Noah Gives Thanks

Noah Gives Thanks

1952 - United Kingdom

Described in The Television Annual for 1953 as a 'Slight' play, Eric Crozier's Noah Gives Thanks, at 60 minutes, was shorter than the usual television play length at that time. 

Noah, Sarah and Jeremiah live quietly in the old almshouses. Noah's 70th birthday is due to coincide with a visit from the Bishop and for the occasion, using his own savings and ingenuity he plans for the Memorial Chapel to be decorated with as many fruits, flowers and produce of the earth as he can muster. 

Broadcast live on 22 January 1952, with no telerecording having been made, it was repeated at the request of viewers at a time when The Beeb was finding it difficult to select appropriate programmes due to the fact that the country was in mourning with King George VI lying in state. 

Reviewing the play in the London Evening News on Wednesday 23 January, critic Leslie Ayre wrote: We had one of those simple subjects that fall so readily within the scope of television. The gentle story of an old man who decides to decorate the 70th birthday had a genuinely moving quality. It could hardly have been more aptly cast, with Herbert Lomas as the old man and Mary Jerrold as one of those dear old ladies.

Noah Gives Thanks BBC play 1952

On both occasions Noah Gives Thanks caused what the 1953 TV annual describes as a 'furore'. "The BBC was bombarded with letters of enthusiastic appreciation and gratitude for this simple yet moving piece of drama; but the greater part of the bombardment fell on Herbert Lomas", the actor who played the part of Noah (pictured centre). At 66 years of age and a veteran actor of some forty years Lomas said, "I have never known such fan-mail." 

Pictured with Herbert Lomas in a scene from the play are Mary Jerrold and Beckett Bould. Also in the cast, in one of his earliest TV roles, was Deryck Guyler.   

Published on April 5th, 2020. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

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 Appleyards

Transmitted once a fortnight from 1952 in the Children's Television slot, The Appleyards is generally regarded as Britain's first television soap opera-even if it was made for kids.

Also released in 1952

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

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

The Secret Garden

A ten year-old orphaned girl is sent to live with an uncle she has never met.

Also released in 1952

Dumb Martian

Earthman Duncan Weaver on a solo tour of duty on one of Jupiter's moons buys a Martian woman as a companion. He mistreats her, assuming her to be just a "dumb Martian." He learns, to his cost, that she has more intelligence than he gives her credit for.

Also tagged Single Play

Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School

Comedic stories of a gluttonous, lazy, deceitful, self-important and conceited schoolboy that was all the rage in the 1950s.

Also released in 1952

All Summer Long

Willie has tried to make his father aware of the danger to their house from flood water, but Dad thinks that Willie's fears are excessive. Willie decides to spend all summer long building a wall to keep out the river, but his efforts are in vain.

Also tagged Single Play

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