'Pursuit' (Cecil Lewis)
Friday 6 January 1928 Daventry 8.45-10
Saturday 7 January 1928 2LO London 5XX 7.45-9.15
8.3.1 Cast of 'Pursuit'
8.3.2 'The Radio Times' publicity for 'Pursuit'
8.3.3 Cecil Lewis's article: 'St. Augustine and the Cucumber!' ('The Radio Times' 30 December 1927 p 711)
8.3.4 Summary of 'Pursuit'
8.3.5 Summary of Scenes – First Plot Section
8.3.6 Second Plot Section
8.3.7 Third Plot Section
8.3.8 Fourth Plot Section
8.3.9-8.3.18 Savoy Hill internal assessments of 'Pursuit'
8.3.19 Savoy Hill set-up of studios
8.3.20 Broadcasting House production set-up in 1933
8.3.23 Scenes 29-37 - Crossfading
8.3.25 Crossfading explains features of scripting
8.3.27 'Pursuit' as a popular play
8.3.28 Lewis's 'photo-play' technique
8.3.29 Break away from the 'fixed stage' model
8.3.30 Comparison with 'Ingredient X'
8.3.1
Here is the 'The Radio Times' billing combined with 'The Times'. The 'Radio Times' does not list actors. The Southern Edition of 'The Radio Times' credits Cecil Lewis with directing the play and Michael Hogan as assistant director. I have added a few more notes.
Friday 6 January 1928 Daventry 8.45-10
Saturday 7 January 1928 2LO London 5XX 7.45-9.15
'Pursuit' (Cecil Lewis)
[no actors given in 'Radio Times']
directed by Cecil Lewis (Southern Edition)
assisted by Michael Hogan (Southern Edition)
Seth Kent - Eric Stanley [elderly, trace of overseas accent, villain]
Jenny Bristol - Lilian Harrison [heroine, daughter of , to be kidnapped, engaged to Freddy]
Sam Bristol - Clive Currie [father of Jenny]
Esme Frith - Sunday Wilshin
Fred Forsyth - Henry Oscar [engaged to Jenny, stock-broker]
Bob Seton - Herbert Lugg [villain, car driver, assistant to Seth Kent]
Gwen Thurston - Clare Harris [dress-maker, working at 104 Clarges Street]
Lucie - Olga Benois [assistant to Gwen, dress-maker]
Inspector Long - John Charlton [main investigator]
Inspector Laughton - George Ide
Airways Manager - C. Leveson Lane
Officer at Le Bouget - Abraham Sofaer
First Police Officer - Cyril Smith
Second Police Officer - Thomas Trevor
Third Police Officer - Donald Edwards
Police Sergeant - Robert Speaight
Police Sergeant – S. Creagh Henry
[Southern Edition gives billing]
[cast of 17]
Most of the 'Pursuit' cast had wireless experience such as Henry Oscar (1891-1969), Eric Lugg, George Ide, Clive Currie, Abraham Sofaer, John Charlton, C. Leveson Lane, Clare Harris and Olga Benois. Abraham Sofaer (born 1896), played the minor role of the Officer at Le Bourget, and he was about to play Rabbi Zaddoc in 'Paul Among the Jews' at the Prince of Wales's in July 1928.
Robert Speaight (1904-1976) had started his wireless career in Liverpool ('A Shakespearean Recital' by Robert Speaight of the Liverpool Playhouse Company, 26 February 1927 Liverpool 5.45-6.10), then in a large London-Daventry production ('The Liars' (Henry Arthur Jones) 20 September 1927 Daventry 8 onwards), with Lilian Harrison, and in 'Twelfth Night' for schools (14 October 1927 London and Daventry 3.50-4.45) with Abraham Sofaer and Howard Rose. Speaight then aged 22 also played on the West End stage: the Fool in 'King Lear' at the Haymarket, March 1928, Barnabas in 'Paul Among the Jews' and 2nd Lieutenant Hibberd in 'Journey's End' at the Apollo, December 1928. He was to have a successful radio career.
The same holds for Lilian Harrison who had started her radio career in revue with Tommy Handley ('A Year In An Hour', revue, 8 January 1927 Bournemouth 7.45-8.45; 'Heterodyned History', revue (L. du Garde Peach) 5 February 1927 Daventry 7.45-8.45; 'The Saturday Night Revue' 5 March 1927 London and Daventry 7.45-8.45) and more revue ('Boys of the Old Brigade' 31 May 1927 London 9.40-10.40; 'A Little More 'Bubbly'', 8 June 1927 London 8-9, organised by Andre Charlot). She was then cast in a classical role as Hermia in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (Shakespeare) (21 June 1927 London 8-9 9.40-10.40) and lighter one-act plays such as 'Early Birds' (Roland Pertwee) (15 September 1927 London and Daventry 9.35-10.30 (mixed)) and then in other Cecil Lewis radio productions. Her first London stage credit is in 1927. She was to join the B.B.C. Radio Drama 'Rep' in 1930. Actress and singer, Sunday Wilshin (Esme Frith), had appeared in 'The Charlot Show of 1926' at the Prince of Wales's and in radio Andre Charlot revues, but not in a wireless play before.
Those with no previous wireless experience were Eric Stanley (Seth Kent), Cyril Smith (First Police Officer) and Thomas Trevor (Second Police Officer). Eric Stanley (born 1884) was not to act again on radio till Val Gielgud's 'Red Tabs' (1 October 1930 London 9.20-10.05, 2 October 1930 National 8.55-9.40). He has twenty-three London stage credits in Wearing for 1920-8. Cyril Smith (born 1892) had stage experience in this thriller genre and was to play subsequently Tiser in Edgar Wallace's 'The Flying Squad' at the Lyceum (June 1928 for 223 performances).
Henry Oscar, playing fiancé Freddie, was aged thirty-seven, and this was right for the role. Freddie got his flying experience in WW1.
8.3.2
'The Radio Times' carefully prepared the listeners for the technical novelties ahead. Just below the listing for 'Pursuit' was the following:
On page 711 of this issue will be found an article by Cecil Lewis entitled 'St. Augustine and the Cucumber', in which he discusses the technique of Radio Drama. Action, action, action – that is what he calls for in a broadcast play. Even though our eyes cannot see the action he urges that our imagination, through our hearing, can respond to it. Tonight's broadcast of his play 'Pursuit' is an attempt on Mr. Lewis's part to put into concrete form the stimulating theories expressed in his article. From the moment when it opens with a series of telephone conversations which 'fix' the characters in the listener's mind to its thrilling climax, 'Pursuit' is all movement. It has more than a hundred scenes and, as you see, a considerable number of characters.
After the transmission, 'The Radio Times' celebrated 'Pursuit':
I hope you enjoyed Cecil Lewis's 'Pursuit' as much as I did. It seemed to me to achieve the author's object - namely, that of gripping the listener by the sheer speed and variety of its action.
('The Radio Times' 20 January 1928 p 104 from column 'Both Sides of the Microphone')
And rather effusively:
'Pursuit', cutting clean away from all tradition foreign to its element, rushed us hither and thither, made us feel the motion of high-speed motor-cars, of aeroplanes, of the Channel, and left us wondering at its success. Except that it lacked 'soul', a compelling reason for its production, it might have ranked with the 'Tamerlane' of Marlowe, that burst upon the Elizabethan audience and precluded Shakespeare.
