1927
Wednesday 5 January 1927
Cardiff 10-10.20
‘Taffy’s Wife’ (Bertha N.
Graham)
A Play in One Act
Produced by Gordon McConnell
Rosalind Evans – Flora
McDowell
David Evans – Gordon
McConnell
Robert Cressell – Ivor
Maddox
When a wife, who is a
private detective, discovers that her beloved husband is a forger, what course
should she take? ‘Taffy’s Wife’ solves this intricate problem in a dramatic and
unexpected fashion.
Rosalind is tall and
handsome with a capable, business-like air about her. She evidently adores
Taffy, who is young, fair, boyish and excitable.
Picture the Evans’s flat in
Battersea. The room is dark but for a faint glimmer of firelight. An open door
discloses a corridor and a hat rack.
Taffy enters from the
corridor talking to Robert Cressall, a much older man with a strong, resolute
manner.
Tuesday 11 January 1927
Cardiff and Daventry 8.5-8.40
‘The Bishop’s Candlesticks’
(Norman McKinnel)
A Play in One Act
The Bishop – Richard Barron
The Convict – Donald Davies
Persome (the Bishop’s Sister)
– Kate Sawle
Marie – Susie Stevens
Sergeant of Gendarmes –
Sidney Evans
Monday 17 January 1927
Cardiff 8-8.45 (mixed)
[Two plays]
* ‘Emperor II’ (John Cooper)
A Radio Drama
Produced by Gordon McConnell
Professor Martin – Donald
Davies
Scanlon – Ivor Maddox
O’Grady – Sidney Evans
Watson – John Derwent
In the dining-room of his
house in Regent’s Park, Professor Martin is entertaining two fellow
anthropologists, and zoologists, O’Grady and Scanlon. Dinner is just over. The
night is stormy and oppressive. The Professor is talking to Scanlon as the play
commences.
‘The Red-Haired Tramp’ (D.
Humphreys)
Produced by Gordon McConnell
Mr. Smith – Sidney Evans
Mrs. Smith – Flora McDowell
The Visitor – Donald Davies
Mr. And Mrs. Smith are
breakfasting in their dining-room. Mr. Smith is reading his morning post, which
consists chiefly of bills.
Wednesday 19 January 1927
Cardiff 8-8.26
‘A Sharp Attack’ (Herbert C.
Sargent)
Played by the London Radio
Repertory Players
Ezekiel Meggs (a Grocer and
General Dealer) – J. Hubert Leslie
William Kitson (Mate on a
Tramp Steamer) – Henry Oscar
Minnie Brown (a Nurse) –
Phyllis Panting
In Ezekiel Meggs’s
sitting-room, a bare, cheerless apartment, giving an impression of extreme
poverty, a very small fire is burning. At the back of the room, which is
lighted by one candle, there is a glazed partition through which his shop can
be seen. Meggs, a small, wizened man of about forty, is sitting at the table
casting up figures in a ledger.
[London Radio Repertory
Players on tour?]
Thursday 27 January 1928 Cardiff 8-8.45 (mixed)
Music and Drama
‘In the Dark’ (Gilbert
Heron)
a play in one act
Adapted for broadcasting
from Ernest Bramah’s story ‘The Game Played in the Dark’
Eustace Montmorency (known
as the ‘Stoker’, second of the gang under Karl) – Donald Davies
Dominique Dompierre (an
Accomplice) – Gordon McConnell
Nina Dompierre (his wife) –
Flora McDowell
(The above three characters
are members of an International Criminal Gang)
Inspector Beedel (of
Scotland Yard) – Sidney Evans
Max Carrados (The Celebrated Blind Detective) – Ivor
Maddox
Tuesday 1 February 1927
Cardiff 7.45-9 (mixed)
Echoes From The Hills
‘Elias and the Mushrooms’
(Shirland Quin)
A Play in One Act
Elias Powys – J. Eddie Parry
Mary Powys – Nan Porter
Glyn Powys – J. Maldwyn
Thomas
Gwynneth Powys – Mary
MacDonald Taylor
Parry Pritchard – Jacque
Thomas
Tuesday 8 February 1927
Cardiff 9.45-10.30
‘The Man, the Maid, and the
Middle-Head’
A Cameo by Gordon McConnel
[Feature with songs]
The Man – Herbert Simmonds
The Maid – Wynne Ajello
Wednesday 9 February 1927
Cardiff 8.5-8.45
‘The Storm’ (John
Drinkwater)
A Poetic Play
Played by the Cardiff
Station Radio Players
Alice – Vera Ashe
Joan (her younger sister) –
Phyllis Morgan
Sarah – Nan Porter
An Old Man – Emrys Lloyd
A Young Stranger – Ivor
Maddox
A mountain cottage on a
midwinter night. Outside a snowstorm rages. Alice is looking through the
window, while Joan, her younger sister, and Sarah, an old neighbour woman, are
sitting over the fire. Alice speaks.
Thursday 10 February 1927
Cardiff 8.15-8.45
‘Guy
Weatherby’s Dilemma’ (Hilda P.K. Chamberlain)
A Comedy
Weatherby – John Charlton
McGregor – J. Hubert-Leslie
A Boy – Fred Peisley
A Client – Percy Rhodes
A Man – Duncan Macrae
A Girl – Phyllis Panting
Monday 28 February 1927
Cardiff 10-10.25
* 'By Virtue of a Broadcast' (Frank H. Shaw)
A Play specially written for
Broadcasting
Played by the London Radio
Repertory Players
The Rev. Hilary Standish –
Dodd Mehan
First Elder - Herbert Lugg
Second Elder - Frank Denton
Capt. Standish - Henry Oscar
Menzies (First Mate) -
Reginald Dance
Fyfe (Chief Engineer) -
Ernest Cove
Third Mate - Dino Galvani
Wireless Operator - Lawrence
Gowdy
Helmsman - Fred Vigay
Sailor - Roger Maxwell
Friday 4 March 1927 Cardiff 9.45-11
The Russian Genius (mixed)
‘The Proposal’ a jest, in
one act (Tchekhov)
Translated from the Russian
by Constance Garnett
Stepan Stepanovitch (a
Landowner) – Sidney Evans
Natalya Stepanovna (his
daughter, aged 25) – Vera Ashe
Ivan Vassilyevitch Lomov (a
Neighbour of Tchubukov’s, a healthy, well-nourished, but hypochondriacal
Landowner) – Donald Davies
Thursday 24 March 1927
Cardiff 7.45- (mixed)
An Evening at Bath
Relayed from the Pump Room,
Bath
Beau Nash talks to his
contemporaries. That. Of course, means the friends of his Bath days, but he
will not forget that Wales is listening, for was he not born in Swansea?
