Classic Comedy Movies at the BBC - Joseph Kesselring, Peter George, Robert Hamer and John Dighton, William Rose, Arnold Ridley, Leonard Wibberley

Written by Joseph Kesselring, Peter George, Robert Hamer and John Dighton, William Rose, Arnold Ridley, Leonard Wibberley
Read by Full Cast
Format: Mixed
Bitrate: Mixed
Dramatization

Six classic stories, well known as classic comedy movies, get the BBC radio drama treatment.

Arsenic and Old Lace - Dr. Strangelove - Kind Hearts and Coronets - The Ladykillers - The Ghost Train - The Mouse That Roared

These are the sort of films I’d watch as a kid in the 1970s on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Tea and biscuits advised but not required.

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Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring

An easy-going drama critic discovers that his kind and gentle aunts have a bizarre habit of poisoning gentlemen callers and burying them in the cellar…

Abby Brewster: Sybil Thorndike
Teddy Brewster: Desmond Walter-Ellis
Dr Harper: Lewis Stringer
Officer Brophy: David Valla
Officer Klein: John Rye
Martha Brewster: Athene Seyler
Elaine Harper: Prunella Scales
Mortimer Brewster: Dinsdale Landen
Jonathan Brewster: Heron Carvic
Dr Einstein: Gerald Cross
Officer O’Hara: Alaric Cotter
Lieut Rooney: Edward Kelsey
Mr Witherspoon: Lockwood West

Sat 29th May 1971

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Dr. Strangelove by Peter George

Thermonuclear war erupts in Kerry Shale’s award-winning dramatisation of the apocalyptic black comedy, playing multiple roles.

‘Dr. Strangelove’ came to prominence in the 1964 film directed by Stanley Kubrick. Based on the novel ‘Red Alert’ by Peter George, it famously starred Peter Sellers in multiple roles.

As well as the dramatisation, Kerry Shale also takes several roles: Dr Strangelove, Lieutenant Kivel, Lieutenant Barney Goldberg, Lieutenant Lothar Zogg, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, General Jack D Ripper and President Merkin Muffley.

With William Hootkins as the King, Sean Barratt as General Buck Turgidson, Stuart Milligan as Gwarne, Nigel Anthony as the Soviet Ambassador, , Peter Whitman as Staines, William Roberts as Gap and John Baddeley as Ball.
Alexei de Sadesk and Teresa Gallagher as the Narrators

Director: Gordon House.

First broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1993.

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Kind Hearts and Coronets by Robert Hamer and John Dighton

Louis Mazzini should be heir to a dukedom but his family, the snobbish D’Ascoynes have cut Louis off because his mother married badly.

Vengeful and hate-filled, he sets out to regain his rightful place by wreaking revenge on the D’Ascoyne family, but is then arrested for a killing he didn’t commit.

Ealing film comedy adaptation starring Harry Enfield as the D’Ascoyne family. With Michael Kitchen, Haydn Gwynne, Timothy Bateson and David Lodge.

Adapted by Gilbert Travers Thomas from Robert Hamer and John Dighton’s screenplay.

Louis Mazzini ……. Michael Kitchen
The D’Ascoyne Family ……. Harry Enfield
Edith D’Ascoyne ……. Haydn Gwynne
Sibella ……. Lynsey Baxter
Elliott ……. Timothy Alcock
Crown Counsel ……. Michael Denison
Inspector Burgoyne ……. David Lodge
Governor ……. Geoffrey Whitehead
Mrs Mazzini ……. Zulema Dene
Lionel ……. David Timpson
Warder Smith ……. John Hartley
Perkins ……. Jonathan Keeble
Priscilla ……. Tracy Wiles
Duchess ……. Jane Whittenshaw
Young Louis ……. Roger May
Boatman ……. Ross Livingstone
Defence Counsel ……. David Collings
Warder ……. Stephen Critchlow

Other parts played by the cast.

Original music composed by Barrington Pheloung.

Music from the film composed by Ernest Irving and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Producer: Andy Jordan.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1996.

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The Ladykillers by William Rose

A little old lady unwittingly outwits a gang of crooks lodging in her London house.

William Rose’s much-love Ealing film comedy

Starring Edward Petherbridge, Donald Sinden and Margot Boyd.

Adapted for radio by Bruce Bedford.

The Professor …. Edward Petherbridge
The Major …. Donald Sinden
Louis …. Gary Waldhorn
Harry …. Daniel Peacock
One Round …. Martin Hyder
Mum …. Margot Boyd
General Gordon, the Parrot …. Johnny Morris
Sgt MacDonald …. Stratford Johns

Other parts played by:

John Hartley
Ross Livingstone
Stephen Critchlow
David Timson,
David Collings
Zulema Dene
Tessa Worsley
Patience Tomlinson
Jonathan Keeble

Pianist: Roger Limb

Director: Andy Jordan

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1996.

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The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley

The last steam train from London to Cornwall carries a disparate group of travellers: a pair of newlyweds, a couple whose marriage is on the rocks and a lady with a parrot called Joey.

The last thing any of them needs is to be stranded on a Fal Vale’s deserted railway station - which is the object of local superstition.

Written in 1925 by Arnold Ridley - best known for playing Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army.

Starring Adam Godfrey as Teddie Deakin, Christopher Wright as Richard Winthrop and Tracy-Ann Oberman as Elsie Winthrop

Adapted by Shaun McKenna. Producer Marion Nancarrow.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1998.

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The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberley

Mark McDonnell and Steven McNicoll’s dramatisation of Leonard Wibberley’s famous comic novel.

It is 1956, and the Cold War is at its chilliest. But one European country is blissfully detached from the struggles of the Super Powers. The Duchy of Grand Fenwick and is just five miles long and three miles wide. Under the benign rule of Grand Duchess Gloriana it is a rural idyll almost untouched by the twentieth century, and happy to remain so. But its economy is entirely dependent on the export of a famously exquisite wine. So when this vital trade is threatened by an unscrupulous foreign rival, it’s time for action.

Gloriana - a wise head on young shoulders - proposes a solution long recognised as acceptable to all nations - that is, to declare war on their much richer enemy, lose, then sit back and wait for the inevitable billions in post-war aid to roll in. So, led by the valiant Tully Bascomb, the twenty men-at-arms that make up the army of Grand Fenwick strap on their chain mail, dust off their longbows, and set sail to wage a deliberately hopeless war on… the United States of America.

The only problem is that no one has told Tully that he’s meant to lose - and as a result of his remarkable escapades, Gloriana bizarrely finds herself the most powerful political leader in Europe…

Gloriana ….. Julie Austin
Tully ….. Mark McDonnell
Mountjoy ….. Crawford Logan
Sec. of State ….. Lou Hirsch
Kokintz ….. Simon Tait
Will ….. Jamie Newall
Benter ….. Steven McNicoll

ProducerPatrick Rayner

My recordings from BBC iPlayer.