1927
Monday 3 January 1927
Manchester 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.
Wednesday 12 January 1927
Manchester and Daventry 9.15-11
Relayed to Daventry
Lancashire Play Series III
‘Independent Means’ (Stanley
Houghton)
A Play in Four Acts
Jane Gregory – Mary Eastwood
Mrs. Forsyth – Lucia Rogers
John Craven Forsyth – E.H.
Bridgstock
Edgar Forsyth – W.E. Dickman
Sidney Forsyth – Hylda
Metcalf
Samuel Ritchie – D.E.
Ormerod
Time: The Present
Booklets, price 2d.,
containing the story of the Play, can be obtained from Wireless Dealers, or by
application to the Manchester Station. (Envelopes should be marked ‘Booklet’.)
Wednesday 19 January 1927
Manchester 7.45-8.45 (mixed)
Music and Plays
[Two plays]
‘Playing with Fire’ (J.P.M.
Lockwood and G.R. Estill)
An event in Little
Hogsmyrtle
Councillor William Blower –
E.H. Bridgstock
Councillor Higson – Charles
Nesbitt
Councillor Joshua Scrimp –
W.E. Dickman
Councillor Mark Srillwater –
Leo Channing
Martha Jolly – Mary Eastwood
Miss Rebecca Wibble – Lucia
Rogers
Scene 1 is laid in the
garden of the Bull Inn, and we hear a discussion between William Blowers, a
properous farmer and local ‘know-all’, and Joshua Scrimp, who combines the
duties of market gardener and insurance agent in the village.
In Scene 2 we are introduced
to the Council Chamberm where a heated discussion is in progress regarding the
fire-engine.
‘The Rest House’ (Andrew
Harding)
A Satire in One Act
Professor Brottlebury – E.H.
Bridgstock
Henry Dale – W.E. Dickman
Mary Dale – Hylda Dickman
Keeper of the Rest House –
E.H. Bridgstock
The scene is laid in the
drawing-room of Henry Dale’s house, the strains of Dance Music may be heard
from next door.
Friday 21 January 1927 Manchester 8-8.21
‘Landing the Shark’ (Vivian Tidmarsh)
Played by the London Radio Repertory Players
Gerald Graystone – Henry Oscar
Mary South - Barbara Couper
Thomas Bevan - Reginald Dance
In his office in the City, fitted with the usual
safe, telephone, desks and files, Gerald Graystone sits writing.
Friday 24 April 1925 Manchester 7.40-10.15
“2ZY” Dramatic Company
‘The Chinese Puzzle’ four acts (Marian Bower and
Leon M. Lion)
characters:
Naomi Melsham
Mrs. Melsham
Victoria Cresswell
Aimee de Villeseptier
Lady de la Haye
Paul Marketel (an international financier)
Sir Roger de la Haye
Armand de le Rochecorbon
Hon. William Hirst
Sir Aylmer Brent of the Foreign Office
Littleport (butler)
Dr. Fu Yang (secretary)
(first performance Washington 24 June 1918)
Saturday 5 February 1927
Manchester 7.45-9
Two Short Comedies
With orchestral interludes
by The Station Orchestra
‘The Sacred Cat’ (F.
Sladen-Smith)
A Satire in One Act
A Maiden – Ella Forsyth
A Youth – W.E. Dickman
A Priest – E.H. Bridgstock
A Cat – Charles Nesbitt
In this short play we take
you to Upper Egypt in the days of the 20th Dynasty. The gods of
Thebes are still worshipped as they have been for many previous centuries, and
we would ask you to imagine yourself a spectator of a procession wending its
way through the avenue of mighty statues that stretches northwards to the main
temple of Thebes, surrounded by the tombs of the Kings of the 18th
Dynasty. In its wake follows a young maiden carrying a large wicker basket
inscribed with hieroglyphs, and from the opposite direction a youth approaches.
As they meet, a large bracelet drops from the maiden’s arms and the youth
stoops down and restores it to its owner.
‘The Truer Psychologist’
(G.E. Lewis)
A New Lancashire Comedy
Sarah Brown – Mary Eastwood
Herbert Brown – Charles
Nesbitt
William Brown – E.H.
Bridgstock
Jim Blenkinsop – D.E.
Ormerod
Polly Blenkinsop – Ella
Forsyth
The action takes place in
the Browns’s kitchen about 7.30 p.m.
Wednesday 9 February 1927
Manchester 7.45-8.10
* '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 –
Doo [Dodd] Mehan
First Elder - Herbert Lugg
Second Elder - Frank Denton
Capt. Standish - Henry Oscar
(Andrew Churchman)
Menzies (First Mate) -
Reginald Dance
Fyfe (Chief Engineer) -
Ernest Cove
Third Mate - Dino Galvani
(Fred Vigay)
Wireless Operator - Lawrence
Gowdy
Helmsman - Fred Vigay (Dino
Galvani)
Sailor - Roger Maxwell
The essential action of this
play takes place in Frank Shaw’s favorite setting - the sea – but in an interesting manner he shows how the medium of
wireless may provide incidents which in another age would have seemed almost
supernatural.
