Alice

1946 - United Kingdom

Very early BBC TV outing for Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy produced by George More O'Ferrall and transmitted live from Alexander Palace as a Christmas treat on 21 December 1946. Subtitled 'Some of her Adventures in Wonderland' this 40 minute broadcast was adapted by English novelist and playwright Clemence Dane (the pseudonym of Winifred Ashton) and shown twice (performed live) before disappearing into the ether forever.

15 year-old Vivian Pickles (who went on to have a distinguished career and, at the time of writing is 87 years-old and living in London) played Alice and supporting cast included Erik Chitty (as White Rabbit), twenty years before he appeared as 'Smithy' in Please Sir! and a young Miriam Karlin (as Cook) some years before she starred as the stroppy shop steward who became something of a national institution in The Rag Trade.

Published on November 27th, 2018. Written by Laurence Marcus (source BBC Genome) for Television Heaven.

Filter

Alphabetically

Air date

Air location

Play and Single Dramas

Don't Utter A Note (1966)

July 31st, 2019

Charity begins at home for Florence and Nellie when they take on ex-criminal Basher Bates as their lodger-but just who is being reformed?

The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968)

November 28th, 2020

In a future Britain, the appetites and passions of the masses are controlled by television. When audiences show signs of boredom, the broadcasters must find new methods to engage them.

Uncle Harry (1958)

January 10th, 2022

This 'lost' BBC play is a dark psychological story of how a kindly, benevolent, and somewhat mundane bachelor can transform into a cold and pre-meditated murderer

A Place of My Own (1960)

April 4th, 2020

A group of building workers have one thing in common - their dreams for the future; but Ken, the foreman, is cruelly determined to make them see that their dreams can never be fulfilled.

Daddy Kiss It Better (1968)

May 26th, 2024

Television play about a married couple who's marriage is falling apart, written by one of British theatre's greatest writers of the last 60 years, that was broadcast on Yorkshire Television's opening night in July 1968

The Major Barbara (1962)

April 3rd, 2020

"The greatest of our evils and the worst of our crimes is poverty, and our first duty, to which every other consideration should be sacrificed is not to be poor."

TVH

Television Heaven Magazine

Interviews

Read Next...

Freedom in September

A Soviet musician is missing from his hotel. He wanders through 1962 London trying to contact people he has met and known in Russia. Who are these people? What lies behind his desperate search?

Also tagged Single Play

Heckle and Jeckle

Animated cartoon series - talking magpies with Brooklyn accents...and why not.

Also released in 1946

The Rag Trade

Staff turn militant in an East End sweatshop.

Also starring Miriam Karlin

Cold Equations

A teenager stows away aboard a rocket in order to visit her brother on another planet. But her actions put everyone else's safety in jeopardy.

Also tagged Single Play

Knock Three Times

Children's fantasy series starring Hattie Jacques as a magical aunt.

Also starring Erik Chitty

After the Funeral

When Alun Owen's play 'After the Funeral' was read by Sydney Newman, head of drama for ABC Television, and William Kotcheff, the television director, they were so taken by his conception of Wales and the Welsh, they decided to see for themselves.

Also tagged Single Play

Saki, The Improper Stories of H.H. Munro

Hector Hugh Munro, better known by the pen name Saki, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture and he is considered a master of the short story.

Also tagged Single Play

The Mating Machine

A series of seven stand-alone comedies featuring some of Britain's best sitcom writers and performers. The Mating Machine is united by a single theme - computer dating.

Also starring Miriam Karlin

The Close Prisoner

"We are all conceived in close prison: in our mother's wombs, we are close prisoners all...and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death..." John Donne.

Also tagged Single Play