(Eric Arnold, 'Favourite Programmes of 1928' 'The Radio Times' 28 December 1928 p 855)
8.3.3
Cecil Lewis's article: 'St. Augustine and the Cucumber!' ('The Radio Times' 30 December 1927 p 711)
In a splendidly engaging article of 1,200 words, whose title refers to a Bernard Shaw anecdote, Lewis engages with the techniques of wireless production and acting, requiring greater ability than on the stage:
Now actors are extremely queer and charming fish. Some are clay in the hands of the producer. Others are like barrel organs with a limited number of tunes. And all of them, coming to the microphone, have to forget nine-tenths of their stage technique. The face that launches a thousand gallerial dreams, the ankles that make the eyes of 'the stalls' stretch wide – all this respectable impropriety, which is the mainspring of the stage, is quite unmicrophonic
He then celebrates radio drama and the future:
Like its vigorous and vulgar foster-sister, the cinema, radio drama ignores time and space. The author can range wide over the world. His ingenuity may be taxed in carrying his hearers with him; but there are not the physical difficulties imposed in the theatre.
This may spell the death of the theatre, though through it may come the rebirth of the drama. The days of the spoken five-reel picture drama are not far off. The days of television are not far off. The combination of these with broadcasting will give a world-wide fireside drama – and its potentialities are simply terrific.
He then prepares his audience for 'Pursuit' and its 'new technique of cinema presentation:
A little over a year ago, 'Lord Jim', the dramatization of a classic novel, was adapted for the microphone into twenty-three consecutive scenes linked by a narrator supplying aural sub-titles. I was responsible for this.
On the experience gained from this, I have perpetrated a play of my own, 'Pursuit', which lasts half as long and has nearly a hundred changes of scene. This will be broadcast on January 6 and 7 from 5GB and 2LO, 5XX respectively. Let me say at once it is not a 'literary' play. Its interest lies only in the fact that it exploits this new technique of cinema presentation.
If you should happen to listen to the play, let me remind you of this. The playwright is bound to make some demands on you. He cannot do it all himself. It is up to you to do your share by careful and consecutive listening. This is not a programme where you can afford to miss the beginning. You will probably be quite out of your depth if you do – and will probably blame me for it. The beginning, as in all plays, is the most difficult for the playwright and the audience. It lays the foundations of the story and, in the case of 'Pursuit', shows the principal characters in a series of aural close-ups. Do the author the honour to listen carefully for the first five minutes, and once this is over, you will be able to follow, I hope, without any difficulty.
8.3.4
I now turn to the analysis of 'Pursuit'. The play is one hour and fifteen minutes long. Lewis talked above of a hundred changes of scene, but the play divides into a speedy sixty-nine scenes, and three plot sections. The opening is unparallelled: six telephone monologues. These are the 'aural close-ups'. They give the exposition. Rich Jenny Bristol is kidnapped by Seth Kent and his accomplice driver, Bob Seton, in a taxi, as revenge against her father, Sam Bristol. Her stock-broker fiancé, Freddy Forsyth, contacts the police, with the financier father, Mr. Bristol. The police manage to arrest Bob. (Two timings are written into the surviving script here: 15'40" and 16'45", so this is a fifth into the play.)
In the second section, the other Inspector, Inspector Laughton, starts his interrogation of Bob. This is successful when Freddy manages to bribe the villain, who now is turned over to their side. The other interrogation, by Inspector Long, is of Esme who yields the vital clue leading to Seth. (Time noted on script: 27'10" – two-fifths into the play.)
The third section is what gives the play, 'Pursuit', its name. Exciting short scenes make up the chase of Jenny and Seth on their way to Brighton and then on his yacht. The drive is through Battersea and Croydon, and with Inspector Laughton, Bob, Freddy (driving) and Mr. Bristol in the pursuing car. Seth reveals his true motive. He is taking revenge for her mother, that Jenny's father robbed him of his then fiancée. In an exciting couple of pages there is a rapid alternation of short scenes as the cars draw near, but the pursuers crash against a lorry. Only the Inspector is wounded. (No time noted on script, but this must be about 33 minutes or four-fifths into the play.)
In the last section, the chase moves to an aerodrome and Freddy pilots a plane over the Channel with guidance (and then some complaints about his jokiness) from air traffic at Lympne as fog deepens. Jenny keeps her courage up, locked in Seth's yacht, now making across a rough Channel sea. They are spotted as the yacht's engine cuts out in extreme difficulties. Freddy 'pancakes' the plane beside the boat and rescues villain Seth, and finally Jenny from the water.
8.3.5
Summary of Scenes
First Plot Section
Lewis gives the following production note at the top of the script (not as an announcement on air):
There are no stage directions or mind pictures in this play. It starts with six telephone conversations, the equivalent of screen close-ups, to impress the voices of the principal characters on the mind of the listeners.
There are two kinds of transition between scenes. The first is the usual "Fade", denoting a pause, only momentary, before the start of the next scene. The second is the "Cross fade". It implies a 'Mixer' to bring one scene down and the other up at the same time.
Two speech studios will be required, (in one of these the infrequent music, used to denote a passage of time, can work), and probably two effects studios will be found necessary.
(Discussed below at 8.3.19 following)
Scene 1
Six telephone monologues:
Seth Kent (villain) to Esme (accomplice) telling her to find out Jenny's movements today
Jenny (heroine) to dress-maker Gwen, changing appointment to 11.30 a.m. in 104, Clarges Street
Mr. Bristol (Jenny's father) to Freddy (fiancé) about shares and lunch appointment
Esme to Seth with details of Jenny's movements
Freddy to Jenny awaiting their meeting at lunch
Bob Seton (accomplice) to Seth (villain) arranging cheque payment and car
Scene 2
Seth Kent, Constable, Bob
Clarges Street / outside
Seth arrives at Clarges Street and meets accomplice Bob who is driving taxi.
Scene 3
Jenny, Gwen, Lucie, Seth Kent
Dress-maker's
After dress-making arrangements, Seth Kent arrives, claiming falsely to be sent from Jenny's father along with a taxi, with the news (again falsely) that her mother has had a stroke, and takes her off.
Scene 4
Gwen
Gwen explains to Freddy that Jenny has gone off and it is discovered that the story is false.
Scene 5
Jenny, Seth Kent
Travelling in taxi (Taxi in traffic)
Jenny spots that they are travelling in the wrong direction, is alarmed, and breaks the window. Seth explains that her mother is not ill and that she is trapped. Jenny calls out to the driver.
Scene 6
Freddy on telephone to Mr. Bristol, Jenny's father
Freddy suspects something is wrong as he has just spoken on the phone to Mrs. Bristol. He will go to Clarges Street.
Scene 7
Jenny, Seth Kent
Travelling in taxi (Taxi in traffic)
Jenny attempts again to resist (she chokes with impotent rage), and Seth explains he is doing this 'professionally'.
Scene 8
Mr. Bristol on telephone to the Police Inspector reports the abduction of his daughter.
Scene 9
Jenny, Seth Kent
Travelling in taxi (Taxi in traffic)
Seth threatens Jenny again though 'I should prefer to behave like a gentleman'. Jenny struggles and while she is being chloroformed,
(Jenny cries out, then sobs, then, after a few heavy breaths, silence)
The taxi tyre goes flat.
