Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 280,249 playable programmes from the BBC

(See panel)

Introduced by Alan Weeks

Today's Timetable

Racing direct from Newbury
2.0 The Polar Jest Apprentice Handicap
2.30 The Yattendon Plate
3.0 The Oxfordshire Stakes
3.30 The Washington Singer Stakes
4.30 The Shrivenham Handicap

Athletics direct from the White City Stadium 2.35. 3.5, 3.35, 4.0, 4.35: Gt. Britain v. Poland
The decisive day of the match against one of the strongest European athletic nations. Organised by the British Amateur Athletic Board in conjunction with the 'News of the World: The television presentation includes: The Emsley Carr Mile

Swimming direct from Blackpool at 3.15, 3.45 and 4.10: Gt. Britain v. W. Germany
The decisive day of the match at the Derby Baths, Blackpool

Sports Results Service
1.35 Lunchtime cricket scores
4.55 Racing and cricket summaries

Contributors

Presenter:
Alan Weeks
Commentator (Racing):
Clive Graham
Commentator (Racing):
Peter Bromley
Television Presentation (Racing):
Dennis Monger
Commentator (Athletics):
Norris McWhirter
Commentator (Athletics):
Michael Henderson
Commentator (Swimming):
Peter West
Commentator (Swimming):
Harry Walker
Television Presentation (Swimming):
Ray Lakeland
Presented by:
Bryan Cowgill
Programme Editor:
Paul Fox

A new series for television by Frank Richards.
[Starring] Gerald Campion
(BBC recording)

Contributors

Writer:
Frank Richards
Director:
Graham Gauld
Producer:
David Goddard
Bob Cherry:
Cavan Kendall
Frank Nugent:
Michael Crawford
Hurree Singh:
Leonard Davey
Johnny Bull:
Nigel Anthony
Harry Wharton:
Richard Palmer
Billy Bunter:
Gerald Campion
Mr. Quelch:
John Woodnutt
[Actor]:
Peter Voigt
[Actor]:
Roger Wright

Featuring Bob Miller and The Millermen, The John Barry Seven, Vince Eager, Adam Faith, Sylvia Sands, Danny Williams, The Raindrops
Guest stars, The Poni-Tails (specially recorded for this programme)
Compere, Trevor Peacock

Contributors

Musicians:
Bob Miller and the Millermen
Musicians:
The John Barry Seven
Singer:
Vince Eager
Singer:
Adam Faith
Singer:
Sylvia Sands
Singer:
Danny Williams
Singers:
The Raindrops
Singers:
The Poni-Tails
Compere:
Trevor Peacock
Producer:
Stewart Morris

Stories from the Casebook of Detective-Superintendent Charlesworth by Berkely Mather.
[Starring] Wensley Pithey as Charlesworth
with William Mervyn, Barbara Shelley

Contributors

Writer:
Berkely Mather
Producer:
Terence Dudley
Designer:
Richard Henry
Fredlicha:
Barbara Shelley
Albert:
Sam Kydd
Begbie:
William Mervyn
Detective-Superintendent Charlesworth:
Wensley Pithey
Detective-Sergeant Spence:
Tony Church
Gadsby:
Edward Rees
Squalor:
Norman Mitchell
Maid:
Mary Jordan
Feodr:
Gerard Heinz
Krampski:
Gertan Klauber
Sergeant Wrothbury:
Neil Wilson

Tommy Trinder opens his Trinder Box and discloses The Raindrops, Ravic and Babs, Janet Ball, Steve Arlen and Guest Star: Phyllis Marshall.