The Scene opens in the
Albert Hall at the close of a religious gathering but in a flash the listener
is transported to the deck of a vessel battling with storm off Ushant Lights.
In the fight for life which
follows, the Ship’s company have the audible encouragement of prayer and
wellwishing from their fellowmen on land and that which in other days might
have been a vision becomes by modern science an actual fact.
(Script)
The Play opens in an
anteroom at the Albert Hall where a few sailors and the Rev. Standish are
speaking about (speak of) the congregation which he is about to address in the
adjoining hall. The service is little more than started before it fades away
and we find ourselves (Shortly after the service commences the action moves to
the s.s. Adalbert) at sea in the Bay of Biscay, on the deck of the s.s.
"Adalbert".
Saturday 12 February 1927
London and Manchester 7.45-8.45
‘Heterodyned History of
Historical Events As They Might Have Been’ a broadcast revue (L. du G. of
Punch) [Revue]
In this Novel Revue the
Professor of History As It Might Have Been, arguing that historians never agree
as to how anything happened or whether it actually happened at all, takes the
liberty of building up new versions of important episodes in our history. The
instances dealt with in the revue cover what may have happened in such notable
incidents as the following:
1.
Caesar’s
attempt to Land in Britain
2.
King
Alfred and the Cakes
3.
Edgar
and the Danes
4.
King
Canute on the Seashore
5.
Henry
VIII’s Excursions into Matrimony
6.
The
Writing of Shakespeare’s Plays
The Cast will include:
Lilian Harrison, Joyce Tremayne,
Mortlake Wren, Tommy Handley, Andrew Churchman, Laurence Ireland, William
Macready
Tuesday 15 February 1927
Manchester 9.35-10.30
Two Short Comedies
‘Whitemail’ (Robert H. Blackmore)
A One Act comedy
Andrew Carrol – E.H.
Bridgstock
Elsie Carrol – Ella Forsyth
Agnes – Emily Gavington
James H. Bennett – Tom
Wilson
‘This Film Business’ (Edwin
Lewis)
A Farce in One Act
Performed by the Station
Repertory Players
Sarah Brown (a miner’s wife,
about fifty) – Mary Eastwood
Hannah Entwhistle (Sarah’s
life-long friend) – Lucia Rogers
Mary Entwhistle (age
twenty-two, Hannah’s film-struck daughter) – Hylda Metcalf
Herbert Brown (a practical
young miner, but in love) – Charles Nesbitt
Two-Gun Jeb (a filmy friend)
– A.G. Mitcheson
Imagine yourseld in 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.
Monday 28 February 1927
Manchester 9.30-11
‘The Duke of Killicrankie’
(Robert Marshall)
A Farcical Romance in Three
Acts
Performed by the Station
Repertory Players
Ian Douglas MacCayne – W.E.
Dickman
Mr. Henry Pitt-Welby – E.H.
Bridgstock
Mr. Ambrose Hicks – D.E.
Ormerod
Alexander Macbayne – Victor
Smythe
Butler – Charles Nesbitt
The Countess of Pangbourne –
Mary Eastwood
The Lady Henrietta Addison –
Hylda Metcalf
Mrs. Mulholland – Lucia
Rogers
Mrs. Macbayne – Jane
Mackintosh
(Booklets price 2d. per
copy, containing the story of the play, and photographs of its principal
characters, may be obtained from the Manchester Station, or from Wireless
Dealers in the Manchester area.)
Friday 4 March 1927
Manchester 9.15-11
‘A Tale of the Hebrides’
(D.G. Couzens)
Specially written for
broadcasting
The Skipper – William
Macready
Ian – Ian Fleming
Donald – Ernest G. Cove
Angus – J. Hubert Leslie
Thursday 24 March 1927
Manchester 8-8.30
‘For France’ an episode of
the Franco-Prussian War (John Oswald Francis)
Henri Loujanne (An Old
Frenchman) – Herbert Ross
Marie (His Wife) – Eileen
Munro
Louis (Loujanne’s Nephew) –
Arthur Blanch
Helene (Louis’ Sweetheart) –
Shirland Quin
Belper (A Prussian Sergeant)
– George Ide
The poignant sorrows which
assail the civil population of a country which is involved in a great war are
vividly illustrated by this play, founded upon an incident of the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1.
