Adapted for the microphone by MARIANNE HELWEG from Cyrus Brooks ' Translation of the original of Erich Kastner
The Tremendous Adventures of a small boy up from the country
The cast includes the following little boys:
Master Hugh Green - Master Alphonse Nohn
Master Geoffrey Lawrence Master Michael Goodwin - Master Reginald Keel
Master James McDermott .. Master Anthony Kelly Master Ricky Hyland
Master Stanley Bridger Master Victor Keefe Master Alan Carter
Master Desmond Tester Master David Marten and little girls:
Miss Joan Davis
Miss Florence Woodgate Miss Jasmine Shushtary and grown-up people:
Francis L. Sullivan Beatrice Gilbert Brember Wills
Hubert Langley Dorothy Dayus Naomi Ludolf Eric Lugg
Loftus Wigram Victor Fairley
The Chief People in the Play:
Emil, aged 12
Frau Tischbein , Emil's mother The policeman in Neustadt Grundeis , the sinister man in the train
Emil's Grandmother
Pony Hiltchen , Emil's little girl cousin
The Chief Constable Gustav, aged 13
' Professor,' aged 14
' Little Tuesday ', aged 9 ' Flying Stag ', aged 12 ' Mittenzwei aged 14 Petzoid, aged 10 Bleuer, aged 11
There are also people in the train and in the streets, and hundreds and hundreds of children
The Play produced by LANCE SIEVEKING
ERICH KASTNER 'S STORY, ' Emil and the Detectives ', published three years ago, conforms with the best tradition of children's classics in affording equal delight to children and grown-ups. It tells the simple tale of how a very ordinary and human small boy had all his money stolen from him by a sneak in a bowler hat; and how within the short space of twenty-four hours he had enlisted the help of half the children in Berlin, and brought the thief to justice ; a tremendous romantic adventure, yet a perfectly credible one, set as it is amid the familiar commonplaces of modern every-day life—bowler hats, railway carriages, tram-cars, taxis, traffic lights, scooters, bicycles, and bank clerks. That, indeed, is the great charm of the story. As Mr. Walter de la Mare pointed out in his preface to the English edition, Emil's adventures might easily have been those of an English boy travelling to London, Liverpool, or Manchester.
Many listeners will already have seen the excellent film version, produced last year, and some may have seen the stage version, produced in English at Croydon last year. As a radio play it promises to be equally exciting; even Emil's nightmare in the train will lose nothing by its translation into terms of sound. And, as in the film, all the children's parts will be played by a cast of real boys and girls.
Th's play was broadcast in the Regional programme last night.
A series of photographs taken from the film version of ' Emil and the Detectives ' appears on page 299.