Written and spoken by the
Citizen House Players
10-10.23
‘Bertie’s Bath Night’ a
dream fantasy (Gordon McConnel)
Played by the Cardiff Station
Radio Players
Ghosts:
Sir Wiliam Wormwoodd (An Old
Bean) – Donald Davies
Lydia (His Beautiful
Daughter) – Flora McDowell
Captain Fakeham (An
Adventurer) – Ivor Maddox
Harry Pousher (A Nuisance) –
Sidney Evans
Mere Mortals:
Bertie – Gordon McConnel
Jane (Chambermaid at the
Wormwood Arms Hotel) – Flora McDowell
The Action of this fantasy
takes place in Room 13 if the Wormwoodd Arms Hotel, a reconstructed
eighteenth-century mansion in Bath. It is a large, gloomy, oak-panelled room;
mice and draughts chase each other across the uneven floor boards. Even a
modern carpet, a roaring fire and electric light have failed to dispel a
certain mustiness.
Bertie, having played three
rounds of golf, is too weary to worry; so he sits before the fire with a bottle
of aspirin tablets and a hot grog at his elbow, absentmindedly rubbing the head
of his niblick with a piece of emery paper. His handicap is plus two, so
perhaps his startling plus fours and his still more startling pull-over may be
excused.
Jane. The chambermaid,
enters with a scuttle of coal. When wishing him ‘good-night’ she expresses the
hope that he will not be disturbed by the ghosts reputed to haunt the room.
Under the combined influence
of exercise, fresh air, ‘flu, aspirin and the grog, Bertie falls asleep in his
chair and ha an exciting dream, in which he finds himself transported back to
the eighteenth century.
Friday 25 March 1927 Cardiff
8-8.22
* ‘A Tale of the Hebrides’ Specially written for broadcasting (D.G.
Couzens)
The Skipper – William Macready
Ian – Ian Fleming
Donald – Ernest G. Cove
Angus – J. Hubert Leslie
The Gaelic legends afford
many interesting, not to say thrilling, examples of the weird and mysterious.
This play is founded upon
one of these, and illustrates in an emphatic manner the strong belief in
legends that survives to this day in the more remote parts of our own country.
The action opens in a small
fishing-boat in heavy weather off one of the Islands of the Hebrides.
The crew join in a
traditional shanty while shortening sail because of the storm which is about to
break. In this wild setting Donald, Angus, and Ian discuss the ancient legend
with its curious application to Ian’s family, and during the course of the play
its remarkable fulfilment is shown.
Tuesday 29 March 1927
Cardiff 9.50-10.35
‘The Locked Chest’ a play in
one act (from a tale in the Laxdaelasaga) (John Masefield)
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Thord Goddi (a Farmer) –
Donald Davies
Thorolf (Cousin of Vigdis) –
Ivor Maddox
Ingiald (a Lord) – Sydney
Evans
Vigdis Goddi (Wife od Thord)
– Kate Sawle
Soldiers (adherents of
Ingiald)
This ancient Icelandic
legend tells how Thorolf, pursued by Ingiald, whose brother he has slain in
fair fight, seeks refuge at the house of Thord. In spite of Thord’s treachery,
Vigdis makes such good use of her woman’s wit and a ‘Locked Chest’ that the
adventure terminates in a surprising and unexpected fashion.
The action of the play takes
place in a simply-furnished room in Thord’s house. ‘The Locked Chest’ is large,
and used as a bench. Vigdis is heard singing as she embroiders a cloth.
Wednesday 6 April 1927
Cardiff 8.3-8.32 (mixed)
‘Neighbours’ a comedy in one
act (Herbert J. Brunel Evans)
Played by the Station
Repertory Players
John Jones – J. Eddie Parry
Miriam Jones (His Eife) –
Mary Macdonald Taylor
Richard Jonrd (His Son, in
London) – Herbert J.B. Evans
Olwen Thomas (His Daughter)
– Susie Stevens
But for wireless, John Jones
and Thoma Thomas, his neighbour, would be good friends. Jones is an oscillator
according to Thomas; so is Thomas according to Jones. For some time the uncivil
war has been waged with ever-increasing fierceness.Tonight, however, the
hatchet is unexpectedly buried by Cupid.
When the play commences
Jones is sitting in his kitchen alone with his headphones, before a neglected
fire.
Monday 11 April 1927 Cardiff
8.13-8.25
‘Light and Shade’ (L. du
Garde Peach)
Presented by the Station
Radio Players
Reggie – Sidney Evans
Delia – Flora McDowell
The scene is a room in
complete darkness. In order to appreciate fully the nerve-racking experience of
Reggie and Delia, listeners are advised to switch off all lights until the
conclusion of the play.
Thursday 14 April 1927
Cardiff 7.45-9
Scenes from ‘Hamlet’
Arranged for the microphone
by Donald Davies
Hamlet – Murray Carrington
Polonius – T.G. Bailey
The King – Donald Davies
Horatio – Richard Barron
Laertes – R. Benjamin
1st Grave Digger
– T.G. Bailey
2nd Grave Digger
– Richard Barron
Osric – Gordon McConnel
The Queen – Marion Foreman
Ophelia – Marjorie Woodall
Tuesday 19 April 1927
Cardiff 8.18-9
‘An S.O.S. Announcement’
(Reece Evans)
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Mr. Hampson – Richard Barron
Mrs. Hampson – Nan Porter
Mr. Rutherford – Sidney
Evans
A Maid – Susie Stevens
Mr. And Mrs. Hampson are
sitting by the fire in the drawing-room of their London suburban house,
listening via headphones to the wireless programme. They are of the comfortable
upper middle-class. He is sixty and she is fifty-four. By turning over the
pages of his newspaper, Mr. Hampson is disturbing his wife, who is quietly
darning stockings.