(the regular sound of a tyre bumping)
Seth angrily calls to Bob to drive on 'run on the flat' to a taxi rank.
Scene 10
Freddy, Gwen
Dress-maker's, 104 Clarges Street
Gwen explains that the man who called for Jenny 'seemed to know all about it'. There was a constable around too.
Scene 11
Jenny, Seth Kent, Sergeant
Seth gets Jenny transferred to another taxi and explains to the passing Sergeant, 'this lady's just fainted'.
(Taxi goes)
Scene 12
Freddy, Constable
Clarges Street / Outside
Freddy questions the Constable and discovers that the abductor was wearing 'very good clothes'. The Detective from Scotland Yard arrives during this, and the Constable confirms 'He seemed a very nice spoken sort of a gent'.
Scene 13
Sergeant, Bob (the accomplice Taxi-Driver), Nobel (policeman)
At the Taxi Rank
The Sergeant gets Bob to put the cab into a side turning and then sniffing suspiciously and noticing the broken window, asks, 'Chloroform and broken windows. Where's your licence?' Bob is arrested and put into the charge of Nobel.
Marking in script
(Music) and written in 'American In Paris'
(End of Part One)
Two timings written into script: 15'40" and 16'45" (for pages 1-the top of 11)
8.3.6
Second Plot Section
Scene 14
Freddy, Bristol
Mr. Bristol's office (?)
Bristol awaits the arrival of Inspector Long and reassures Freddy, 'Steady, my boy. She'll turn up all right. People don't just disappear you know.'
At the end of the scene, Inspector Long arrives and introduces himself, 'Good morning, Mr. Bristol, I'm Inspector Long'.
Scene 15
Jenny, Seth Kent
At Seth's flat
Seth encourages Jenny, 'Cosy little place, isn't it? Make yourself at home. Can I get you anything to drink?' while Jenny refuses. Seth explains that she has been abducted because her father owes him £20,000 and that they will travel - 'a little trip on the continent'. Jenny warns him of the police, but Seth counters, "I don't care that (he snaps his fingers) for the police'. He starts to phone her father with his conditions.
Scene 16
Bristol, Freddy, Inspector Long, Seth Kent (unheard on phone)
Mr. Bristol's office
Bristol answers phone to discover the taxi-driver has been arrested in Vine Street police station. Inspector Long decides to remain here after they have left in case, 'She might manage to get through on the phone'.
Immediately they leave:
(The others go out. A door closes. The telephone rings.)
Inspector Kent impersonates Mr. Bristol on the phone, taking a call from Seth Kent, but is unsuccessful in his responses to identifying questions ('Does she wear what? A sapphire ring on her right hand?', and 'What's her Christian name! Look here, who d'you think you are, asking me my own daughter's Christian name?'). He is told the conditions: 'Twenty thousand. Well, it's a great deal of money. I shan't get her back until you get it.' (Trying to appear suave and easy-going). And mocked, 'What the devil are you laughing at? What do you mean I do it very badly?'
He is unable to trace the call through the Exchange.
Scene 18
Seth Kent, Jenny
Seth's Flat
Seth mocks the Inspector and explains to Jenny, 'That was a detective imitating your father. He didn't know what your Christian name was, or which hand you wore your engagement ring on!'.
He will get the car ready and will take the phone with him, and Jenny is not to try to jump out of a third-floor window.
Scene 19
Gwen on the phone to Mr. Bristol with the added detail that the abductor said he knew the details of Jenny's movements from her manicurist.
Scene 20
Inspector Laughton, Sergeant, Voice (policeman), Bob Seton, Mr. Bristol, Freddy
Vine Street Police Station
(This scene is two and a half pages long, the longest so far in the play, and pairs with scene 21, also two and a half pages long.)
Inspector Laughton interrogates Bob, the accomplice taxi-driver, who has not got his number or driving licence and who admits that he took up the fare at Clarges Street at 11.45 that morning, 'but whether it was abduction, seduction or introduction, I can't say'. Bob claims to have seen or heard nothing in the back of the cab, 'First rule for a taxi driver, sir, is never look into the cab when there's a mixed fare, sir ... '. At the end of the scene, when Mr. Bristol and Freddy arrive, Bob is shocked to learn that the cheque he was given for £500 has no signature, '(furious) What! D'you mean to say that cheque was unsigned? Well, of all the dirty ...'
Scene 21
Inspector Long, Esme the manicurist
Police Station
Esme is questioned and starts to break down in tears when asked why she phoned 'Battersea 44669'.
Scene 22
Inspector Laughton, Sergeant, Voice (policeman), Bob Seton, Mr. Bristol
Vine Street Police Station
(Scene is two and a half pages long)
Mr. Bristol, while Bob is not yet present, expresses the suspicion that he is lying. The news comes through from Inspector Long that 'He has traced the man to Battersea, Granger Road, Number ten'. This place will be searched. Bristol gets Inspector Laughton's agreement to question Bob himself, 'Sometimes you know, Inspector, a fellow will talk a bit more to a mere civilian than he will to you ... '.
Bristol offers him a bribe of £1,000, to which Bob, a family man responding to a father, agrees: '(hesitating) I never let an employer down till he lets me down'; and reveals that Seth Kent has an ocean-going launch outside Brighton. So the chase begins.
(Cross fade)
(Music)
(End of Part Two)
(Time noted on script: 27'10")
8.3.7
Third Plot Section
Scene 23
Seth Kent, Jenny
In the car, south London
(Traffic noise and varying note of a powerful car in third speed)
Seth starts to reveal his motive: He knew Mr. Bristol well, twenty years ago in Canada.
(Electric horn and acceleration)
The script also shows a cue for Studio 6E, (Music) for Effects and note 'do local mix'.
Scene 24
Freddy, Bob, Mr. Bristol, Laughton
In Freddy's car caught at Battersea Bridge in traffic
(Cross fade)
(Same noises as preceding scene)
The car horn is sounded frequently.
Some script:
FREDDY: I did a bit of flying during the war.
BOB: Which means there's going to be a race, sir.
End of scene:
(Engine note rises)
(Cross fade)
Scene 25
Seth Kent, Jenny, Voice (of passer-by giving directions)
In the car, Croydon
Seth reveals 'what a charming woman your mother is'.
End of scene:
(Crossfade)
Scene 26
Freddy, Bob, Mr. Bristol, Laughton
In Freddy's car arriving at Croydon
Mr. Bristol reminisces about a previous chase, 'I ran away with a girl on horseback - Mrs. Bristol'.
Scene 27
Seth Kent, Jenny
In the car
Seth reveals that Mrs. Bristol was engaged to him when she was carried off and that he is twice as rich as Mr. Bristol.
End of scene:
S.K.: You're very like your mother. (Horn) There! That's the last of the traffic. I can let her out a bit. (Engine up)
(Cross fade)
Scene 28
Freddy, Bob, Mr. Bristol, Laughton
In Freddy's car speeding on the motorway
Inspector Laughton speaks first in the scene: If I was on road duty, Mr. Forsyth, I'd have had you up for furious driving about a dozen times already!
This is the first indication we have that Laughton is also in the car. They catch sight of Seth's car.