Friday 8 April 1927
Manchester 9.35-11
‘Officer 666’ A Melodramatic
Play in Three Acts (Augustin MacHugh)
(no actors listed)
The play was produced at the
Gaiety Theatre, New York, on january 28, 1912, and had a most successful run.
Thursday 14 April 1927
Manchester 7.45-9
‘Whose Door?’ A Chinese
Question (Robert H. Blackmore)
a play in one act
John Martel (Managing
Director of Martel Ltd.) – D.E. Ormerod
Stephen Crowe (General
manager) – W.E. Dickman
William Broadhead (A
Director) – B. Cavanagh
James Dimple (Another
Director) - E.H. Bridgstock
Soo Chang (A Chinaman) –
Victor Smythe
A question is raised at a
meeting of directors in the board-room of Martel, Ltd. The answer is given in
the same room – in rather different circumstances.
Wednesday 20 April 1927
Manchester 8-8.25
A Comedy
(P.K. Chamberlain)
Weatherby – John Charlton
McGregor – J. Hubert leslie
A Boy – Fred Peisley
A Client – Percy Rhodes
A Man – Duncan McCrae
A girl – Phyllis Panting
Connie – Hilda Davies
In the setting of a modern
business office with its usual appurtenances, including a somewhat conspicuous
clock, a mild complication is played to an amusing finish.
The diplomacy which involves
Guy Weatherby, Jim McGregor, a girl and a man up to the moment of humorous
climax will provide listeners with a good thirty minute chuckle.
Friday 29 April 1927
Manchester 7.25-8
‘The Burglar’ a comedy in
one act (Margaret Cameron)
Mrs. Valerie Armsby (a young
widow)
Mrs. Freda Dixon
Mrs. Mabel Dover (a young
bride)
Miss Edith Brent
Mrs. John Burton (hostess)
The story takes place at
that period of the evening when the shadows cast by the flickering fire play
strange tricks on the imagination. The four young ladies, who are spending a
brief holiday at Mrs. Burton’s seaside bungalow, indulge, with humorous
results, in a heated discussion about a recent burglary. The vague details of
this burglary have, without any apparent reason, grown to alarming proportions.
The cast includes:
Marion Thwaite-Matthews,
Lucia Rogers, Hylda Metcalf, Ella Forsyth and Enid Tordoff
Wednesday 4 May 1927
Daventry 5XX and Manchester 7.45-9
‘Midsummer Madness’
(Clifford Bax)
A Play
Set to music by Armstrong
Gibbs
Pantaloon – Frank Ranalow
(baritone)
(in his original part)
Harlequin – Sydney Northcote
(tenor)
Mrs. Pascall (a Widow aged
32) – Margaret Cochran (soprano)
Columbine (Maidservant at
the Blithe Heart) – Marjorie Dixon (contralto)
(in her original part)
The Augmented Station
Orchestra
Conducted by T.H. Morrison
The play is written by
Clifford Bax, one of our younger playwrights, who has written, in addition to
several small plays, more than one libretto, including the modern version of
‘The Beggar’s Opera’.
S.B. from Manchester
Tuesday 10 May 1927
Manchester 8.5-9 (mixed)
‘On Guard’ (Robert H.
Blackmore)
A new Radio Comedy
Jessie Cromford (a farmer’s
wife)
Mrs. Cromford (her
mother-in-law)
A Man
The action takes place at
Cromford Farm, an old-fashioned Lancashire homestead, surrounded by miles of
moorland. It is a cold winter’s night, and as the play opens, old Mrs. Cromford
is adding more fuel to the living-room fire. Jessie, her daughter, is preparing
to leave the house.
The Cast includes:
Mary Eastwood
Hylda Metcalf
Harold Cluff
Monday 16 May 1927
Manchester 7.45-8.40
Two Plays by Edwin Lewis
Edwin Lewis is a
Yorkshireman by birth. At an early age he sold newspapers in a big industrial
town, and for three years he worked, outside school hours, as a lather-boy. At
the age of fourteen, he worked in a coal mine, and he has since slung bricks,
melted steel, written poetry, served as a soldier during the war and generally
had an exceedingly varied career. He believes that there is a great future in
the new medium of broadcast drama and is devoting much attention to the
technique required for this special form of play.
‘The Reed in the Wood’
(Edwin Lewis)
A new Romany Romance
specially written for Broadcasting
Characters:
Cathleen Carnetti
Seth Carnetti
Naomi Laplaux
Simon Robins
Mad Martin
Under the shelter of the trees,
in a woodland glade, on a later midsummer’s night, two tents are pitched. In
the foreground a log fire burns fitfully in the light breeze.
The still form of Cathleen
Carnetti, who is sitting before the fire, completes a picture of romantic
beauty. Her face is of the colour of ripe maple, with a hardness round the
mouth that suggests its own story of wandering, fighting and struggling. She
draws a gleaming knife from her waistband, and staring fixedly before her,
speaks.