Friday 6 May 1927 Cardiff
9.50-10.10
‘Fully Insured’ (Conrad
Davies)
A Radio Comedy in One Act
Played by the Radio Station
Players
Pinner (a Lady’s Maid) –
Flora McDowell
Paterson (a Butler) – Donald
Davies
The Intruder – Sidney Evans
Lady Bebe Skaynor – Mary
Wyndham
The lounge of a flat in
Mayfair. On the right a French window leads into a terrace garden. To the left,
facing the mind’s eye, a window overlooks the street. Pinner, a perky,
nimble-witted girl with a slight Cockney accent, enters through the hall door,
which is in the back wall. She switches on the electric light. A moment later
Paterson, suave, saturnine and ironic, comes in silently behind her. She jumps
around with a startled exclamation.
Monday 9 May 1927 Cardiff
9.35-11 (mixed)
Echoes from the Greenleaf
Theatre
The Greenleaf Players in
Scenes from ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ (Shakespeare)
Act I, Scene 2. And Act II,
Scene 7
Julia’s Garden at Verona
Julia – Betty Rayner
Lucetta – Joan Rayner
Act IV, Scene 4
The Courtyard of the Duke of
Milan’s Palace
Silvia – Joan Rayner
Julia – Betty Rayner
Monday 16 May 1927 Cardiff
10.16-11
Scenes from ‘School For
Scandal’ (Sheridan)
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Act II, Scene 1
Sir Peter and Lady Teazle
quarrel
Sir Pete Teazle – Richard
Barron
Lady Teazle – Mary Wyndham
Act II, Scene 2
Scandal and Gossip at Lady
Sneerwell’s
Lady Sneerwell – Margaret
Diamond
Mrs. Candour – Nan Porter
Sir Benjamin Backbite –
Donald Davies
Mr. Crabtree- Sydney Evans
Wednesday 18 May 927 Cardiff
7.45-9 (mixed)
‘Woman’s Crowning Glory’ a
comedy in one act (Herbert Swears)
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Mrs. Buxton – Mary Wyndham
Alys Parker – Muriel Cook
Lady Agatha Phildew – Vera
Clarke
Baines (a Parlour Maid) –
Susie Stevens
Capt. J.K.C.P. Betts,
D.S.O., M.C. – Hedley Goodall
‘Sunkiss’, a wonderful hair
dye, plays the leading role. Captain Betts made it, Lady Agatha used it, and
yet when he looked at her hair he thought of the Tuscan Hills – at dawn. A case
of capillary attraction. However, when she found out, and he found out, it
didn’t really matter. Besides, her family motto was ‘Never say dye’.
Scene: The Hall Lounge at
Bangalore, Mrs. Buxton’s cottage near Dorking, on a sunny morning in September.
In the distance, Mrs. Buxton can be heard talking to the gardener.
Monday 23 May 1927 Cardiff
9.25-945
A Play of Modern Life in
four Scenes
Played by the Radio Station
Players
John Marsh (a Pawnbroker) –
Donald Davies
Maisie – Lilian Mills
Trent – Sidney Evans
The Story of a Cat (Maisie)
and a Fiddle.There are many ways of earning a dishonest penny, but honesty is,
after all, the best policy.
Scenes – I. Inside John
Marsh’s shop. II. The same – two hours later. III. The same – three days later.
IV. A room in James Trent’s house, Kensington, W. – one month later.
Maisie, a well-spoken woman
of about thirty-three, with a charming manner, enters carrying a violin case.
Marsh, a genial old man, greets her politely.
Saturday 4 June 1927 Cardiff
8.12-8.24
A Duologue
Played by the Station Radio
Players
(no cast listed)
Saturday 11 June 1927
Cardiff 9.57-10.25
‘This Film Business’ (Edwin
Lewis)
A Farce in One Act
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Sarah Jones (a miner’s wife,
about fifty) – Mary MacDonald Taylor
Hannah Davies (Sarah’s
life-long friend) – Nan Porter
Mary Davies (age twenty-two,
Hannah’s film-struck daughter) – Lillian Mills
Herbert Jones (a practical
young miner, but in love) – John Morgan
Two-Gun Jeb (a filmy friend)
– Donald Davies
Scene: Mrs. Davies’ kitchen
about that time of night when the hero and the heroine on the films are kissing
in their final ‘close-up’, while the audience are searching for mislaid gloves,
hats, and hankerchiefs, and a certain portion is releasing hands at the threat
of sudden lights.
Sarah and Hannah are
discussing the destinies of the young folk, and as every woman is a born
matchmaker, they have been doing what you expect. Sarah is very practical and
knows that the way to make things happen is not to hope so much as to pull the
strings. Just now, like the writer of film melodrama, she is arranging her
scenarios for the entertainment.
Thursday 16 June 1927
Cardiff 10-10.30
‘The Banns of Marriage’
(Charles Lee)
The Rev. Cyril Bestwick –
Richard Barron
Alice, his Maid – Frances
Brown
Alfred Hobb – Osborn Leach
Lizzie Charles – Daisy Cull
A Vicar of a small West
Country parish, living in single blessedness, is busy one evening over his next
sermon dealing with Vashti and the married state, a subject on which we are
assured not even the cleverest bachelor can know anything. To judge by the shrewd sentiments of one of his
parishioners, and the naïve tactics employed by this same Alfred Hobb to steer himself
into the troublous waters of matrimony, ever marriage is a peculiar case, and
only a sound practical-mindedness, coupled with innate human folly, can ever
bring one to pass at all.
The dry logic of this
amusing yokel with the hard-headed philosophy, and the affray between him and
his ‘intended’ – a woman of great determination – provide a rich feast of
native with and clever dialect in which the Rev. Cyril Bestwick joins as an
admirablr third.
