London Playhouse (1955)

S1E1 - The Haven

A drama by Tad Mosel, adapted by Cyril Butcher. The house in which Barbara and Kenneth live may look no different from its neighbour from the outside, but behind the windows the two face a personal and poignant problem.

Sept. 29, 1955, midnight

S1E2 - A Call on the Widow

A drama by James Doran Two detectives call at a lonely farmhouse to investigate the death of the owner. Marooned by floods, they become the guests of the widow. One finds love, the other finds murder. Directed by Peter Graham Scott, produced by Peter Cotes

Oct. 6, 1955, midnight

S1E3 - The Glorification of Al Toolum

Al was "average" - so much so that he won a competition as the most average man in the United States. Then he discovered that glorification brings its troubles.

Oct. 13, 1955, midnight

S1E4 - Summer in Normandy

In a quiet house in a sunlit Normandy village, old Gabriel had one prized possession - a painting of his dead son, Pierre. When a Nazi sergeant destroys this painting, he starts a chain of events that leads to his own destruction.

Oct. 20, 1955, midnight

S1E5 - A Garden in the Sea

Adapted from Henry James's story, The Aspern Papers. A young writer is searching for new material for his biography of a famous poet. He believes that a mysterious old recluse once knew the poet, and still has poems and letters yet unpublished. So he goes to visit her in Venice at the old palace that stands in a garden in the sea.

Oct. 27, 1955, midnight

S1E6 - The End of the Mission

By Roger Hirson. At the end of any war, the men who have been turned into soldiers come home bringing back all sorts of personal souvenirs - a captured revolver, perhaps, or a piece of shrapnel that just missed its target. For Richard Chalmers the souvenir is less tangible, more unpleasant, a bitter memory of treachery during a secret mission in Occupied France.

Nov. 3, 1955, midnight

S1E7 - The Inward Eye

by Joseph Liss. Adapted by Laurence Kitchin. When blindness suddenly takes the light from a person, he must learn to see again, not only with the help of others, but with an inward eye. This play tells the story of a girl for whom a guide-dog was the means by which she found her way back to life. Helen Perkins, who wrote the music, studied composition at the Royal College of Music with John Ireland and orchestration with Anton Webern in Vienna and later with Gordon Jacob in this country. Her compositions include piano pieces, published by Schott, chamber music, works for orchestra and songs, most of which have been broadcast in this country and on the continent. During the war years she suspended her musical activities in order to bring up her family of three sons.

Nov. 10, 1955, midnight

S1E8 - Fair Passenger

A comedy by Aimee Stuart. Adapted for television by Patrick Campbell. There is no room in this life for passengers - however fair and attractive they may be. That is the lesson that Erica Tramore comes over from Ireland to learn. But in learning it, she comes very near to making the strange world of glamorous film stars, and hard-headed directors, another of her easy conquests.

Nov. 17, 1955, midnight

S1E9 - Arena Nine

by Simon Byforth Adapted for television by Alan Moreland and Robert Irvine Area Nine lies in that part of the brain the functions of which are still a mystery. This play gives dramatic emphasis to the problems of those who trespass within it. Simon Byforth is the pseudonym of two talented professional people who, with an extensive knowledge of neurosurgery, have collaborated in order to write this play.

Nov. 24, 1955, midnight

S1E10 - Lady Must Sell

by Hurford Janes. Adapted by Peter Cotes and Barry Baker. "Lady Must Sell" - when we see those words in a newspaper advertisement we are liable to wonder what story lies behind them. The article which is for sale this time is a mink coat, and comedy is the keynote of the story.

Dec. 1, 1955, midnight

S1E11 - The General's Mess

An Un-Military Escapade by Giles Cooper. "Old Soldiers Never Die" and some, like General Sir Alaric Moulton, are even reluctant to fade away. Having been appointed Deputy Director of Inventions, he has become to both his wife and daughter an irresistable force. But Nemesis and his daughter's admirers combine to confront him with an immovable object - for this is a comedy where only the unexpected can happen.

Dec. 8, 1955, midnight

S1E12 - Fighting Chance

Jimmy Day - a professional boxer - is tempted by his crooked brother-in-law to "throw" a fight. We learn how Jimmy and his family cope with the trouble that ensues.

Dec. 15, 1955, midnight

S1E13 - The Man Who Liked Christmas

by Reuben Ship "People", said Homer Botts "become so Christmasy on Christmas Day". He had found that this was the one day of the year when people were nice to him and to each other. "Why then", he said, "can't we have a law that says every day is Christmas Day".

Dec. 22, 1955, midnight

S1E14 - Adeline Girard

by Tad Mosel Adapted by Kenneth Hurren. Adeline Girard was a star, indeed she is one still, for just as the stars of heaven burn brightest before their extinction, so she keeps her light blazing even in the drab surroundings to which the years have brought her.

Dec. 29, 1955, midnight

S1E15 - Two Letters. 1 - Yesterday's Mail

by Jan de Kordt and Mark Lowell Two original television plays: Yesterday's Mail and No Other Wine are two separate plays presenting variations on a single theme - the drama that arises when the past suddenly returns into a woman's life.