The Cast includes:
Hylda Metcalfe
Ella Forsyth
D.E. Ormerod
Frank Nicholls
E.H. Bridgstock
‘Managing Margaret’ (Edwin Lewis)
A Comedy
Sarah Brown (a North Country
Miner’s Wife)
Margaret Spikesley (Her
Unmarried Sister)
Bill Brown (Her husband)
Herbert Brown (Her Son)
Sarah is intent on her
sewing. The patch she is weaving into Herbert’s second pit trousers claims her
undivided attention, so that to her, Margaret’s monotonous, affected voice
seems a long way off.
Margaret, bobbed and
bedecked in a georgette afternoon frock, is reading out loud from the latest
fashionable novel.
The Cast includes:
Mary Eastwood
Lucia Rogers
Charles Nesbitt
E.H. Bridgstock
Tuesday 24 May 1927
Manchester 7.45-9 (mixed)
An Empire Day Concert
‘Gentlemen, The King!’
(Campbell Todd)
(First broadcast from Manchester,
August 4, 1923)
Lieut.-Col. Charles
Ainsworth, D.S.O.
Lieut.-Quartermaster James
O’Grady
Captain Arthur Lloyd
Sergeant Patrick Flynn
2nd Lieut. Harry
Redmond
The scene is the Officers’
Mess room, Blankfield Barracks, Yorkshire, on an evening in December, 1901.
Dinner has just concluded, and the Officers are talking and smoking. The walls
of the room are decorated with pictures of events that have helped to build the
British Empire, and just behind the Colonel, who is seated in the centre of the
long mess-table, are the regimental Colours, crossed and eased. The Regimental
Band is playing in the Barrack Square.
Cast includes:
E.H. Bridgstock
D.E. Ormerod
Harold Cluff
W.E. Dickman
Charles Nesbitt
Harry Gascoigne
Wednesday 25 May 1927
Manchester 8-8.30
A New Radio Comedy in Two
Scenes
Arthur Robbins (a Young
Solicitor)
Bob (an ex-Pugilist)
Dr. Riley
The Referee
Arthur Robbins, returning
home after witnessing a performance of the Opera ‘Tannhauser’, settled himself
comfortable before the fire and fell asleep. Awakened at 4 a.m. by loud
knocking on the wall and the shouts of his next-door neighbour, he discovered
to his surprise that he was sitting before the piano.
Travelling up to town the
next morning on the 8.40, he encountered his neighbour, who angrily demanded an
explanation why he had chosen to play and sing excerpts from ‘Tannhauser’ from
1 a.m. until4.0.
Arthur, never having sung or
played a note of music in his life, was not a little surprised at the accusations
which were hurled at him. All this happened some weeks before the events
portrayed in tonight’s play.
The Scene is the
dressing-room of a third-rate boxing saloon, where Arthur Robbins and Bob are
discussing a forthcoming fight, in which Arthur is one of the contestants.
Cast includes:
Harold Cluff
A.G. Mitchenson
E.H. Bridgstock
Chas. Nesbitt
Tuesday 31 May 1927
Manchester 9.40-11
A Topical Musical Play
Book by Roger de Wesselow
Lyrics by Roger de Wesselow
and John Piper
Music by Cecil Hooker
Arranged for Broadcasting by
Victor Smythe
(no cast listed)
Monday 13 June 1927
Manchester 9.35-11 (mixed)
Summer Scenes From
Shakespeare
Portrayed by
Lucia Rogers
Hylda Metcalfe
T.G. Bailey
Robert Donat
John Citreon
Harold Cluff
D.E. Ormerod
Act III, Scene 3 (The Basket
Scene)
‘As You Like It’
Act IV, Scene 1
Act II, Scene 3
Saturday 25 June 1927
Manchester 9.35-10.30
‘A Country Cottage’ (Claude
Arundale)
A New Play
Introducing the Song Cycle
of the same name by Claude Arundale
Characters:
Joan
Betty
The Voice of Mystery
Portrayed by
Hylda Metcalfe
Ella Forsyth
Klinton Shepherd
Incidental Music played by
the Station Quartet
Wednesday 29 June 1927
Manchester 9.40-11 (mixed)
Studio Concert and a Play
‘Eclipse’ (J.L. Hodson)
A Topical Sketch in Three
Episodes: Before – During – After
Introducing an Original
Song, ‘Spindrift’
Music by Eric Fogg
Characters:
Peter Woolstonecroft
(Retired Cotton manufacturer)
Monty (His Son)
Violet Mason
Mrs. Mottram (Violet’s aunt)
The Cast includes:
Hylda Metcalfe
Mary Eastwood
W.E. Dickman
E.H. Bridgstock
[no actors listed]
Thursday 7 July 1927
Manchester 9.35-10
‘School For Scandal’
(Richard Brinsley Sheridan)
Joseph Surface – Harold
Cluff
Servant – Leo Channing
Lady Teazle – Hylda Metcalf
Sir Peter Teazle – T.G.