The curious situation is
cleared up in a miraculous way by the couple themselves, without the aid of the
go-between Vicar who, indeed, delcares that their wise foolishness is probably
a better guide than his foolish wisdom.
Friday 24 June 1927 Cardiff
7.57-8.45 (mixed)
‘A Test and a Match’ (Isabel
Shaw)
Major Wront – Donald Davies
Professor Palim – Sidney
Evans
Iris – Muriel Cook
Professor Palim and Major
Wront are both in love with Iris, only daughter of Captain Flukins of the
Grange, Crowscombe. On Midsummer’s Eve, Iris announces that she will marry the
one who passes a mysterious test.
Monday 27 June 1927 Cardiff
7.53-8.10
‘Mr. Smith Wakes Up’ (Vivian
Tydmarsh)
A Comedy in One Act
George Smith (the Husband) –
Daniel Roberts
Maria Smith (the Wife) –
Mary MacDonald-Taylor
Lucy Smith (the Daughter) – Flora McDowell
Scene: The Parlour of the
Smiths’ house at Clapham.
8.37-8.50
‘Sweet Repose’ (Edward D.
Dickinson)
A Play in One Act
Scene: The best bedroom of a
somewhat disreputable-looking hotel very much off the beaten track in France.
Jack and Joan, who are sleeping there, find that all sorts of weird things can
happen in such a place on a dark autumn night.
Jack (the Husband) – Sydney
Hope
Joan (his Wife) – Doris M.
Jones
Saturday 9 July 1925 Cardiff
8.30-9 (mixed)
‘A Love Passage’ (W.W.
Jacobs and Philip E. Hubbard)
adapted from the story of
W.W. Jacobs
Jack Hall (First Officer of
s.s. Jessica) – John Morgan
Sam Bross (the Steward) –
L.E. Williams
Captain Alsen (of the s.s.
Jessica) – Donald Davies
Hetty Alsen (his Daughter) –
Lilian Mills
Scene: the Saloon of the
s.s. Jessica (moored in The Pool).
Thursday 14 July 1927
Cardiff 10-10.35
‘Love Magic’ (Martinez
Sierra)
A Comedy in a Prologue and
Two Scenes
Translated by John Garrett
Underhill
The Prologue – Daniel
Roberts
Pierrot – Sidney Evans
Columbine (Pierrot’s Wife) –
Vera Clarke
Pierette (Maid and
Confidante of Columbine) – Muriel Cook
Polichinelle (an Old
Magician) – Hedley Goodall
Harlequin – Michael Hasker
Thursday 21 July 1927
Cardiff 9.20-11
‘As You Like It’
(Shakespeare)
Produced by Arthur Blanch
Duke - Fred Weatherly
Duke Frederick -
Daniel Roberts
Amiens – Sidney Northcote
Jacques – Sidney Northcote
Le Beau – Sidney Evans
Charles – Ivor Maddox
Oliver – Michael Hasker
Orlando – Douglas Burbridge
Adam – T. Hannam-Clarke
Touchstone – Donald Davies
Corin – Richard Morgan
Silvius
- Daniel Roberts
William – Sidney Evans
Person Representing Hymen - Sidney Evans
Rosalind
- Margaret Stuart
Celia - Flora McDowell
Phebe -
Eileen Vaughan
Audrey -
Susie Stevens
(Central panel billing in RT)
Tuesday 26 July 1927 Cardiff
7.30-8.15 (mixed)
‘Cured by Caroline’ (no
author given)
A West Country Play in One
Scene
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Mrs. Pinchin – Mary
MacDonald-Taylor
Mr. Pincin - T.
Hannam-Clarke
Mrs. Skinner – Daisy Cull
Scene: The kitchen at the
Pinchins’.
Mrs. Pinchin is at her wit’s
end! Her husband lies groaning on the bed, and she is quite sure that he,
having tasted of the fruits of idleness during the recent strikes, has been
lured into invalidism by the prospects of a few lazy weeks at home. A neighbour
intervenes, views the sufferer with alarming sympathy, and begins a novel cure,
in the course of which Mr. Pinchin begins to feel that there is no royal road
to a stolen holiday.
Friday 5 August 1927 Cardiff
10-10.30
‘Marged Manages It’ (Conrad
Davies)
A comedy in one act
Marged, a young girl - Lilian Mills
Betsy, her aunt – Nan Porter
John Y Celyn, a young man –
John Morgan
That it is the more homely virtues that most
often win a man’s heart (especially when
he is whrewd and capable of seeing reason) is the theory of Marged, when
John Y Celyn comes one evenin in the Springtme to the Welsh village where she
lives to visit her pretty and luxury-living sister, Mary.
For a very good reason,
Marged, the unnoticed, but clever sister, wishes to test her theory; and it is
by her contrivance, with the unwitting aid of her dear, deaf Aunt Betsy, that
John is sitting alone with her in the parlour of their small farmhouse.
Thursday 11 August 1927
Cardiff 7.30-8
‘Behind the Curtain’
(Phyllis Eadon)
A Comedy in One Act
Played by the Station Radio
Players
The Leading Lady – Eileen
Blunden
The Second lady – Jones M.
Jones
The Stage Manager – Ivor
Maddox
The Call-Boy – Sidney Evans
The Detective – L.E.
Williams
The Dresser – Bronwen Davies
Scene: The stage of a
theatre. The time is half an hour before the evening’s performance.
As unfortunately sometimes
happens, the Leading Lady finds the strain of competing with the charms of the
younger women rather trying and her jealousy is sufficiently apparent to call
forth ungenerous comments at her expense.
When the atmosphere becomes
overcharged with feeling of this sort, an ugly row sometimes ensues; and on the
other side of the curtain one evening, only half an hour before the play is
timed to commence, such a scene is taking place.
When, a few minutes later,
the Leading Lady’s pearls are supposed to be stolen, the owner does not
hesitate to fasten suspicion on her rival.
A detective who is called in
to search, after all the exits have been barred, is unable to trace its
whereabouts.
