Libel by Edward Wooll

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Jim Robarts September 11, 2012 at 10:22pm

Thank you.
Robert Flood September 11, 2012 at 11:02am

Rick -
Thanks so much for these offerings. I enjoy learning about old BBC Radio plays.
Bob
Anson (Bob) Roberts September 9, 2012 at 5:58pm

Radiolistings has the date as 19640905

and provides this cast:
Starring: John Boxer/Patrick Barr/Hamlyn Benson/Wilfrid Carter.

The VRPCC confirms the 1964 date and has excellent detail:

BBC Home Service: Saturday Night Theatre

Broadcast: Saturday 5th September 1964

It is a Spring afternoon in London, the year 1930. The court of Mr. Justice Arthur Tuttington at the Royal Courts of Justice, King's Bench Division, is in full session and is about to begin the trial of an action for libel.

Mark Loddon has brought a libel action against "The Daily Gazette" in which it printed, after Mark Loddon was elected Member of Parliament in 1929, a paragraph headed 'A Political Imposter':

"The legislature recently returned to the House of Commons Sir Mark Loddon, Baronet Member of Parliament. He's not a Baronet - not even a Loddon - and can be hardly accurately described as a Member of Parliament as he secured his return by practicing on the electorate the same deliberate fraud he practiced on his wife."

Mark Loddon was engaged to Enid Winterton in 1914 just before war broke out and married her in May 1919. He had gone to France with his battalion in August 1914 only to be taken prisoner that year in a battle where he was shot through both thighs and badly shell-shocked. He was taken to a German hospital where he spent three months before being sent to an Officer's Prison Camp where he remained until October 1918 when he escaped with two Canadian Officers of which one resembled him very closely. After a month on the run, they were separated in the dark near the Belgian frontier in November 1918, about three days before the Armistice.

Loddon, never knowing what happened to the Canadians, made his way easily to the English lines and then was invalided home where he retired from the army and had a long rest cure. After six months he was as well as he ever could be and married his wife even though, because of the war, he has practically no recollection at all of events or persons before his imprisonment. In the Autumn of 1929 he entered public life as an M.P.

But one of the Canadian Officers who was with him during their escape survived and recognises him...

Adaptation for radio by Raymond Raikes of Edward Wooll's 1935 stage play, "Libel".

With John Boxer [Mr. Justice Arthur Tuttington], George Merit [The Associate], Patrick Barr [The Plaintiff, Sir Mark Loddon, 3rd Baronet of Norfolk. M.P.], Hamlyn Benson [Sir Wilfred Kelling, K.C., Counsel for the Plaintiff], Wilfred Carter [Mr. Thomas Foxley, K.C., Counsel for the Defendants], Bruce Beeby [The Junior Counsel for the Plaintiff, Mr. William Bale], Alan Haines [Mr. George Hemsby], Nikolette Bernard [Lady Enid Loddon, the Plaintiff's Wife], Peter Marinker [Patrick Buckingham], Raif Trueman [Emile Flordon], and Michael Kilgarriff [Numero Quinze / The Narrator].

Produced by Raymond Raikes.

Re-broadcast on BBC Home Service: The Sunday Play on Sunday,

Source: http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/review-libel.html
- Riklaa > Anson (Bob) Roberts September 11, 2012 at 5:10am
  
  Thanks Bob,All the information you posted under my post is correct for the 1964 BBC release of the Play "Libel"and the text is correct in it's play description. There was a previous release of the play libel that was was broadcast was in 19503012 and starred James McKechnie/Norman Shelley/Donald Wolfit. This immediately negates your claim that the play I posted is the 1964 release. The cast stated in the play does not match the 1964 release, but does match the cast information I obtained from Suttonelms and others. The play I posted was released in 1950 and is listed as Lost according to Suttonelms. In the other source links I posted it is also listed as lost at one and in Private collection only in the other. There is only minimal information listed at sottonelms for the plays that they consider lost, which is the reason I asked for more information. Please check the play out yourself as it does have have it's original intro and outro with the complete cast.
  
  http://audiodrama.wikia.com/wiki/Saturday_Night_Theatre_plays
  
  http://www.saturday-night-theatre.co.uk/broadcasts.php
  
  http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/lost8.html
- Anson (Bob) Roberts > Riklaa September 11, 2012 at 10:04am
  
  You are, of course, correct.
  
  I suggest that you drop a note to the folks at VRPCC (suttonelms) and offer them a copy of your find. They will be glad to get it and will gratefully acknowledge it.
- Riklaa > Anson (Bob) Roberts September 13, 2012 at 2:42pm
  
  I presume that Roadcone who posted it on Usenet or one of the other Usenet posters has done so. I did not find it, I just downloaded it from Usenet and passed it on.
  
  Could you please post your SNT set. I and many others would love to hear them. ----------- Rick
- cath bailey > Riklaa September 11, 2012 at 6:34am
  
  Thank you, look forward to listening. Dont you just love the old bbc radio plays
- Riklaa > cath bailey September 11, 2012 at 8:13am
  
  I certainly do.

Whodunit (Mystery, Crime & Detectives)

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