berkeley. 'Entertaining Mr. Waddington' had a fine cast. 'The Radio Times' noted for a revival of this:
'Entertaining Mr. Waddington' is essentially a modern comedy.
('The Radio Times' 10 April 1925 p 100)
Hence the presence of Mabel Constanduros as Mrs. Stone.
5.3.3
Reginald Berkeley's first play was then broadcast, billed as 'A play of the unknown' and a play which 'touches on the realm of the occult', and it was directed by R.E. Jeffrey:
'The Dweller in the Darkness'
Tuesday 14 April 1925 Daventry 5XX 9.15-9.45
Mrs. Vyner - Mabel Constanduros
Phyllis Vyner - Phyllis Panting
Henry - Raymond Trafford
Mr. Mortimer - Henry Oscar
Mr. Vyner - Gordon Douglas
Prof. Urquhart - Ashton Pearse
Berkeley was described as the author of 'French Leave', 'Eight O'Clock', his previous stage plays. Berkeley tells of the management row he encountered after it had been broadcast (Berkeley, 1928, 18). He explains this thirty-minute play was 'a spiritualist séance, so as to get a "background" of weird rappings and noises'. He had been keen from the outset to invent 'a "background" by means of sounds'. (Berkeley was to script elaborate 'mise en scène' after 'mise en scène' in 'The White Chateau' and 'Machines'). 'The Dweller' then came to the attention of 'an enterprising journalist' who 'scenting good copy, at once attacked the B.B.C. for doing spiritualistic propaganda'. Berkeley then found himself confronted by an 'aghast' B.B.C.:
To my utter astonishment I found the B.B.C. aghast. The Managing-Director, the Director of Education, the director of Publicity had all bombarded the Dramatic Department with their opinions. Something had to be done at once. … The last line of the play was wrong. It must be changed. It must be made innocuous. They adjured me to consent. … I consented. But I warned the Dramatic Producer he was pickling a rod for his own back.
(18-9)
5.3.4
This was the first censorship row that R.E. Jeffrey appears to have encountered and it must have been on his mind when his wrote his 'Radio Times' article for July and described his regulation of plays:
As to the actual nature of the plays, they will not follow the trend of the present stage play, with its predominating sex, or, rather, sexual, interest. They will set a new standard, rather than adopt an existing one. It must be remembered that radio plays are presented at the, family fireside. Their ethics, must be unquestionable.
('The Radio Times' 17 July 1925)
It is not clear when the attention of the 'enterprising journalist' was first drawn to 'The Dweller'. Berkeley's account is rather shortened. It could have been before or after broadcast. Was Berkeley pressurised to change his final line for the first broadcast – and this is perhaps more likely - or for the repeats on 14 April (Daventry 5XX) and 16 April (London 2LO)? The second broadcast had the same cast.
5.3.5
The 14 April broadcast twinned 'The Dweller in the Darkness' with Vernon Bartlett 'Entertaining Mr. Waddington', each thirty minutes long:
Each of the plays will last about half an hour; which is perhaps, the maximum length of time that a radio play can be fully enjoyed by the listener.
('The Radio Times' 3 April 1925)
And in the following week, these four originations broadcast so far encouraged the following statement:
It should be remarked that this departure represents a further stage in the development of the new Radio Drama. The B.B.C. desires to use fresh material in this way rather than stage plays which, however good, do not always lend themselves readily to wireless transmission. In pursuance of this policy, the company has commissioned several well-known authors to write plays having particular regard both to the conditions imposed by the microphone and those experienced by listeners. It is hoped to present plays which will give a clear picture of the story and situations as the producers desire to convey them to the listeners.
('The Radio Times' 10 April 1925 p 100)
The long controversy about radio originations versus stage adaptations had got under way.
5.3.5
After a repeat of 'Christopher Columbus' (Richard Hughes) on 15 May 1925 2LO 9.15-9.40 by what were now billed as the London Repertory Players, there came the next original piece:
Wednesday 20 May 1925 London 9.25-10
London Radio Repertory Players
* 'A Month Come Sunday' written for broadcasting by Ashton Peats
Nance Treganna - Phyllis Panting
Tom Gregg - Ashton Peats
Josiah Treganna (uncle) - Drelincourt Odlum
Widow Bregg - Mabel Constanduros
scene: Josiah Treganna's garden on a West Country Cliff
Again the author is unknown except that he was acting in his own play as Tom Gregg. He is not in Wearing, Firkins, Parker or Haddon (Haddon 1922), and did not further broadcast. Was he an actor in the provinces? 'A Month Come Sunday' made 'a provincial tour' as 'The Radio Times' put it, and was aired by Bournemouth (28 May 1925 - London Radio Repertory Players), Glasgow (26 June 1925 – the Players) and Birmingham (6 July 1925). This 'tour' suggests, as happened in other broadcasts, the London Radio Repertory Players broadcast from Savoy Hill and it went down the line to the local Stations. The alternative is that the Players travelled to the provincial Stations as a theatrical repertory company, but this is hardly likely in view of their successful London stage careers.
5.3.6
L. du Garde Peach's second contribution was a sketch for an exciting wireless first to celebrate the centenary of the railway:
30 June 1925 2LO
'The Party' (L. du Garde Peach)
'The Times' explained that this was a light comedy sketch terminating immediately as the Aberdeen express departed from King's Cross Station at 8.25 pm. There was a following historical scene in George Stephenson's workshop, 'Locomotive no 1', and two-way radio communication would be established with the train.