Bailey
Charles Surface – John
Vitreon
Friday 8 July 1927
Manchester 7.45-9 (mixed)
‘The Mobswoman’ (Leon M.
Lion and W. Strange Hall)
Presented by the Station
Repertory Players
Margaret Ellerton – Hylda
Metcalf
Netta Ellerton – Ella
Forsyth
Sie Pierce Rolvenden – E.H.
Bridgstock
George Rolvenden – Harold
cluff
Scene: The living-room at
Margaret’s cottage at Thetstone.
Tuesday 12 July 1927
Manchester 9.40-10.40
‘The Message of the Winds’
(Patience Raymond)
A new play
Introducing the song cycle
‘A Branch of Arbutus’ by
Alicia Adelaide Needham
Darby – E.H. Bridgstock
Joan – Mary Eastwood
Tuesday 19 July 1927
Manchester 7.45-9 (mixed)
‘1588’ (Walter Pearce)
Roger Wenlake, Esq. – W.E.
Dickman
William Moyle (Landlord) –
E.H. Bridgstock
Dorothy de Solda – Hylda
Metcalf
Don Manuel de Solda Valenta
(Dorothy’s cousin) – Harold Cluff
Luigi Parolla (His
Secretary) – Leo Channing
Time: The Night of July 19
1588
The scene is laid in the
dining-room of the Wyvern Inn. Over the fireplace hangs a large portrait of a
Spanish grandee. Roger Wenlake, having just finished a hearty meal, is seated
in a deep armchair, his feet resting on the table. He begins to sing, pausing
awhile to refill his tankard of ale.
Saturday 23 July 1927
Manchester 7.45 (mixed)
Three Sketches
‘Wet Wickets’ (A.S. Hyslop)
Old Caspar – E.H. Bridgstock
Old Albert – Charles Nesbitt
Young Peterkin – Kenneth
Burchill
A conversation between two
aged villagers and Caspar’s young grandson takes place outside Caspar’s
cottage, where he and Albert are sitting in the sun, looking down on the hill
to the distant village. The time is six p.m. on a July evening in 1966.
‘The Alibi’ (Robert H.
Blackmore)
A new comedy
Mrs. Mather, the lady of the
house – Mary Eastwood
Lily Mather, the daughter –
Winifred May
Joe Mather, the son –
Charles Nesbitt
Thomas Shaw, a Constable –
D.E. Ormerod
When the play opens, Mrs.
Mather, a pleasant, elderly and motherly-looking woman, is busily rolling
pastry upon the table, which occupies the centre of the living-room.
It is Saturday evening, and
Lily is preparing for her regular weekly visit to the pictures.
‘Mr. Smith Wakes Up’ (Vivian
Tydmarsh)
A new one-act comedy
George Smith (the Husband) –
E.H. Bridgstock
Maria Smith (the Wife) –
Mary Eastwood
Lucy Smith (the Daughter) – Enid Tordoff
The scene is the parlour of
the Smiths’ house at Clapham. The play opens with a conversation between Maria
and her daughter Lucy. Maria is a very dissatisfied woman, and her daughter’s
disposition may be easily imagined from Mr. Smith’s description of her as ‘her
mother’s never-failing echo’.
Wednesday 27 July 1927
Manchester 7.40-10 (mixed)
‘A Matter of Policy’ (Gordon
Phillips)
A New Original Comedy
The Husband – Harold Cluff
The Wife – Winifred May
The Maid – Betty Elsmore
The Agent – Charles Nesbitt
Picture the dining-rom of a
suburban house at 8.30 a.m. The husband is engaged in a careful scrutiny of the
morning milk. In the centre of the breakfast table lie several unopened
letters, and it is at the precise moment when the wife notices them that our
play commences.
‘Appearances’ (Helen C.
Presbury)
Landlady – Betty Elsmore
Mr. Harrison – Harold Cluff
Mr. Harold Lane – Charles
Nesbitt
Policeman – A.G. Mitcheson
The ‘Down and Out’ – F.A.
Nicholls
Imagine the rather dingy
hall of a Bloombury Lodging House on December 20, 1925. On the combined
hat-rack and umbrella-stand rests a telephone. A door opening off the hall into
a bed-sitting-room discloses a young man busily searching for something in the
bureau. The landlady stands watching him, an expression of mingled triumph and
outraged virtue on her face.