End of scene:
(The engine roars up)
(Cross fade)
Scene 29
Seth Kent, Jenny
In the car
Seth asks forgiveness though adds, 'Women need firm handling. You'll settle down to it.' Jenny points out her father's car.
Scenes 30-38
In two pages of script, there is a rapid alternation between the two cars, each ending in:
(Roar up)
(Cross fade)
Scene 29
BRISTOL: Steady, Freddy.
LAUGHTON: Pass him if you can, and then slow down in front.
FREDDY: Trust me.
BOB: (delighted) Sixty-five in third!
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 30
JENNY: Eighty yards, Mr. Kent. You don't know Freddy's driving.
S.K.: He doesn't know mine.
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
(STEADY ROAR. FIVE SECONDS)
Scene 31
BRISTOL: Mind that charabanc ahead, Freddy.
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 32
JENNY: They're coming up. Seventy, seventy one.
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 33
BRISTOL: By Jove, Freddy, he's gaining. Give her a bit more. There's Jenny! Oh, Jenny! Catch them, Freddy, for God's sake.
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 34
JENNY: He's holding you! If I touch the wheel we shall go into the ditch.
S.K.: And into Eternity at seventy-five!
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 35
BRISTOL: Mind that charabanc, Freddy. The road's tricky. She's waving! Jenny! Jenny! We'll catch you!
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 36
S.K.: I'm going to swerve this charabanc.
JENNY: Careful! We're doing over eighty.
S.K.: Fifty yards are they?
JENNY: Less.
FX: (THE FLASH OF A VEHICLE BEING PASSED)
S.K.: Ah!
FX: (STEADY RISING ROAR)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 37
BRISTOL: Steady, Fred! Mind! ... Mind! ... No, on the corner, Freddy! He's skidding ... Mind!
FX: (CRESCENDO)
BRISTOL: Mind! Oh!
FX: (A FEARFUL CRASH, A TEARING OF BRAKES, BREAKING OF GLASS AND WOOD-WORK. SILENCE. A LONG PAUSE. A GROAN. ANOTHER PAUSE. ALL VERY SLOW.)
BOB: Are you all right sir?
(PAUSE)
FREDDY: Yes ... I think so.
BOB: Inspector?
BRISTOL: Where are we?
FREDDY: You [You're] all right, sir. Give me a handkerchief. His temple's cut.
LAUGHTON: Aie! Lift me, somebody.
Scene 38
The pursuers edge nearer and faster, but Freddy skids and hits a lorry:
BRISTOL: Steady, Fred! Mind! ... Mind! ... Not on the corner, Freddy! He's skidding ... Mind! (Crescendo) Mind! Oh!
(A fearful crash, a tearing of brakes, breaking of glass and wood-work. A groan. Another pause.)
(All very slow.)
BOB: Are you all right, sir?
Inspector Laughton's head is cut but everybody is no more than shaken. The lorry driver (strong Cockney accent) ends the scene, confronting them.
Scenes 39-44
Swift crossfades between Jenny and Seth, and Bristol, Laughton, Freddy, Bob.
Scene 45
Bob looks after Laughton and explains that they hit a lorry. The 'Sunlight Express' lorry diver is angry (strong Cockney accent).
(Time noted on script 27'10")
8.3.8
Fourth Plot Section
Scene 46
FX: (Cross fade)
(Sound of an aeroplane passing overhead)
Voice: (cultivated, slightly Oxford) Captain Forsyth was the coolest long distance bombing pilot in my squadron, Mr. Bristol. His D.S.O. was as much due to good flying as to pluck.
Bristol arranges to hire a plane.
Scene 47
Freddy is flying the plane, Bob reading the map, Bristol and Laughton explain that the police are alerted. The Pilot explains the emergency arrangements. They take off and spy Seton the villain.
Scene 48
Jenny and Seth in the car. Seth explains more about Jenny's father running away with Jenny's mother, then Seth's girlfriend. They are on their way to Paris.
Scene 49
Freddy talks to air control and is reproved for saying 'damn and blast' against Air Ministry instructions for pilots speaking from civil aircraft.
Scene 50
Bristol and Laughton find the flight smooth.
Scene 51
Freddy and Air Control
Scene 52
Seth has put Jenny on a cross-Channel motor-boat. It's 'damp and beastly'.
Jenny has a longer speech about not being frightened.
Scene 53
Freddy as pilot over the coast, coming down to spy in the fog and sees the motor-boat.
Scene 54
Seth on the motor-boat with the boat pilot, George.
They hear the plane engine.
Scene 55
Freddy communicating with Croydon. Weather improving.
Scene 56
Seth on the boat. The weather is getting rough.
Scene 57
Bob and Freddy spy the boat. They are going down.
Scene 58
Seth sees the plane circling.
Scene 59
Bob suggests they get a message to the Newhaven Mail Packet and 'she can come over and cut them off'.
Scene 60
Seth is in heavier seas. The motor is missing badly.
Scene 61
Bob and Freddy see the boat is stalled. Freddy will get the plane down.
Scene 62
Seth's engine has stopped. Jenny beats on the cabin door with her fists.
Scene 63
Bob and Freddy note that a wave has gone right over the boat. They communicate the emergency to the Newhaven Packet.
Scene 64
Jenny screaming
Scene 65
(From this point the noise effects are more important than the dialogue. Most of it must be shouted over them, till the end of the play.)
Freddy is going to 'pancake' the plane down beside the motor-boat. The boat has capsized.
(Swift swish of undercarriage striking the sea. Then sound of heavy seas, spray, wind and the rushing of water. After a moment of heavy breathing, Freddy is heard to shout) Jenny!
(Another pause)
Scene 66
Laughton and Bristol rescue Seth from the sea. Freddy is in the sea rescuing Jenny.
Scene 67
Freddy rescues Jenny.
A Voice from the Newhaven Ferry is heard as rescuer.
Bristol: My daughter first. She's over there. We're all right.
8.3.9
Savoy Hill internal assessments of 'Pursuit'
An internal B.B.C. memo from 'Mr. Graves' (Cecil Graves, later Deputy Director-General) to Peter Eckersley (Chief Engineer), dated 19 January 1928, contains eight appraisals of 'Pursuit' in 'Head Office Staff comments'. This is an extraordinary treasure-trove and shows Savoy Hill ruthlessly assessing its plays. It also allows us into terminology of the time. The memo was in preparation for Eckersley to write a letter to Lewis.
8.3.10
The first is dated 6 January and the initials 'R.W.' might indicate R. Wade, who according to Briggs, set up a section for answering listeners' correspondence in 1924 (Briggs, 1961, 203) and so must have continued in some post in Savoy Hill. R.W. says he concentrated on the 'close-ups' as instructed by Lewis, but 'the conversations followed one another too quickly to enable one to get more than a muddled mental picture of the position'. He also thought there had been too much press and playwright emphasis on the 'close-ups'. The effect of the first five minutes (the phone conversations) was 'lost', but that did not prove an obstacle to following the rest. The aeroplane conversations were too 'protracted' and the humour there 'not sufficiently strong to carry itself'. R.W. is also expertly critical on the 'noises': the cars and the taxi had too much of the 'single-cylinder effect, and were really more like motor cycles'. When the car crash happened, the other car could 'not have been audible going away in the distance'. R.W. had listened again on Saturday to see if he had missed anything, but he had not.
