Terence Rattigan - Flare Path
BBC Home Service: Saturday Night Theatre
Broadcast: Saturday 11th December 1965
Flare Path - the runway lights showing aircraft where to take off or land, follows the night of a dangerous raid behind enemy lines as
seen from a country hotel near an R.A.F. Bomber Command airfield where, as the vivacious Countess says, "...old Jerry hangs about
over the aerodrome... and they don't know he‘s there, then just when they‘ve lit the flare path and the boys are taking off, or coming in
more likely... he‘ll swoop down on them and shoot them up..."
In the residents' lounge the women wait... life and relationships hang in the balance. The Skipper‘s wife, the glamorous Patricia, is
harbouring a guilty secret, the fun-loving Countess, wife of an ace Polish Flying Officer, faces an uncertain future... Maudie, the Air
Gunner‘s wife who, like so many millions, has had her settled domestic life turned inside out by the war. The arrival of a Hollywood star
Peter Kyle and the outcome of the night raid on Germany throw up a conflict of love and duty. Bombing raids, banter, black-outs,
bravery... and broken hearts. The lights of the flare path may welcome the courageous airmen back to base, hearth and home but
they also light the way to daring - and deadly - danger...
The play is moving, dramatic, tense but not without humour. Its central conflict - duty versus love - still resonates.
With the outbreak of the war, Rattigan initially went to work for the Foreign Office, but later served in combat as a gunner on Atlantic
U-boat patrols. He continued to write regularly, enduring a string of stage failures until 1942, when his topical drama "Flare Path",
based on his combat service, won the favor of critics and audiences and enjoyed a nearly two-year run. The play was also produced
for a short run in New York in a production starring Alec Guinness.
Adapted by Kenneth Morgan from Terence Rattigan's 1942 stage play, "Flare Path" which Rattigan based for his 1945 screenplay of
the film "The Way to the Stars".
With Basil Jones [Peter Kyle, a Hollywood Actor], Betty Baskcomb [Countess Doris Skriczevinsky, the Barmaid], Jane Wenham
[Patricia Graham, Teddy's Wife aka Patricia Warren, the Actress], Anthony Hall [Flight-Lieutenant Teddy Graham], Joe Stern
[Sergeant Dusty Miller], Norma Griffin [Mrs. Maudie Miller], Anthony Jacobs [Count Johnny Skriczevinsky], Eric Anderson
[Squadron-Leader Swanson], Gladys Spencer [Mrs. Oakes, the Landlady], and Tim Seely [Percy]
Produced by R. D. Smith
Re-broadcast on Saturday 4th October 1969
Size: 41,237 kb kbps: 64 kHz: 22 Time: 1 hr. 27 min. 57 sec. (Mono)
Thanks to Roadcone and Usenet
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