Friday 5 August 1927
Manchester 9.35-11 (mixed)
‘A Business Proposal’
(Rosset Gill)
A Comedy-Drama of Lancashire
Life
Presented by D.E. Ormerod
Sarah Duckers – Marion
Thwaite Matthews
Martha Duckers – Mary
Eastwood
Ben Riley – E.H. Bridgstock
Even in suhc tough-fibred
spinsters as Sarah and Martha Duckers, living together in a small house bought
out of long-practised economies, romance was not wholly extinguished though,
like the atmospherer of the industrial village in which they had spent their
lives, it had become vitiated by unwholesome conditions.
At the opening of the play,
we find Martha waiting for her sister’s return from the factory after the day’s
work. An air of clean vigour pervades their apartment, with its old dresser,
family samples, case clock and robust aspidistras
To adapt one’s business
methods to matrimonial affairs is not always successful, as Ben Riley found
when he tried to decide which of the two sisters he should marry. He could not
make up his mind whether it should be Sarah or Martha Duckers and, having been
highly successful in business, he decided to solve his matrimonial problems in
the same way as he did his business difficulties, but his attempt met with
disastrous results.
Monday 8 August 1927
Manchester 7.30-9 (mixed)
‘The Thirteenth’ (Edward
Rigby and Phyllis Austin)
An Episode of Country Life
in One Act
Presented by D.E. Ormerod
Thomas Lingham – E.H.
Bridgstock
Polly Lingham (his daughter)
– Winifred May
George Ansell (Polly’s
‘Young Man’) – A.C. Mitcheson
The scene is laid in the
kitchen-parlour of an old country cottage in Kent. It is five o’clock on a
midsummer’s afternoon. George is assisting Polly to lay the tea. A cheap
dresser, a grandfather clock, and two ornamental vases on the mantelshelf are
the only noticeable things in the room.
Friday 19 August 1927
Manchester 10.30-11
‘Home Without a Mother’
(Edwin Lewis)
(The fourth of the ‘Browns
of Owdham’ Series)
Bill Brown – E.H. Bridgstock
Herbert Brown (his Son) –
Charles Nesbitt
Sarah Brown – Mary Eastwood
Mrs. Cassidy (a loquacious
widow) – Lucia Rogers
We are introduced to the
Browns’ kitchen at late tea-time on a Saturday night.
Among one or two other
ornamental mottoes on the wall is one which reads, ‘What is Home without a
Mother?’ Bill Brown, in solitary state and with melancholy mien, is just
finishing tea. He turns and gazes at the motto with obvious indignation.
This is the latest ‘Sarah
Borwn’ play by Mr. Lewis, a playwright whose work is becoming well known to
radio audiences. Manchester Station has already produced four of his plays.
Liverpool and Daventry, Glasgow, Cardiff and Sheffield have each done one, and
next week Sheffield will produce ‘This Film Business’ under the author’s
direction, with himself in the cast.
Monday 29 August 1927
Manchester 7.30-8
‘His Magnum Opus’ (J. Logan
Darra)
Based on the story, ‘Life’,
from the ‘London Magazine’
A Domestic Play in One Act
Dad – E.H. Bridgstock
Bill – Harold Cluff
Liz – Betty Elsmore
A little story of a girl’s
love, and its only possible ending. The scene in which it is enacted is a
living-room in a two-roomed hovel in the East-end of Lonodn. Liz is busy
cutting bread and butter, while her father sits by the fire reading his
newspaper.
Tuesday 6 September 1927
Manchester 7.30-9
Scenes from Sheridan
Played by the Station Radio
Players
Lydia Languish – Hylda
Metcalf
Mrs. Malaprop – Lucia Rogers
Captain Absolute – Harold
Cluff
Sir Anthony Absolute – D.E.
Ormerod
Act II – The Rehearsal Scene
Puff- E.H. Bridgstock
Dangle – W.E. Dickman
Sneer – D.E. Ormerod
Prompter – F.A. Nicholls
Players in the rehearsal of
‘The Spanish Armada’
Monday 3 October 1927
Manchester 7.45-9
‘Derek Knoyle’s Dilemma’
(Alfred Gordon Bennett)
An Island Caprice in Three
Scenes
Specially arranged for
broadcasting by Victor Smythe
Derek Knoyle – Harold Cluff
Narice Wells – Ella Forsyth
Pamela Morris – Hylda
Metcalf
(Survivors of the s.s.
Agamemnon, which struck a submerged derelict on Friday, September 35, 1925,
between Latitudes 10 degrees and 20 degrees South whilst bound from Wellington
to San Francisco, in the course of a world cruise [sentence as in RT]. The
vessel struck shortly after noon and foundered fifteen minutes later.)
The following additional
characters appear in Scene 3 only:-
George Lockhart – W.E.
Dickman
A Deck Stewart – D.E.