8.3.11
The second report is from 'P.P.E.', which has to be Peter Eckersley himself. He thought that although the idea was excellent, the play was 'bad because of bad production':
… there was a most sustained monotony in the spoken word. The noises too were most unconvincing; a fundamental difficulty confronts us here as the big crashes cannot be made to contrast enough with the smaller noises. In details too the motors were indistinguishable from the aeroplane … racing motors "plop" more
There should have been 'a varying "tempo" in the voices'. It was a most ambitious effort and an excellent idea 'but to "come off" production was everything, in fact production was really bad – let's try again!'.
8.3.12
'G.A.C.' did not hear it all because of the time it was put on:
The bits I did hear gave the impression of a jolly good idea and immense practical difficulty. The whole not quite convincing as it came over, the "close-ups" varying in realism, but development of a technique along these lines, has I am sure, great possibilities.
8.3.13
'J.M.R.T.' was 'breathless with excitement' and it was 'outstanding', while 'the motor crash and the next two minutes were splendid'.
8.3.14
'T.C.L.F.' found it 'very thrilling and the noise effects good but the 'fading from one car to another was not quick enough' and:
The final scene lacked real definition and I felt left the listener rather in the air as to what did happen, apart form the heroine being saved. Did all the others drown? Also I thought the orchestral interludes tended to destroy the mental excitement at critical moments so that the tenseness was temporarily lost and had to be reengendered.
The plot could have been expanded with more about the story of Bristol's elopement with his wife.
8.3.15
'L.S.J.' found it 'thrilling' and 'excellently performed' and 'well put-over'. He found the idea of close-ups 'a graphic way of keeping the listener's interest'. It was technically 'good' with 'one occasion when the wrong "noise" was superimposed'.
8.3.16
'CGG/DG' seems to indicate C.G. Graves, who is mentioned by Briggs as joining the B.B.C. in 1926 and being on the publications committee (Briggs, 1961, 308). (Later, Reith thought of Graves as his own successor as Director-General (Briggs, 1965 19).) 'DG' might indicate 'Director-General'? The play held Graves from start to finish, 'an unusual thing as I generally get bored with dramatic productions'. But this is a sweetener. He then severely knocks the production:
The play itself was, of course, a very poor specimen and could have been written by a child, but that Lewis I know realised as he was out for effects and new technique and nothing more. I cannot say I was frightfully struck with the presentation.
The noises were not particularly good. It rather showed us up as only being capable of dealing with such things a telephone bells, motor cars, aeroplanes or motor boats. Actually, of course we got all the wrong type of noise. One would never have heard sitting in a motor the kind of noise that came out of the loud speaker, the smashing of a taxi window would not have sounded like breaking a half inch of glass with a sledge hammer. The smash of the motor was ridiculous.
There are two comments on the play itself which perhaps it is as well to make namely that (1) advertisement was given to makes of motor cars, and (2) that conversations in the air with Le Bourget, Lympne and Croydon were much too long drawn out and became boring.
The attractiveness to me of the play lay in what I presumed Lewis mainly set out to do, namely to give a very large number of scenes, none of them too long to make one's interest flag. By constant changes of scene the interest was maintained and from this point of view, the play, to my mind, was successful.
8.3.17
There is one more memo attached to this, from 'Mr. Chilman (Studios)' to 'Mr R.E. Jeffrey', dated 22 January 1927:
I fear that the production of shows like Pursuit will be seriously hampered till such time as an additional Studio accommodation is available at Savoy Hill
Such a show apparently needs four studios simultaneously for both rehearsals and transmission and needs a considerable number of rehearsals.
At the present moment there are not enough studios available as Studios must be provided simultaneously for the 2LO and 5GB transmissions, and for Rota Revues and Rota Artists.
Can any further ambitious shows such as Pursuit be deferred till such time as more studios are available? I find that no IX [Studio No. 9] cannot be ready for use for a period of approximately two months.
8.3.18
These evaluative play reviews must have taken an amount of management time. The spectrum of detail in the crits here shows a vivid and practised team, and the overall impression is that Savoy Hill had overextended itself and the effects staff were below par here. The comments are nearly all technical and the only substantial comment on the acting comes from P.P.E. on monotony. Presumably, the acting was satisfactory, but these Savoy Hill crits are focused on effects and technical aspects of the studios. The comment that the ending 'lacked real definition' is spot-on (8.3.14). This was an innovative production which pushed all to the limit and far beyond.
'Pursuit' was an expensive production. It had a cast of seventeen. As seen in 8.3.17, 'Pursuit' took four studios for rehearsal and transmission. How many rehearsals were needed? In a later interview, publicising a 1931 production of Shaw's 'Saint Joan', Cecil Lewis explained that an ordinary play had five rehearsals and he was now conducting ten ('Star' 16 April 1929). 'Pursuit' must have had a minimum of five, but considering how many cues were needed, and how many effects, there may well have been more. There were the music rehearsals too ('musical interludes' 8.3.14 – I will argue that these were live), and two transmissions (Friday 6 January 1928 Daventry 8.45-10 and Saturday 7 January 1928 2LO London 5XX 7.45-9.15). This must have occupied four Savoy Hill studios and further rehearsal space for most of the week leading into the Friday and Saturday.
There was lots of precedent in 1927 for large-cast productions and eight had casts of fifteen and above ('Cyrano de Bergerac', 'The Merchant of Venice', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'Abraham Lincoln', 'Old Heidelberg', 'Prunella' (twice), 'Tilly of Bloomsbury'). Musicals and operas too had been large-scale.
The memo from Mr. Chilman (Studios) must also have been sparked by the production of Maeterlinck's 'The Blue Bird' (Monday 9 January 1928 London and Daventry 9.35-11.00). This had a cast of seventeen but was easier to manage, and was rehearsed already. It brought in the stage cast, according to the 'Radio Times' publicity.
8.3.19
I will now look at the evidence for production in Savoy Hill, working from Lewis's note at the top of the script and from the 1933 mark-ups on the Caversham script of the Broadcasting House production. As I mentioned above, Lewis gives the following production note at the top of the script (not as an announcement on air):
There are no stage directions or mind pictures in this play. It starts with six telephone conversations, the equivalent of screen close-ups, to impress the voices of the principal characters on the mind of the listeners.
There are two kinds of transition between scenes. The first is the usual "Fade", denoting a pause, only momentary, before the start of the next scene. The second is the "Cross fade". It implies a 'Mixer' to bring one scene down and the other up at the same time.
Two speech studios will be required, (in one of these the infrequent music, used to denote a passage of time, can work), and probably two effects studios will be found necessary.
As Mr. Chilman's memo makes clear (8.3.17), four studios were used. Two were needed for the actors, in two groups, because of this new technique of crossfading. So I suggest the following Savoy Hill set-up:
Two Savoy Hill actors' studios : No. 2 (used customarily for drama from early 1926) and No. 3 (the 'First Studio', built May 1923) with 'infrequent' music, probably live.
Spot Effects and Grams: Studio No 2 (B), adjoining the Drama Studio No. 2
Second Effects Studio: Another studio
I argue here that Savoy Hill probably used live orchestral music, as the crit from T.C.L.F. mentions the 'orchestral interludes' (8.3.14). Gramophone records would not have given sufficient quality, but were used of course, and besides, an appropriate live score may have been composed or collated. Interludes were needed to allow actors and effects time for pauses, to collect their energies and to set up for the next scenes in this seventy-five minute piece. All of this is conjecture of course.
