The Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection
' My mad friends are the actors' passport to eternity ' said DAME SYBIL THORNDIKE about Mander and Mitchenson, and indeed, their unique theatre collection. founded in 1946, became the largest comprehensive theatrical collection in private hands. It's achieved an international reputation with items ranging from the gold cigarette case Gertrude Lawrence gave to Noël Coward in 1932 and fulsomely inscribed in bad grammar, to every known prompt copy of Sweeney Todd.
Colin Ford visits them and their collection at Sydenham, and also goes to the Georgian mansion at Beckenham where plans are in hand to rehouse the collection under the direction of the new curator, Colin Mabberley.
Also in the programme: the Royal Shakespeare Company's new production of Hamlet at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Producer JOHN POWELL