Ormerod
Narrator – Ian Fleming
The scenes are fully
described by the narrator as the story is unfolded.
This is the first long
three-act play of the Manchester Station’s dramatic season. Its author is a
Lancashire dramatist who has become known throughout England and America; he ha
been writing since he was seventeen, when he published his first novel, and he
is particularly interested in seafaring folk.
Tuesday 11 October 1927
Manchester 7.45-8.30
‘The Intruder’ (Hugh H.
Francis)
An Original Play in one act
Monte Drew (Professional
Thief) – Harold Cluff
Syd Bland (Professional
Thied) – W.E. Dickman
Stella Renton (their
Accomplice) – Hylda Metcalf
‘The Intruder’ – A.G.
Mitcheson
The scene is the living-room
of a small flat in London at 11.45 p.m. Drew is seated before the fire watching
Bland, who is dancing to the tune of a popular fox-trot on the gramophone.
‘The Gates O’ Heaven’ (Mary
Plowman)
A New Play in One Act
Mrs. Bates – Lucia Rogers
John Bates (her Husband) –
Charles Nesbitt
Grandfather Bates – E.H.
Bridgstock
Willie (his Grandson) –
Kenneth Burchill
The interior of Grandfather
Bates’s cottage on a summer’s afternoon. Grandfather Bates is sleeping
contentedly in an old-fashioned chair before the fire, while Mrs. Bates is busy
preparing the tea. Willie is playing with his toys on the hearth and Mrs.
Bates, in the act of taking the kettle off the hob, strikes the arm of the old
man’s chair violently, almost upsetting the boiling water over him.
Both plays performed by the
Station Repertory Players
Tuesday 18 October 1927
Manchester 7.45-9 (mixed)
‘The Winner’ (W. Armitage
Owen)
A Lancashire Comedy in Two
Scenes
Albert Marlow (a Cotton
Operative) – E.H. Bridgstock
Jane Marlow (his Wife) –
Lucia Rogers
Samuel Marlow (his Son) –
Charles Nesbitt
Susannah Marlow (his
Daughter) – Hylda Metcalf
Dobbs (a Neighbour) – W.E.
Dickman
Both scenes are laif in the
kitchen of the Marlow’s cottage. The play commences at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Mrs.
Marlow, Samuel, and Susannah are finishing their evening meal.
Thursday 3 November 1927
Manchester 9.35-10.30
[Two Plays]
‘Sarah Suggests’ (Edwin
Lewis)
The Fifth of the ‘Browns of
Owdham’ series
Sarah Brown – Hylda Metcalfe
Bill Brown – E.H. Bridgstock
David Jones (Sarah’s sailor
cousin) – W.E. Dickman
Kate Cassidy (a widow) –
Lucia Rogers
The familiar characters,
Sarah and Bill Brown, once again make their bow before the microphone.
Bill is filling the kitchen
with the aroma of Irish roll, Sarah is busy darning some socks, and David
Jones, Sarah’s second cousin, is playing a rollicking air on his violin.
Sarah, marvelling at the
newly discovered musical genius in her family, is plannng new statiches and
webs in the stocking of life.
‘Boris’ (Daphne Steward)
A New Radio Play
Jasper Dixon (a busy young
doctor) – Harold Cluff
Stella Dixon (his wife) –
Hylda Metcalfe
Susan (their servant) –
Betty Elsmore (?)
A Policeman – D.E. Ormerod
Boris – Himself
The drawing-room in the
Dixons’ house presents a cheery contrast with the storm raging outside. Stella
Dixon is seated before the fire reading the evening paper and Boris is lying
fast asleep at her feet. Jasper Dixon is heard in conversation with a policeman
at the front door.
Thursday 8 November 1927
Manchester 9.40-11 (mixed)
‘The Ghost of Glastonbury
Tunnel’ (Geoffrey Bevan)
A Play in One Act
Colonel Charles Taunton –
E.H. Bridgstock
Mrs. Taunton – Lucia Rogers
Mrs. Lammell (a lady of some
fifty summers) – Hylda Metcalf
The Rev. Frederick Driver –
W.E. Dickman
Mr. Spencer – J.E. Roberts
(?)
The action takes place in a
first-class compartment of the Newmarket Express.
Saturday 19 November 1927
Manchester 3-5
Two Plays
By the Station Repertory
Players
‘Thanks to Mr. Milligan’
(Constance Enne)
A Play in One Act
Mrs. Blaise – Betty Elsmore
George Barnet Cresswell –
D.E. Ormerod
Stephanie Cresswell - Hylda Metcalf
Derek Lessingham - Leo Channing
‘High Tension’ (W.
Huntley-Adams)
A New Comedy Drama
Peter Clare – Tom Wilson
Elizabeth – Hylda Metcalf
Arnold Ross – E.H.