8.3.20
The surviving Caversham script of 'Pursuit' is marked up for a 1933 production in Broadcasting House. It makes use of five studios, not the Savoy Hill four.
The Broadcasting House production studios can be worked out most conveniently from The B.B.C. Year-Book 1932 diagrams for Broadcasting House. (Of course there are various photographs extant too.) There are two diagrams relevant from this book: 'Plan of the Effects Studio, 6D, with the Gramophone Effects Studio, 6E (p. 73), 'Eighth Floor' (p. 76). But the best diagram maps now accessible are in Val Gielgud's and Holt Marvell's Death at Broadcasting House (Gielgud and Marvell 1934), page 68 'Sixth Floor', page 69 'Seventh Floor' and page 70 'Eighth Floor'.
8.3.21
'Pursuit' actors – on the 1933-marked up script - are grouped into two studios, 6A and 6C. The first, 6A, is the 'principal cast studio' on the sixth floor (Gielgud and Marvell, 1934, 68). All of my subsequent references will be from the Gielgud and Marvell book, so I need not cite the exact source from here on in. The second actors' studio is 6C, the 'subsidiary cast studio' and about half the size of 6A. Movement between 6A and 6C is interesting, as I will show. Studio 6E, 'gramophone effects studio' (named as such in The B.B.C. Year-Book 1932 and not given its number in Gielgud and Marvell) is used in 'Pursuit' for 'Music' and gramophone effects. This 6E adjoins the Effects Studio, 6D. The Dramatic Control Rooms, 1 and 2, are on the eighth floor. So the Broadcasting House suite is used in the following way for 'Pursuit':
Actors in two groups: 6A and 6C (Broadcasting House)
Spot Effects: 6D
Grams: 6E
More Effects 6B
So three Broadcasting House studios were used for Effects.
8.3.22
An immediate difference in Broadcasting House technology is that there is more control, balancing, perspective and definition in Effects, as they are divided into three studios (6B, 6D, 6E). Not only were these purpose built, but windows connect 6E Grams to 6E Effects. Broadcasting House also used grams for music in this 1933 production.
The overwhelming invention in 'Pursuit' was the crossfade (8.3.13), enabled by multiple-studio production and the control panel. The play has sixty-seven scenes with seventy-six boundaries. (The reason for this total of boundaries is that there are music cue segments at the ends of both Parts 2 and 3, after the opening Announcement, and after Scene 1's telephone monologues; and Scene 1 consists of six separate monologues.) Fifty-four of the boundaries from scene to scene are crossfades. In fact, once we progress from Scene 4 (Gwen Thurston the dress-maker phones Freddy, the fiancé of the heroine) across the boundary into Scene 5 (the 'pursuit' itself begins with Jenny now in the villain's taxi), we meet the first crossfade. Crossfading is used across all the remaining scene boundaries, from the beginning of scene 5 into the final scene 67 (with the exception of the music segments at the ends of Part 2 and 3).
8.3.23
In scenes 29-37 of 'Pursuit', there is the most rapid and adventurous crossfading, through two pages of script, and a rapid alternation between the two cars, each scene-segment ending in:
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Here is the culmination to the chase and the crash that ensues:
Scene 29
BRISTOL: Steady, Freddy.
LAUGHTON: Pass him if you can, and then slow down in front.
FREDDY: Trust me.
BOB: (delighted) Sixty-five in third!
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 30
JENNY: Eighty yards, Mr. Kent. You don't know Freddy's driving.
S.K.: He doesn't know mine.
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
(STEADY ROAR. FIVE SECONDS)
Scene 31
BRISTOL: Mind that charabanc ahead, Freddy.
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 32
JENNY: They're coming up. Seventy, seventy one.
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 33
BRISTOL: By Jove, Freddy, he's gaining. Give her a bit more. There's Jenny! Oh, Jenny! Catch them, Freddy, for God's sake.
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 34
JENNY: He's holding you! If I touch the wheel we shall go into the ditch.
S.K.: And into Eternity at seventy-five!
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 35
BRISTOL: Mind that charabanc, Freddy. The road's tricky. She's waving! Jenny! Jenny! We'll catch you!
(ROAR UP)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 36
S.K.: I'm going to swerve this charabanc.
JENNY: Careful! We're doing over eighty.
S.K.: Fifty yards are they?
JENNY: Less.
FX: (THE FLASH OF A VEHICLE BEING PASSED)
S.K.: Ah!
FX: (STEADY RISING ROAR)
(CROSSFADE)
Scene 37
BRISTOL: Steady, Fred! Mind! ... Mind! ... No, on the corner, Freddy! He's skidding ... Mind!
FX: (CRESCENDO)
BRISTOL: Mind! Oh!
FX: (A FEARFUL CRASH, A TEARING OF BRAKES, BREAKING OF GLASS AND WOOD-WORK. SILENCE. A LONG PAUSE. A GROAN. ANOTHER PAUSE. ALL VERY SLOW.)
BOB: Are you all right sir?
(PAUSE)
FREDDY: Yes ... I think so.
BOB: Inspector?
BRISTOL: Where are we?
FREDDY: You [You're] all right, sir. Give me a handkerchief. His temple's cut.
LAUGHTON: Aie! Lift me, somebody.
In the remainder of this scene, Inspector Laughton comes to and the driver of the Sunday Express charabanc confronts them, and this is the end of Part 3.
8.3.24
Why crossfades, beyond the excitement of innovating? And why was the technique used to such an unparallelled extent on what, on surviving evidence, is its first full outing? It is obvious that crossfading gives a strong onward movement to the narrative and an overall rhythm to the play, though its use here is rather indiscriminate by modern standards.
The Control Panel is particularly in rapid use when the two pursuits are under way, and especially for Part 3: the motor chase with its rapid alternation between the two cars (scenes 22 to the beginning of 37 with the crash) and in Part 4, from the end of scene 39 to the finale (scenes in the plane crossfading with each other to indicate the passing of time on the Channel crossing and sometimes alternating with scenes involving Jenny and Seth, as they progress from car to boat).
Modern production would use straight cuts from one exciting short scene on to the next short scene, as well as patterning these with crossfades. But also a modern radio play would not sustain such an unvarying rhythmic pattern as 'Pursuit' - twenty-seven minutes and ten seconds for these sixteen scenes (scenes 22-37), according to the mark-up on the script. Indeed, a modern playwright would probably intercut scenes from yet another location - for example, the police station monitoring the criminals - as contrast.