Monday 15 August 1927
Cardiff 8.6-8.16
‘The Watcher in the Mist’
(A.G. Prys-Jones)
Played by the Station
Repertory Players
Characters:
Dick Swinford
Ronald Langton
The Helper in the Mist
Evans (landlord of the ‘Red
Dragon’)
There is a curious sequel to
the determination of Dick Swinford to write
a poem about Sir Bedivire, after a discussion with his friend Ronald
Langton, on the similarity between rugged Welsh landscape at which are they are
gazing and the last scene described in Tennyson’s ‘Morte D’Arthur’.
Monday 22 August 1927
Cardiff 9.40-10
‘Hannah Dafydd’ (Evelyn
Herbert)
A Play of Welsh Life in One
Act
Played by the Station
Repertory Players
Hannah Dafydd – Mary
MacDonald Taylor
Ianto Powell, Hannah’s
brother – Jacque Thomas
Megan Dafydd, Hannah’s
daughter – Evelyn Herbert
Scene: Hannah’s kitchen
Thursday 25 August 1927
Cardiff 10-10.30
‘Making His Name’ (James
Lansdale Hodson)
A Farce
Archibald Marchmont –
Raymond Glendenning
Alice Vandeer – Flora McDowell
Hiram K. Vandeer – Tom Jones
George – Ivor Maddox
Scene: A room in Archibald’s
flat in London
Friday 2 September 1927
Cardiff 9.35-10.17
‘In Chinese Waters’ (Vivian
Tidmarsh)
A Play in Two Acts
Played by the Station Radio
Players
‘Big Bill’ Jix, a Globe
Trotter – Donald Davies
Phillip MacGregor, Second
Officer – Tom Jones
George Adams, Purser – John
Morgan
Stanley Jones, Wireless
Operator – Sidney Hope
Herbert Barrows, Owners’
Agent – T.G. Bailey
Ah Foo, a Pirate – G.
Lynch-Clark
How to crush the pirate
gangs that hide among the islands round the Chinese coast is the problem
confronting the Consular Service, with their meagre patrol of two destroyers
for every 500 miles of water. Force of arms being out of the question, an
exceptionally cunning plan is needed to defeat the highly-organised,
well-informed pirates, and their terrifying leader, Ah foo. Fortunately, by
means of the deepest secrecy (even the captain of the English vessel is kept in
ignorance), such a plot is concocted, which is designed to outwit and lure to
destruction the Pirate King himself.
Act I. In the Captain’s
Cabin of the s.s. Kwantung
Act II. On the bridge –
twenty-four hours later
Wednesday 7 September 1927
Daventry Experimental 5GB 8-10 (mixed)
‘The Bridge’ (Seton Malcolm)
A Dramatic Episode in One
Act
Adapted from a short story
by Philip O’Farrell
Olga – Elizabeth Young
Ivan – Stuart Vinden
Max, the Postman – W.W.
Allen
The scene is laid at Olga
Werther’s cottage in a forest near Petersdorf, the capital of Valesia, a country
in South-Eastern Europe. Her room is barely furnished, a table with some
electrical apparatus on it being in the centre, while a writing table is under
the window. The room is lit by means of two table lamps, one on each table,
while a fire burns brightly in the open fireplace. Outide, a gale is blowing.
Ivan is discovered fixing wires to large batteries on the floor, and while he
is thus engaged, Olga enters, carrying a cloak and dressing bag.
‘Catherine Parr’ (Maurice
Baring)
A Short Historical Dialogue
Henry VIII – Stuart Vinden
Catherine – Maud Gill
The scene is the breakfast
chamber at the Palace. King Henry and Catherine Parr are sitting opposite to
each other at the table. The King has just cracked a boiled egg.
Tuesday 13 September 1927
Cardiff 10-10.24
‘The Perfect Marriage’
(Leonard White)
A Comedy in One Act
Jack Fanshawe – Daniel
Roberts
Hilary Fanshawe – Margaret
Stuart
(A young married couple)
Scene: The morning room of
the Fanshawes’ cottage in one of the outlying suburbs of London.
Wednesday 14 September 1927
Cardiff 8-9 (mixed)
The ‘Curios’ Concert Party
Presented by Lauri Jaye
Relayed from Llandaff Fields
Pavilion
‘The Big Noise’ (G.
Goodfellow)
The Customer – Lauri Jaye
The Lady – Molly Moore
The Waiter – Hastings Canler
The Big Noise – Frank Avis
Scene: A café
Friday 16 September 1927
Daventry 5GB 8.55-9.15
‘Captain Cook and the Widow’
(Stuart Ready)
A Comedy
Captain Emmanuel Cook (a
retired sailor) – Wortley Allen
Benjamin Spragget (a Grocer)
– Stuart Vinden
John Dutton (a Butcher) –
Tony Calthrop
Emma Dowsett (a Spinster) –
Maud Gill
Matilda Parsons (a Widow) –
Mabel France
The scene is enacted in the
kitchen of Matilda’s cottage at Withingbottom. A large and airy room, with a
door leading to the street, it has a big oval table set ready for tea. A
dresser full of china and cooking utensils stands to the left of the door, with
a saddleback couch standing opposite. The room is clean and tidy and has an air
of homely comfort. The wdiow is busy preparing tea, when Emma Dowsett enters without
being noticed. She coughs, and the widow nearly drops the tea-pot.
Friday 23 September 1927
Cardiff 10.9-10.19
‘Proved’ (Ben R. Gibbs)
A Play in One Scene
Rhys ap Richard – Jacque
Thomas
Gwynneth Richard, his
daughter – Vera Meazey
Mervyn Rhyddereth – Sidney
Evans
When old Rhys ap Richard has
the ancient Grandfather’s clock taken from his house to be sold, we learn that
the activities of a Highwayman are responsible for this sudden uprooting of a
family heirloom.
His daughter Gwynneth is
less concerned with heirlooms than with her father’s prejudice against her
lover, and the said lover independently comes to the conclusion that he must
cut a more manly figure in the old man’s eyes.
Scene: Rhys ap Richard’s old
Welsh house. The time of the action is evening in the winter of the year 1802.