5.3.7
Here are the next two plays, in a double-bill:
Wednesday 21 October 1925 London 8-9.45
'England Expects' (mixed)
S.B. to all Stations
Presented by R.E. Jeffrey
The "2LO London" Military Band
Dramatic Episode
(1) * 'Outward Bound'
Specially contributed by Frank H. Shaw
As far as it can be made so, this is a faithful representation of an old-time sailing ship leaving port for the deep sea. As the various duties incidental to its departure are performed, the traditional sea shanties will be sung by mariner members of the Seven Seas Club.
(2)* 'What England Expects'
A naval sketch in Four Episodes of Modern Life in a Man o' War, specially contributed by "Bartimeus".
Episode 1 – The Mess Deck of a Man o' War at sea – 5.30 a.m.
Episode 2 - The Quarterdeck – 6.30 a.m.
Episode 3 - The Starboard Battery – 9 a.m.
Episode 4 - The Mess Deck – 9.55 a.m.
Captain Frank H. Shaw broadcast six originations in all, the most substantial being 'By Virtue of a Broadcast' (9 February 1927) and he will be discussed in Chapter 7. He was a sea captain who based his short stories and usually his plays on his experiences. He also wrote the second episode in the competition, 'The Mayfair Mystery', 12 December 1925 London 10.30-11. The winner of the entries to complete the murder solution won a prize of £100. Berkeley's 'The White Chateau' will be discussed in 5.5.
5.3.8
There were five Shakespeare nights on 2LO, 5GB, 5XX and two of these were full-length: 'The Tempest', produced by R.E. Jeffrey, but no actors listed (16 January 1925 London 7.30-9.30) and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (23 June 1925 London all stations except 5XX relayed from London 8-9.50). The next day's 'Times' reviewed it:
The broadcast last night of the 'Midsummer Night's Dream' from the London station, though carefully carried out, rather suggested that the transmission of a theatrical entertainment by wireless has not yet reached a stage where it can, with complete satisfaction to listeners, be substituted for the real thing. The cast was really strong, and the actors and actresses spoke their lines and sang their songs well enough, but there was some lack of conviction in the performance traceable, as one realized on reflection, to the fact that the atmosphere cannot yet be effectively broadcast.
This was quite damning and an impossible demand that wireless drama production should equal theatre and convey its ambience and presence. Again this cast includes some very well-known actors:
Lysander - Ernest Milton
Demetrius - Henry Oscar
Quince - Charles R. Stone
Snug - Tarver Penna
Bottom - Ivan Berlyn
Flute - Leonard Calvert
Snout - Eric Lugg
Starveling - Drelincourt Odlum
Hermia - Elaine Inescourt
Helena - Margaret Halstan
Oberon - Milton Rosmer
Titania - Irene Rooke
Puck – [D.] Hay Petrie
Fairies - Elizabeth Dundas
John Gielgud repeated his 1925 stage success as Romeo in a excerpt on 2 March 1925 High-Power Daventry, and other excerpts came from 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'King Henry V', directed by R.E. Jeffrey. The distinguished Sir Johnston Forbes- Robertson gave a 'Recital' on 19 May 1925 London 9.20-9.27 - Buckingham's Farewell Speech from 'Henry VIII' and Hamlet's Advice to the Players.
5.3.9
Two other productions from London deserve mention. The adaptation of Charles Kingsley's novel, 'Westward Ho!' (7 April 1925 London SB to all stations 7.30-9.15), produced by R.E. Jeffrey, claimed to innovate in giving 'Radioviews', ten in all, and with background music:
The Radioviews will be linked up by the short announcements giving the details of the scenes as they are reached, and the intervening circumstances with which the Radioviews do not deal.
In addition to sound effects accompanying the transition, a new feature will be introduced, that of having a musical background. The actors will speak through the music; and it is hoped that all our listeners will this have a further aid to the atmosphere which we will try to impart.
('The Radio Times')
Without a surviving script, this is guesswork. Presumably, the actors speaking their lines over the music of the Wireless Orchestra is similar to theatre's use of music in melodrama and of course the silent film used music. The Radioviews are presumably the ten dialogue scenes adapted from the novel and they are listed in 'The Radio Times'. Sound effects are used with the narrative transitions and presumably these could include ocean and sailing ship effects, as suits the novel. Howard Rose stated that he had directed this 'Westward Ho!' (2.1.2, 2.1.15).
5.3.10
'The Times' was also damning about Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson in the Greek tragedy 'Medea' (28 June 1925 2LO 4.15-5):
'Medea' (Euripides)
The short argument spoken by the announcer and the introduction of the characters were well done, but the actual performance of the play was not so good as might have been legitimately hoped. The listener was sometimes conscious of unevenness in transmission, of qualities in the voices of the players that did not carry well, of periods when the movement, really inseparable from the play, disappeared. It was suggested in an article recently published on this page that the voice that is suitable to the theatre is not always also the one that lends itself with success to the transmission by wireless, and that argument one felt to be rather underlined in listening to the 'Medea'. In any case, all such performances should be followed with a copy of the play before one, and should, in these days of experimentation, be heard without prejudice.
('The Times' 29 June 1925 p 8)
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