8.3.25
Exuberant cross-fading could explain some scripting features. I analyse here the movements of actors from one studio to another (according to the 1933 Broadcasting House mark-up) and there is a rapid to-and-fro. The detail is rather ponderous to read but it is a fascinating snapshot of wireless drama choreography off the microphone and actors must have been very careful to mark up their scripts. Of course production in both the original of 1928 and in 1933 was live. I have put my notes in square brackets and included the mark-up notes from 1933 Broadcasting House. The Broadcasting House suite (as a reminder) is:
Actors in two groups: 6A and 6C (Broadcasting House)
Spot Effects: 6D
Grams: 6E
More Effects 6B
6A (Principal Cast Studio) and 6C (Subsidiary Cast Studio) are adjoining and separated by two doors and the 'Listening Room'. At the opening of the play, the actors are as follows:
(Broadcasting House) 6A - Seth, Freddy, Mr. Bristol, Constable, Sergeant, Nobel, Inspector Laughton, Voice (Policeman), Voice (constable)
(Broadcasting House) 6C - Jenny, Esme, Bob, Gwen, Detective Inspector Long
Scene 1 :
[6A] - Seth Kent
[6C] - Jenny
[6A] - Mr. Bristol
[6C] - Esme
[6A] - Freddy
[6C] - Bob Seaton
FX: (Fade)
(Music one minute) [Broadcasting House script mark-up 6E = Grams]
(Fade)
Scene 2 (Clarges St., outside)
[Traffic 6B = More Effects]
[6A = Actors in Principal Cast Studio] - Seth Kent, Constable, Bob
Already Bob has had to cross swiftly from 6C, at the end of the scene, to 6A for his part in Scene 2, where he comes into the dialogue half way through. The 'music one minute' gives him time.
Scene 3 (Dress-maker's) Jenny, Gwen, Lucie, Seth Kent
[6C]
Seth crosses from 6A (his telephone monologue in Scene 1) to 6C. Esme and Lucie are already in 6C.
FX: (Fade)
Scene 4 (Gwen on phone.)
[6C]
Gwen is in 6C from the beginning and as this scene begins from a fade up from silence, there is no problem about her positioning.
FX: (Crossfade. Noise of taxi in traffic)
Scene 5 (Jenny, Seth Kent)
[6A]
Seth and Jenny have crossed from 6C, where they were in Scene 3, to 6A now. They will remain in the same studio, 6A, while they are in scenes together.
FX: (Crossfade)
Scene 6 (Freddy on phone)
[6C]
Freddy has crossed from 6A (his monologue in Scene 1) now to 6C
FX: (Crossfade)
Scene 7 (Jenny, Seth Kent in taxi)
[6A]
Seth and Jenny remain in 6A
FX: (Crossfade)
Scene 8 (Mr. Bristol on the phone)
[6C]
Mr. Bristol has crossed from 6A (his monologue in Scene 1) now to 6C
FX: (Crossfade)
[6B Traffic + 6E Taxi marked on script]
Scene 9 (Jenny, Seth Kent in taxi)
Seth and Jenny remain in 6A
FX: (Crossfade)
8.3.26
And so it alternates and it has settled down somewhat as the kidnap pair, Seth and Jenny are in 6A. Other actors use 6A for other scenes. The rapid crossfading during the car chase is from 6A (Seth and Jenny) to 6C (Bristol, Laughton, Freddy, Bob). At Scene 48, Seth and Jenny have moved over to 6A.
Having two Inspectors in the play - Laughton and Long – is a bit of a puzzle. Inspector Long leaves the narrative after his interrogation of Esme the manicurist in scene 20. Inspector Laughton follows through to the end, in the car which crashes and in which he gets injured, and then in the plane.
But it is still a bit confusing and goes against the thriller genre. For example, in some other wireless thrillers, and admittedly they come later, there is only one inspector protagonist. Here they are: 'The Billiard Room Mystery' (22 March 1929 London 8.30-9), 'Trent's Last Case' (E.C. Bentley) (24 January 1934 National 9.38-10.45), and 'The Ringer' (Edgar Wallace) which was a huge London stage success in 1926, an adaptation of his novel, 'The Gaunt Stranger', and later was on wireless.
The two inspectors are required (Laughton and Long) to enable crossfades in 'Pursuit'. This is especially so from Scene 19 (Laughton interviews Bob in 6A) through to Scene 21 (Long interviews Gwen in 6C).
So 'Pursuit' looks differently now once the – as I have called it – choreography of performance-production emerges. This is so complicated a map through the scenes that I suggest it was not changed from the Savoy Hill production template to Broadcasting House, five years later. Savoy Hill had used two actors' studios. Broadcasting House was able to use an extra Effects studio. Cecil Lewis's artistry also emerges because he had to work out the moves as he wrote the play, and indeed, the play is written around these moves from actors' studio to actors' studio.
8.3.27
Above all, Lewis wrote a popular play, really in the style of a film. The 1920s was the golden age of thriller writing. 'Pursuit' aimed to appeal to a wide popular audience as the adapted stage plays did, and as he had experimented with the adaptation of Conrad's novel, 'Lord Jim' (18 February 1927) and 'The Night Fighters' (26 March 1928), though the scripts are lost. 'Pursuit' looks directly forward to the mainstream of radio drama and Saturday Night Theatre (instituted in 1943). Two playwrights were to carry on the task of shaping popular wireless entertainment: L. du Garde Peach, whose main large plays were to come from 'Ingredient X' in 1931, and Philip Wade, already a wireless actor regularly from April 1926, and whose first play, 'The Duster', was broadcast in 1932.
Certainly some lost originations of 1926-9 must also have been among those early foundations of popular wireless drama and candidates can be suggested:
'The Mayfair Mystery' (Frank H. Shaw), a competition, and 'Which?' (Frank H. Shaw) of 1926
'Speed' a fantasy of gods and mortals written for radio transmission (Charles Croker - pseudonym) (2 April 1928) which used five studios in production
'X' (George Crayton) (29 October 1929) - the strongest candidate
'Pools and Eddies' a "psychological" episode (Victor Browne) (8-9 January 1929)
Some other lost plays, adaptations, were praised for their popularity and technique, and regarded as milestones:
'Lord Jim' (Joseph Conrad's novel) (18 February 1927) as mentioned above
'Carnival' a story of London before the War (Compton McKenzie from his novel) (8-9 January 1929), the first large production directed by Val Gielgud
'The Prisoner of Zenda' (10 May 1929) produced by Cecil Lewis
'Catastrophe' (Dallas Bower) (1931)
The following are important originations of 1929-1937 which have survived as scripts and are clearly successful, popular drama:
'Ingredient X' (L. du Garde Peach) 1929
'Obsession' (Dulcima Glasby) 31 July 1930 and 1 August 1930
'The Path of Glory' (L. du Garde Peach) 16 January 1931
'Love One Another' (L. du Garde Peach) 5 January 1932
'Boss' (Philip Wade) 3 August 1932
'Three Soldiers' (L. du Garde Peach) 23 March 1933
'Wedding Group' (Philip Wade) 28-29 May 1935
'Jenny Meade' (Philip Wade) 9-10 January 1936
'Family Tree' (Philip Wade) 3 November 1937
'The Squirrel's Cage' (Tyrone Guthrie) (4 March 1929 Daventry 8-9 and 6 March London 9.35-10.35) remains a case apart, I would argue, in spite of Taylor's eloquent account of his first hearing of it (Taylor, 1972, 34-6).
8.3.28
Lewis's main experiment before 'Pursuit' was the adaptation of Conrad's 'Lord Jim' (18 February 1927), which had twenty-three scenes ('The Radio Times' 16 December 1927 p 586), twenty characters and extensive linking narration (Lewis, 'The Radio Times' 11 February 1927 p 333). It was described later as the 'first attempt at film technique, with narration' (Internal memo, 'Dramatic Broadcasts, 1 January 1934, p. 1, Caversham), and Lewis recommended in his article publicising it:
…. a photo-play technique: a large number of simple scenes, short in duration, linked together and carried forward by a storyteller. All manner of variety and ingenuity is possible with such a method.