Jan. 5, 1956, midnight

S1E16 - Two Letters: 2 - No Other Wine

by Donald Bull Two original television plays: Yesterday's Mail and No Other Wine are two separate plays presenting variations on a single theme - the drama that arises when the past suddenly returns into a woman's life.

Jan. 5, 1956, midnight

S1E17 - Sam and the Great Unveiling

A new play by Gwenyth Jones Adapted by Patrick Campbell. No more respected or respectable bookmaker could be found anywhere than Sam Bowler - Sam who has just crowned a lifetime of public service by raising the money for a new children's home. But some little facts in Sam's private life have been overlooked. Unfortunately it is not in the nature of the implacable Lady Battleby to overlook anything... and Lady B holds the purse-strings.

Jan. 12, 1956, midnight

S1E18 - The Guv'nor

by Tudor Gates and Patrick Brawn from the play by Tudor Gates A 999 call sends a police car racing through dawn-deserted Piccadilly, hot on the trail of a stolen car - "The Guv'nor" has struck again. But as Inspector Bailey remarks to a visiting American Police Chief, no matter how well "The Guv'nor" plans his crimes, some small detail will trip him up in the end.

Jan. 19, 1956, midnight

S1E19 - The Sun Divorce

A Television play by Margot Bennett Editor: "... We need novelty. Something as good as 'The Average Bride,' as good as marriage itself." Reporter: "DIVORCE!!! The story from the first big row right through to the tear-stained suitcase. Why - it will run for months."

Jan. 26, 1956, midnight

S1E20 - Wish on the Moon

by Sumner Locke Elliot Ruth longed to see her name in lights, Olivia wanted a husband, but London remodelled the lives of each and put both girls on the road to success.

Feb. 2, 1956, midnight

S1E21 - Margaret Moves On

by Ronald Kinnoch Adapted for Television by Donald Bull Margaret, in her widowed sixties, has a genius for losing friends and exasperating people. This play shows the comedy and drama that follows when she moves into the hard-pressed household of her son David.

Feb. 9, 1956, midnight

S1E22 - Goodbye Jonah

by John Beaumont The ruthlessness of the "Big Business Man" pitted against the guile and experience of the countryman is the theme of this delightful West Country comedy.

Feb. 16, 1956, midnight

S1E23 - The Egg

a play written for television by Stanley Mann Tom Bennett, a brilliant research scientist, is disturbed about the nature of his work in a government research laboratory. His anxiety and the strict secrecy that surround the work threaten to come between him and his wife Ann. Their boy, Saul, is affected by the tension at home. And what is it in the little wooden box that he loves so jealously and guards so secretly?

Feb. 23, 1956, midnight

S1E24 - A Case of Pure Fiction

March 1, 1956, midnight

S1E25 - A Trial of Love

by Maurice Edelman. In the cast are James Donald, Yvonne Mitchell, Dennis Price, Eddie Byrne and John Loder.

March 8, 1956, midnight

S1E26 - To Dorothy a Son

March 15, 1956, midnight

S1E27 - Jane Clegg

by St. John Irvine Adapted by Robert Muller and Peter Cotes. Starring Joan Miller, Jack May, Mary Merrall with Henry Oscar and Alfie Bass. Strong-willed Jane Clegg is tied to a weak and dissolute husband, and devotes her life to protecting her two young children from his criminal follies. When she is left a legacy by an uncle, she determines her husband will not share it.

March 23, 1956, midnight

S1E28 - Dark of the Moon

a play by Howard Richardson and William Berney adapted for television by the authors with Vivian Matalon, George Margo, Paddy Webster. In the Deep South, there lives a witch-boy who passionately desires to be human, because he has fallen in love with the gay, beautiful Barbara Allen,"the wildest gal in the Smokey Mountains". He marries her, but can only remain human if she stays faithful for a year to her strange husband.

April 5, 1956, midnight

S1E29 - Bonaventure

A play by Charlotte Hastings Adapted for television by Tudor Gates Sarat Carn, a young and beautiful artist of great talent, is to be hanged at Norwich for the murder of her brother. Under escort she is on her way there when floods force her party to take refuge in a Convent. The play tells of the passionate conviction of Sister Mary Bonaventure that Sarat is not guilty; and her frantic efforts to help Sarat before the floods abate and she has to continue her grim journey. An Associated-Rediffusion Network Production

April 12, 1956, midnight

S1E30 - Ship-Shape

by Ralph Stock Adapted for Television by Alan Moreland and Kenneth Hoare This light comedy set in a coastal town, tells of "Ship-Shape", a lovable old lighthouse keeper with a fanatical desire for tidiness in all things. How this desire upsets and complicates the lives of those around him is told in tonight's London Playhouse. An Associated-Rediffusion Network Production

April 19, 1956, midnight

S1E31 - Two For One

April 26, 1956, midnight

S1E32 - The House in Athens

May 3, 1956, midnight

S1E33 - The Black Judge

starring Donald Wolfit with Lawrence Payne, Betty McDowall "How did Bee Sun die?" Of all the strange stories handed down from China's past, this is probably the most extraordinary. A man has been murdered: but even when we learn by whom, the question remains: "How did Bee Sun die?" By ingenious and horrifying means, Judge Dee obtains the answer.

Aug. 26, 1956, midnight