Saturday 24 September 1927
Cardiff 8.32-9
‘No Class’ (no author
listed)
A Comedy in One Act
Syd Collins – T.
Hannam-Clark
Mabel, his wife – Flora
McDowell
Mrs. Thompson, the landlady
– Nan Porter
Ada, the maid – Daisy Cull
The seaside apartments at
which Syd Collins and his bride had arranged to spend their honeymoon were
found, upon acquaintance, to be entirely unsuitable in their dinginess and
cheerlessness for the gay time that they had planned.
Scene: The parlour at Mrs.
Thompson’s apartments, on the South-East coast.
Monday 26 September 1927
Daventry 5GB 8-9 (mixed)
A Charles Dickens Concert
‘’Bardell’ v. ‘Pickwick’’
(Adapted from the ‘Pickwick
Papers’)
Mr. Justice Stareleigh –
Wortley Allen
Mr. Serjeant Buzfuz – Stuart
Vinden
Mr. Sergeant Snubbins – Tony
Calthrop
Samuel Pickwick, Esq. – Jack Hargreaves
Nathaniel Winkle, Esq. –
W.J. Hughes
Mr. Weller, Senr. – Wortley
Allen
Mr. Weller, Jnr. – Tony
Calthrop
Mrs. Elizabeth Cluppins –
Gladys Joiner
Foreman of the Jury – Jack
Hargreaves
Crier – W.J. Hughes
The Scene is the Court of
Common Pleas. There is the seat for the judge, table and chairs, witness box
and jury box, with foreman and jury assembled, and the usual gathering of
Counsel, reporters, attorneys, etc. Mr. Justice Stareleigh, attended by the
Crier, enters.
9.15-10 (mixed)
‘‘Courtship – Ancient and
Modern’’ (Fanny Morris-Wood)
A Duologue
Henry – Stuart Vinden
Deborah – Ethel malpas
SceneI. The Year 1814
Scene II. The Present Day
Tuesday 27 September 1927
Cardiff 10.5-10.30
* ‘The Ghost Ship’ (H.E.W.
Gay)
A Play in One Act, specially
written for broadcasting
Casting by H.E.W. Gray
Performed by the Station
Radio Players
The action takes place on
board a square rigged sailing ship six days out of San Francisco, on a quiet
moonlight night. The sailing ship is real enough, but just at this spot some
years ago six days out of ‘Frisco a sailing ship was rammed by a tramp steamer.
‘She sat the water like a
bird and she sailed like a witch’, was her captain’s description of ‘Star of
the Sea’. And the ex-captain, crazed by his loss is on this sailing ship
watching, watching.
A Young Deck Hand of the
sailing ship – Sidney Evans
Jim, an oldish seaman –
Gilbert Heron
The Mate of the sailing ship
– Donald Davies
Old Man Payne – G. Lynch
Clark
Captain of the sailing ship
– Tom Jones
Captain of the tramp steamer
– Ivor Maddox
Several Seamen
Monday 3 October 1927
Cardiff 7.45-9 (mixed)
A Bristol Programme
‘A Minuet’ (Louis N. Parker)
The Marquis – George H.
Holloway
The Marchioness – Dorothy
Holloway
The Gaoler – Michael Hasker
A room in the prison of the
Conciergerie. On the walls there are caricatures of the King and a picture of
the gullotine; at a table sits a Marquis reading Voltaire. While he awaits the
summons to execution he recalls his loves and congratulates himself that the
Marchioness is of so fine a breed that she will take his death without
displaying her emotions.
Time: During ‘The Terror’
Tuesday 4 October 1927
Cardiff 8.15-8.40
‘A Mug of Murk’ (C.H. Brewer)
A Revue of Musical Comedy
Robert Transom – Harold
Kimberley
Sylvia Thorburn – Olive
Groves
Policeman – L.E. Williams
Alf. Huggins – C.H. Brewer
The Station Revue Orchestra
Directed by Leonard Busfield
The scene is a coffee stall
‘Up West’. Time, one o’clock in the morning, and typical London weather – fog
overhead, wet under foot. Alf. Huggins is busy washing up.
There appears out of the
pea-soup a fair vision – Sylvia Thorburn – who has lost her way in the fog on
the way home from a dance. In spite of the weather conditions, she affirms
‘Light is my heart as a
feather’ (‘The Arcadians’) ….. Talbet
and takes a strong stand
against Alf’s somewhat jaundiced views of married life. She remarks
‘Who shall say that love is
cruel?’ (‘Merrie England’) …. German
and after a cup of coffee,
is set in the right direction by the policeman ‘on the corner’.
Another wanderer appears in
the shape of Robert Transom, returning from the same dance as Sylvia.
In Alf. Huggins he discovers
an old war-time acquaintance, and they compare the merits of the rum ration and
‘Clicquot’ (‘Carminetta’) ….
Darewski
Robert discovers that Sylvia
has called at the stall and behold, Sylvia has failed to reach her destination
and finds herself back in the friendly glare of Alf’s stall lamps.
In jesting vein, she and
Robert put each other through an
‘Inspection’ (‘The Dollar
Princess’) … Fall
and then discover that
nobody else matters. For them the pinnacle of life has been reached, and now
they stand
‘On the Summit of the Hill’
(‘The Rebel Maid’) … Phillips
Wednesday 4 October 1927
London and Daventry 5XX 7.45-9 (mixed)
A Welsh Harvest Programme
(Daventry only)
S.B. from Cardiff
‘The Harvest Mare’ (Megfam)
pr Megfam
Thomas Williams (the Farmer)
– T. Idris Davies
Martha (his Wife) – Irene
Roberts
Angharad (their Daughter) –
C. Thomas
Marged (Farm Servant) – Bec
Russell
Gwenno (Farm Servant) – G.
Jones
Mari Penlan (Village Gossip)
– Megfam
Dair Teiliwr (a Village
Worthy) – Roy Howells
Dafi (Farm Labourer) – D.
Jones
Neighbours, Workman and
their Wives
The Hendre Farm is the home
of Thomas Williams and his family, and the celebration takes place at the end
of the Corn Harvest.
