An investigation by RICHARD BEBB
Seventy years ago this month, Sir Henry Irving , the greatest of Victorian actors, collapsed on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Bradford, to die later that night. His last appearance was in Tennyson's ' Becket ', and tonight you can hear the first broadcast of a newly discovered recording of Irving reciting one of the play's most memorable speeches.
How this and hitherto unknown Irving recordings were discovered and authenticated is in its way as dramatic as the recordings themselves, and the programme describes in detail the amazing coincidences and strokes of luck which led the researchers to the end of their quest.
Producer BENNETT MAXWELL