Bridgstock
Joan Dobson – Ella Forsyth
Detective-Sergeant Jenkins,
C.I.D. – Harold Cluff
Tuesday 22 November 1927
Manchester 8.10-9
‘The Herald’ a play (F.
Sladden Smith)
The Herald – Conway Preston
The Swan Princess – Marion
Chignell
The Old Fool - Dorothy
Crosse
Overture and Interlude by
the Station Orchestra
Monday 28 November 1927
Manchester 10.35-11
‘Good Hunting, Old Chap’ a
play based on the story by ‘Sapper’
Dramatised by Victor Smythe
The Well-Known Soldier
The Celebrated Actor
The Eminent Divine
Hugh Darnay
Beryl, the General’s niece
Episode 1 – In which the
three eminent men discuss the situation
Episode 2 – Half and hour
later – the situation develops
Episode 3 – The discussion
bears fruit.
This short story, based on
the story by ‘Sapper’, is the first of a series that is to be broadcast from
the Manchester Station.
(No actors listed)
Saturday 10 December 1927
Manchester 7.45-9
(The Sixth of the ‘Browns of
Oldham’ series)
Sarah Brown – Hylda Metcalf
Bill Brown (her husband)
- E.H. Bridgstock
Herbert Brown (their son) –
Charles Nesbitt
Mary Entwhistle (Herbert’s
girl) – Ella Forsyth
Miss Majorie Mallory of
London (the Amateur Canvasser) – Elsie Monks
Mr. Redcastle (a clever
Canvasser of any political persuasion) – Harold Cluff
Canvassing at election time
is a task which calls for supreme tact and a charming manner. It was by the
exercise of these qualities that Miss Mallory and Mr. Redcastle won through
when they canvassed ‘the Browns’ on behalf of their candidate Mr. Bridstowe.
Interlude by Forsyth Dance
Band
A Drama in one act
Sylvia Rayston – Hylda
Metcalfe
Mrs. Em Pogson – Lucia
Rogers
Mr. French Pogson (her
husband) – E.H. Bridgstock
Charles Treherne – W.E.
Dickman
The revival of a friendship
between two young people, after a lapse of ten years, does not suggest a
startling denouement. The result, however, as seen in the play, is anything but
commonplace.
Monday 19 December 1927
Manchester 9.35-11
‘The Ship’ (St. John Ervine)
A Play in Three Acts
Presented by Victor Smythe
Old Mrs. Thurlow – Nancy
Price
John Thurlow – E.H.
Bridgstock
Janet – Lucia Rogers
Hester – Hilda Metcalf
Captain Cornelius – W.E.
Dickman
George Norwood – Harold
Cluff
Maid – Amy Eden
John Thurlow, the head of
Thurlow’s Shipbuilding Yard, has at last completed the task of building a
super-ship, which in his estimation is unsinkable. His one sorrow is that his
son Jack has grown up a priggish, humourless lad, whose outlook on life is
characterized by a persistent revolt against convention.
Tuesday 27 December 1927
Manchester 7.45-9 (mixed)
‘Whose Door’ (Robert H. Blackmore)
A Play in One Act
(Broadcast April 14)
John Martel (Managing
Director of Martel Ltd.) – D.E. Ormerod
Stephen Crowe (General
manager) – W.E. Dickman
William Broadhead (A
Director) – Harold Cluff
James Dimple (Another
Director) - E.H. Bridgstock
Soo Chang (A Chinaman) –
Victor Smythe
A question is raised at a
meeting of directors in the board-room of Martel, Ltd. The answer is given in
the same room – in rather different circumstances.
Friday 30 December 1927
Manchester 7.45-9
Play Night
‘Fantasy’ (J.C. Spence)
A New Lancashire Comedy
Matt Haworth (an unemployed
Lancashire Weaver) – E.H. Bridgstock
Ellen (his Wife) – Hylda
Metcalf
Maggie (their Daughter) –
Ella Forsyth
Nobby (from next door but
one) – Charles Nesbitt
Mr. Withy Grove (a Press
representative) – Harold Cluff
To find the correct solution
in a newspaper competition and to share the prize money with many other
successful competitors does not at first sight present a very novel situation.
In this play, the consequences are distinctly original.
‘Thirty-One’ (H.W. Twyman)
A New Play
The Doctor – Michael Voysey
The Doctor’s Wife – Lucia
Rogers
The Patient – D.E. Ormerod
A Policeman – W.E. Dickman
Ambulance Man – Charles
Nesbitt
Ambulance Man – Leo Channing
This is a one-act play
written specially for broadcasting and described by the author as ‘a
coincidental fragment’. Indeed, he doees further, and admits that the long arm
of coincidence may be almost dislocated by the strain which it has to bear.