[Songs in the play listed]
Thursday 6 October 1927
Cardiff 10-10.30
‘A Change of Spirit’ (E.A.
Bryan)
A Radio Comedy in One Scene
Arthur Robbins, a Solicitor
– Donald Davies
Bob, an ex-Pugilist – Jacque
Thomas
Dr. Riley – Richard Barron
The Referee – Sidney Hope
Monday 10 October 1927
Cardiff 8.15-8.45
‘Tony’s Stratagem’ (Edwin
Lewis)
A comedy in one act
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Tony Mortlake (a Beau) –
Donald Davies
Mine Host of the Grouse and
Crown – Jacque Thomas
Tom Duck (a Rustic) – Victor
Fawkes
Dick Savoury (a Rustic) –
Osborn leach
Sir Charles Catchpole –
Richard Barron
Lady Lucy Higgary – Francis
Brown
Scene: The dining-room of
the Grouse and Crown Inn, on the North Road, in the 18th century.
Tony Mortlake, an
eighteenth-century gallant, has dined well in the Inn of the Grouse and Crown.
He is waiting impatiently for the coming of the Lady Lucy, who is due to arrive
with her unsuspecting guardian. Tony proposes to elope with her, but the
guardian, Sir Charles Catchpole, has designs on her fortune and is taking her
to Lady Twizzle’s to see if a month under her care will cure her of her
infatuation for Tony. Tony rings for the landlord to give him instructions.
Monday 17 October 1927
Cardiff 7.55-8.10
A Fool and His Money’
(Laurence Housman)
A Wayside Comedy
Tim – G. Lynch Clark
Tony – Daniel Roberts
The Fool – Donald Calthrop
The time between sunset and
dark when a lonely road is crossed by shadows and dim moving things, and
travellers hasten to the friendliness of the nearest village. This road has
high banks, above which stand great trees with gnarled and twisted roots. On a
fallen tree-trunk sits Tim, an old tramp, smoking rather dejectedly. He starts
up at the sound of a low whistle and awaits his pal Tony, who comes limping
hurriedly towards him. Tony is younger and stronger than Tim, but both are in
their setting on the hih bank between the great trees whose shadows cross the
lonely road.
Monday 24 October 1927
Cardiff 10.30-11
‘A Disturber of Traffic’
(Herbert Swears)
A Play in Three Acts
Adapted for the microphone
Betty Daventry (an Actress:
in private life, Mrs. Hugh Warrington) – Ann Strange
Mrs. Amyot (famous under the
stage name of Miss Phillipa Glyn) – Eileen Blunden
Lady Maltravers – Dorothy
holloway
Rayner (a Parlourmaid) –
Hope Kerr
Ellen (a Housemaid) – Vera
Shipton
Hugh Warrington (a Novelist
and Dramatist) – George Holloway
Lester Warwick (Lessee and
Manager of the Mirror Theatre) – Richard Barron
Mr. Cambus (of the ‘Daily
Record’) – Ifan Kyrle-Fletcher
Peter Garth (a Journalist
and Dramatist) – T. Hannam-Clark
Mrs. High Warrington, better
known as Betty Daventry, is an actress who is popular with interviewers and an
uncritical public, but she becomes dissatisfied with her limitations and longs
to be a great artist. Can she rise to it? Her husband, novelist and dramatist,
does not honestly think she can, but the ‘disturber of traffic’, by bringing
the first shadow of domestic discord into Betty’s life gives her – unwittingly
– the experience she needs.
Act I. – The Warringtons’
house in South Kensington. A July morning.
Act II. – The Warringtons’
cottage at Goring-on-Thames. August
Act III. – The Warringtons’
house in South Kensington. September, on the day after the first night of ‘The
Deathless King’.
Monday 31 October 1927
Cardiff 7.45-9 (mixed)
All Hallow E’en
‘Ghoulies and Ghosties’ [no
author listed]
A Fantasy in one scene
Geoffrey – Vera Shipton
Sandy – G. Lynch Clarke
Father – Daniel Roberts
Mrs. Urquhart – Susie
Stevens
The Mother – Marion Foreman
Scene: A well-built stone
house standing a little off a lonely road in the Highlands. It is a windy night
and the river is rising. The wind blows down the valley from the Grampians. The
house is obviously a shoot-box, but it is deserted, save for a caretaker. Two
young men come to the door at 9 p.m. They knock. Mrs. Urquhart comes to the
door.
Wednesday 2 November 1927
Cardiff 9.35-10.15 (mixed)
‘A Breath of Fresh Air’
(Reece Evans)
A Play in One Act
Mr. T. Rutherford – George
H. Holloway
Mrs. T. Rutherord – Dorothy
Holloway
Mr. Teddie Watson – Holman
Allwood
Scene: The drawing-room of
the Rutherfords’ flat. It is a charming room, simply decorated and able to make
golf-clubs as much at home as vases of flowers. It is early on a winter’s
evening, and Mrs. Rutherford is just returning home accompanied by her
dance-partner, a young man of twenty-six, four years her junior.
Monday 7 November 1927
Cardiff 9.35-11
‘Ricochets’ (C.H. Brewer)
A War-Time Cameo written and
produced by C.H. Brewer
Jack, an ex-signal sergeant
– Ivor Maddox
Mary, his wife – Elsie Eaves
The Voice – Tom Jones
Nobby Clarke – Donald Davies
Buster Brown – W. Edward Sudlow
A Staff Officer – Sidney
Evans
The General – E. Haddon Dunn
The Singers: Grace Daniel
(Soprano) and John Rorke (Baritone)
An Officer, a Sentry, a
Battalion runner and a Sergeant
The Station Orchestra,
conducted by Warwick Braithwaite
Tuesday 8 November 1927
Cardiff 10.10-10.28
‘The Howling Silence’
(Mannin Crane)
An Original Radio Play in
One Act
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Captain Scott – Murray
Carrington
First Mate, Mr. Barker – Tom
Jones
Second Mate, Mr. Cummings –
Daniel Roberts
Helmsman, The Quartermaster
– T. Hannam Clark
Several of the Crew
The small navigating bridge
of a tramp steamer which is barely making headway against a howling hurricane
in the North Pacific Ocean. Pitch black night. The Captain is anxiously waiting
the completion of the crew’s work on the foredeck below. It is very cold.