(Ravic and Babs are appearing at the Eve Club, London)

Contributors

Presenter/Comedian:
Tommy Trinder
Singers:
The Raindrops
Skaters:
Ravic and Babs
Dancer/Choreographer:
Janet Ball
Singer:
Steve Arlen
Singer:
Phyllis Marshall
Writer:
Denis Goodwin
Additional material:
David Ellis
Musical Associate/Orchestra Director:
Bert Waller
Designer:
Malcolm Goulding
Producer:
G.B. Lupino

by Hugh Walpole
[Starring] Donald Wolfit
with Mark Dignam, Kathleen Michael
(See facing page)

The Tomb of the Black Bishop in Polchester Cathedral is not described in any guide-book, and Polchester itself, the home of Archdeacon Brandon, cannot be identified as either Truro or Exeter, though it is unmistakably in the west of England. It is a city created by Hugh Walpole's own imagination, assisted by memories of the various cathedral cities where he lived during his boyhood, and used as the setting for five or six of his novels, including The Cathedral and the Jeremy series.

Tonight's television play gives us the unusual privilege of going inside Polchester's famous cathedral, which provides an impressive and in some ways symbolic background for a drama of personal conflicts and human vanities in the year of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. In particular it is the drama of Adam Brandon, the Archdeacon (played by Sir Donald Wolfit), who finds his previously undisputed mastery of cathedral and diocese suddenly challenged by the advent of a newcomer.

The clash between a proud man, sure of his own rectitude, and forces working against him is the kind of situation that Hugh Walpole always handled with great dexterity. When the suave and quietly ambitious Canon Ronder comes to Polchester, Archdeacon Brandon is on top of the world-handsome, assured, vigorous, and domineering, with an apparently admiring wife, a good-looking son at Oxford, and an amiable daughter who has just left school. Yet from that moment his position, both public and private, begins to crumble beneath him, and in every misfortune he seems to see the hand of his enemy, Ronder.
As a book The Cathedral was notable for its skilful intermingling of ecclesiastical and domestic affairs. This is faithfully preserved in the television play, so that the question of who should be the next rector of Pybus St. Anthony (an issue in which Brandon's conservatism is directly opposed by Ronder's more progressive outlook) becomes as absorbing as the story of Mrs. Brandon's revolt against her husband.
The novel's elaborate picture of social life in a Victorian cathedral city, as recalled by an author writing in 1922, could hardly be presented in detail in a dramatic version; but there are fascinating glimpses of a world of clerical tea-parties and inveterate gossips (delightfully typified by Ellen Stiles), of visits to the circulating library in search of Mr. Barrie's latest book, and of a caste system dominated by the aristocratic St. Leaths at 'the Castle.'
Viewers who know the book may be disappointed (as I am) to find that Annie Hogg, the stalwart, independent and attractive daughter of a Polchester publican, has vanished from the story. But some characters had inevitably to be sacrificed, and in general the adaptation ingeniously covers most of the principal events. (Edgar Holt)

Contributors

Author:
Hugh Walpole
Designer:
Richard Wilmot
Producer:
Barbara Burnham
Archdeacon Brandon:
Donald Wolfit
Canon Foster:
John Horsley
Canon Bentinck-Major:
John Ruddock
Mrs. Brandon:
Kathleen Michael
Joan Brandon:
Elizabeth Shepherd
Miss Milton:
Betty Hardy
Canon Ronder:
Mark Dignam
Ellen Stiles:
Lally Bowers
Johnny St. Leath:
David Webb
Agnes:
Moira Mannion
The Rev. Frank Morris:
Alan Edwards
The Dean:
William Sherwood
Falk Brandon:
Dinsdale Landen
The Rev. Ambrose Wistons:
Eric Thompson

Written by Fred Feldkamp.
The story of the war against Japan.

At the Quebec Conference in 1943, Mr. Churchill and President Roosevelt decided that the war in the Pacific must be speeded up. The first result was the attack on Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, an attack which ended in the toughest single fight in the 167-year history of the American Marines Corps.
A March of Time production

Contributors

Writer:
Fred Feldkamp
Editor:
Jack Bush
Producer:
Arthur B. Tourtellot

BBC Television

Appears in

About this data

This data is drawn from the Radio Times magazine between 1923 and 2009. It shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was subject to change and may not be accurate. More