An early BBC television adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s fantasy sequel.
Young Alice (Ursula Hanray) steps through a looking-glass into a world structured like a giant game of chess. To reach the eighth square and be crowned a queen, she must travel across the strange landscape, encountering a series of peculiar characters along the way. Her journey brings her face to face with the argumentative twins Tweedledum (Andrew Leigh) and Tweedledee (Ernest Butcher), the pedantic Humpty-Dumpty (Esmé Percy), and the kindly but inept White Knight (Fred O’Donovan).
This production stands as a pioneering example of televised literary drama, broadcast live from Alexandra Palace just two months after the official launch of the BBC Television Service. Based on a stage play directed by Nancy Price, George More O’Ferrall’s television production would have been a technically ambitious undertaking for the period. Adapting the surreal logic and fantastical imagery of Lewis Carroll’s novel with the rigid, studio-bound limitations of early television presented a formidable challenge. The performance was transmitted live twice on the same evening, a common practice at a time when recording technology for television did not exist.
There was another live production broadcast on 21 December 1937, this saw Ursula Henry once again playing Alice and production from George More O’Ferrall.
Broadcast: BBC, 2 Performances, Friday, 22 January 1937
Based on the book by: Lewis Carroll
Play production by: George More O’Ferrall
Directed for the stage by: Nancy Price
Main Cast: Ursula Hanray (Alice), Esmé Percy (Humpty-Dumpty), Andrew Leigh (Tweedledum), Ernest Butcher (Tweedledee), Elizabeth Maude (White Queen), Fred O’Donovan (White Knight), Betty Thorogood (Pawn), David Lewis (Red Horse), Robert Syers (Red Horse), Paul Peters (White Horse)