Enormous seas are rolling up, some od which crash across the almost helpless
vessel.
A tiny reflection of light
from the compass binnacle shows up on the glistening oilskins of the
Quartermaster at the wheel in the centre of the bridge.
It is half past ten on the
night of November 1, which corresponds to 10.50 a.m. in London the same day.
The Captain, who has not
left the bridge for three days, speaks first.
Monday 21 November 1927
Cardiff 9.35-10. 15 (mixed)
‘The Artist’ duologue (A.A.
Milne)
He – Hedley Goodall
She – Vera Clarke
Scene: The Hall of a Country
Cottage
10.15-10.40
‘Mr Samson’ A West Country
Play in one act (Charles Lee)
Played by the Radio Station
Players
Catherine Stevens – Daisy Cull
Caroline Stevens – Nan
Porter
(two Maiden Sisters)
Mr Sampson, their Tenant
next door – T. Hannam Clark
Scene: The kitchen of a
cottage on a moorland road in the West Country.
Catherine and Caroline
Stevens are two maiden ladies of forty or thereabouts. Caroline is gentle and
soft, Catherine vivacious and active. They live alone in their paradise of a
West Country cottage, but a bachelor,
unaware that he is cast for the role of serpent, comes on the scene as tenant
of the cottage next door. The cottage is owned by the ladies, and they cook for
him, mend his socks, and pass the time of day until the inevitable gossip
starts. Mr. Sampson expresses his own difficulty in the situation by wishing he’d been born a heathen Turk.
Thursday 1 December 1927 Cardiff
7.48-8.50
‘The Madness of Mr.
Mingleby’ (Yate Tregarron)
A play in one act
Sir Horace Belgrove – Donald
Davies
Mr. Mingleby, M.A. (his
Secretary) – Daniel Roberts
Sybil Belgrove – Flore
McDowell
Tony Lessing – Sidney Evans
Scene: Sir Horace Belgrove’s
Study
Although Sir Horace Belgrove
has an aitch in his Christian name, he has always been uncertain of his
aspirates, and Mr. Mingleby, an unsuccessful Oxford man, helped him to make
famous speeches in the House of Commons by teaching him word by word. Sir
Horace is as ambitious for his daughter, Sybil, as for himself, and he intends
to marry her to nothing less than a Coronet, but Tony Lessing complicates
matters by loving and by being beloved by Sybil. The unsuccessful Mr. Mingleby
also loves her, but knowing that his suit is hopeless, he resolves to make his
employer behave handsomely.
Monday 5 December 1927
Cardiff 8.20-9
A Tragedy in Two Lives by an Undertaker
Sir Lester Lounge, MP – Tom
Jones
Lady Cynthia Lounge – Vera
Ashe
Count Bodega – Donald Davies
Detective Keating – Ivor
Maddon
Professor Crotchet – Sidney
Evans
Reggie Bellastairs (compere)
– Sidney Evans
Lady Cynthia Lounge is in
the melodramatic situation of being in the power of a wicked Count who threatens
to tell her husband about a moonlit night in Oporto.
To avert this, Lady Cynthia
consents to return to him a signet ring shaped like a serpent which originally
belonged to his brother. ‘Give me that ring, woman’, snarls the Count, ‘or, by
Heaven, I’ll expose you’.
In the subsequent fate of
the Count, of Lady Cynthia’s husband, and of Lady Cynthia herself, Inspector
Keating, later degraded to the ranks, plays no small part.
The play opens in Lady
Cynthia’s Blue Boudoir.
Tuesday 13 December 1927
Cardiff 8.15-9
A Radio Play in one act
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Tim – Daniel Roberts
Joe – Gilbert Heron
A Police Sergeant – Tom
Jones
The club Secretary – G.
Lynch Clarke
There are twenty minutes to
play in the Association Cup Match between Blackington City and Trowtown Rovers.
The City as scored once, and the crowd of 60,000 has been worked up to a
tremendous pitch of excitement.
Tom and joe, professional
cracksmen, but also football enthusiasts, are amongst the spectators in the
enclosure in front of the Grand Stand.
Monday 19 December 1927
Cardiff 8.15-8.29
Christmas Comedy
‘The Catch’ [(no author
listed)]
A Radio Play in One Scene
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Jim – Murray Carrington
Margery – Mary Wyndham
Dinah (a flapper) – Muriel
Morgan
Jim and Margery hide
together in a cupboard in the attic of a country house during an old festive
game of hide-and-seek.
8.34-9
‘Moonshine’ (Laurence
Housman)
A Play in One Act
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Pierrot – Sidney Evans
Santa Claus – Tom Jones
An Old Man – G. Lynch-Clarke
A Policeman – L.E. Williams
(more)
9.35-11
Yuletide Revels in Bath
Relayed from the Little
Theatre, Citizen House, Bath
Played by the Citizen House
Players
[Full cast and information
listed]
Thursday 29 December 1927
Cardiff 10.7-10.35 (mixed)
‘The Fatal Mistake’ (William
Donaldson Smith)
Performed by the Station
Radio Players
James Anderson, the owner of
the House – Murray Carrington
Mrs. Anderson, his Wife –
Mary Macdonald Taylor
Reginald Denton, suspect –
Ivor Maddox
John Webster, suspect – Tom
Jones
James Anderson is roused
from his sleep by his wife, who has heard sounds. “ Wake up”, she cries. “The
are burglars downstairs”. Mr. Anderson, armed with a pistol, goes downstairs,
turns on the light of the dining-room and discovers two men who are apparently
fighting together. Each man in turn declares that the other man is the burglar
and that he came on the scene to aid the household. There is no proof. Mr.
Anderson decides to detain both until the police come, but this takes some
time, as the village is two miles away. Finally, Mrs. Anderson hits upon a
plan.
Scene: A Country House, two
miles from the nearest village.