(Lewis, 'The Radio Times' 11 February 1927 p 333)
(The 'Lord Jim' script is lost.) The protagonist's direct narrative in the novel is particularly artful, with time reversal and the central mystery unsolved. Lewis then adapted and directed 'R.U.R.' (Karel Capek) (27 May 1927 London 9.35-11) and the accompanying 'The Radio Times' publicity, again written by Lewis, explained that it would not use a Narrator:
The Radio version will not be presented, like the broadcast production 'Lord Jim', in a series of short scenes linked by a story-teller. That was a study in psychology. The interest lay in the things which happened to the central character.
R.U.R. is a play to start with – a play of ideas – and the development of these ideas demands a sustained scene. The Radio version, however, will show a complete picture without the need of any intermediate announcements.
('The Radio Times' p 355)
8.3.29
In ways lost to us now, the 'Lord Jim' adaptation was the first break away from the 'fixed stage' model for wireless originations. The wireless 'mise en scène' had closely resembled the stage play and when the transition to a new scene was effected, wireless again copied the acts and scenes of theatre. So Berkeley's 'The White Chateau' was six scenes, introduced by the Chronicler, who explained the ellipses of time. And this was directly on the model of John Drinkwater's 'Abraham Lincoln' (5.6.31). 'By Virtue of a Broadcast' by Captain Frank Shaw (9 February 1927) was even more static, with two scenes, the long second one introduced by a storm. There was no attempt to intercut between the Albert Hall prayer meeting and the s.s. Adalbert, except for the 'broadcast within the broadcast' at the climax.
The only other possible extant candidate in innovating across scene boundaries is 'The Seven Ages of Mechanical Music' (Lance Sieveking) (13 January 1927 and 16 April 1930). There are no similar crossfades here and the three major changes in atmos are dealt with in this way.
First change, from countryside walk into the cave atmos:
4 FX (All at once the acoustic changes. Now it is all boomy and echoey, and when the sedate little girl's voice comes, it is as though she were talking in the rope-walk at the entrance to Poole's Cavern at Buxton.)
Second change, into the atmos of the Olympia exhibition hall:
67 FX (The acoustic changes completely as the microphones in the middle of Olympia become alive. If you have ever been in that huge exhibition hall, you instantly recognise the actuality of what you are hearing.
Third change, into the final scene and back to their countryside walk:
123 FX (Tinkle-tinkle-tinkle goes the little snuff-box. It stops, and the sound of rushing waters mounts and mounts till the cave and its occupants are swept away . . . swept away and out . . back on to the green, sunny slopes where their walk had started.)
(Silence.)
One has to allow for Sieveking's flowery directions in the subsequently printed version of the script, but these are signposting devices and no more.
8.3.30
What we have is Lewis's 'photo-play technique: a large number of simple scenes, short in duration, linked together'. In the case of 'Pursuit', this is without a Narrator and is the break-through into true wireless 'mise en scène'. And in this case, many of the scene boundaries were effected by energising crossfades.
Wireless dramatic space thus became, for the listener, the ongoing synthesis of a rapid series of 'sound pictures'. 'Pursuit', the ever-extending chase play, carried the audience through to a new vision of space. In the future, from now on, wireless 'mise en scène' after 'mise en scène' could be anywhere, simultaneously in two speeding cars and each intercut with the other, in a plane and on the ocean, on the phone and in the street. Wireless drama now made the step that the film had gradually from 1906, away from the film as a single take to multiple-room sets. One of the significant examples was D.W. Griffith's 'Three Sisters' (Biograph 1912) which had:
… a climax of 28 shots alternating between the three set-ups – long-shot views of three rooms, a kitchen, a hall, and a bedroom …
(Brewster and Lea, 1997, 189)
In Griffith's 'The Girl and Her Trust', there is a chase with the heroine clinging to a handcar and pursued by the hero in a locomotive, and finally rescued from tramps. Griffith edited a series of cross-cuts between the handcar and the locomotive. Again there are twenty-eight shots, arranged into seven groups, followed by two shots which end the film showing Grace united with the hero. From such beginnings came many more complicated chase sequences in silent films which were the influence behind 'Pursuit'. (The first talkie film, 'The Jazz Singer', was screened in London at the Piccadilly Theatre on 3 October 1928 by Warner Bros.)
8.3.31
Allowing for the loss of scripts, the ultimate breakaway from the 'Stage Model' came in L. du Garde Peach's 'Ingredient X' of 1929, which I regard as the first, truly radiogenic play. Three strands of plot, in three widely different locations come together at the climax. The 'Yuanda' ship, carrying its cargo of the mysterious ingredient X goes down in a storm, the investors at their London shareholders' meeting are as yet unaware of their huge loss, and the company prospectors are finished off in the jungle:
Scene 39
Scene: The Sea
FX: (STORM SOUNDS AT MAXIMUM)
DEAN: (shouting) She's going!
FARRER: Clear that raffle. Quick!
DEAN: Where's the Captain?
FARRER: Jump! Jump, you fool!
FX: (SHOUTS AND CONFUSED CRIES MINGLE WITH THE STORM)
DEAN: Hell! The boat's stove! Look out! She's - Where's the Captain?
FARRER: On the bridge. He won't leave her.
DEAN: I'll have him down.
FARRER: You haven't time! Jump! Come on!
DEAN: Look out! My God, she's -
FARRER: Jump, you blazing lunatic!
FX: (THE STORM SOUNDS SWELL UP)
(FADE)
Scene 40
Scene: The Board Room
CHAIRMAN: (calmly) - then I take it, gentlemen, that the motion proposed by the Earl of Ingleby and seconded by Mr. Wilkinson, is carried unanimously. That concludes our business for -
(FADE)
Scene 41
Scene: The Sea and the Forest
FX: (THE WILD YELLS OF THE NATIVES AND THE LOUD DRUMMING OF THE TOM-TOMS SWELL UP.)
FX: (AFTER A MOMENT THE SOUND OF THE STORM IS HEARD. IT MINGLES WITH THE SOUND OF WILD TRIUMPH IN THE FOREST, AND THEN BOTH FADE AWAY.)
(FADE)
8.3.32
Du Garde Peach does not use crossfades here, and the spaces between the scenes give the listeners more of a chance to work on their 'second play' in the mind, or the perceptual filling-in that will take them onto the ocean, into the London Board Room, into the jungle, and back and again, in an increasing pattern. At times 'Pursuit' is just noisy and repetitive, but 'Ingredient X' has a masterful economy, suiting rapid description to the pace.
Wireless time changed too with 'Pursuit' and its many followers, such as 'Ingredient X' . The 'fixed-stage' model imposed not only a single 'mise en scène', but, such was its reliance on dialogue, it imposed the equivalence of real time across the one-act wireless play or the adapted scenes and acts. No elisions are allowed until the 'scene change'. The structural units replicate those of the stage. Lewis's short scenes and even shorter segmental scenes do away with that straitjacket. Time and space in the wireless 'mise en scène' relate to each other in new dynamic ways.
Main Index | Chapter 8 Index | Section 8.4