A live-for-television children’s fantasy based on the classic Lewis Carroll novel.
Framed by a meeting with the author himself, Lewis Carroll (Barry Letts), this production follows young Alice (Lisa Barnett) as she tumbles down a rabbit hole into a bizarre and nonsensical world. Her journey begins with a pursuit of the perpetually late White Rabbit (Michael Segal) and leads her to encounters with a series of peculiar characters. These include a philosophical Caterpillar (Charles Hawtrey), the grinning Cheshire Cat (Peter Hawkins), and the argumentative Duchess (Peter Bull). Alice’s strange trip culminates in a chaotic tea party with the Mad Hatter (Patrick Cargill) and the March Hare (Kenneth Connor), a meeting with the melancholy Mock Turtle (Miles Malleson), and a final, perilous confrontation with the tyrannical Queen of Hearts (Violet Gould) at a surreal croquet match and trial.
This live New Year’s Day production was an ambitious undertaking for the BBC’s children’s department, assembling a formidable cast of British character actors to populate Carroll’s fantasy world. The technical demands of mounting such a visually complex story in a live studio setting were considerable, requiring inventive solutions for the story’s scale shifts and surreal transformations. While a straightforward adaptation, the programme is most notable today for its remarkable company of players. Established names like Miles Malleson and Peter Bull appeared alongside future comedy mainstays Charles Hawtrey, Patrick Cargill, and Kenneth Connor, making the production a significant snapshot of the talent available to television in the mid-1950s.
Broadcast: BBC, 1 Episode, Sunday, 1 January 1956
Adapted by: Herbert M. Prentice
Director: Peter Newington
Music: Alfred Reynolds
Main Cast: Lisa Barnett (Alice), Barry Letts (Lewis Carroll), Michael Segal (White Rabbit), Charles Hawtrey (Caterpillar), Peter Bull (Duchess), Kenneth Connor (March Hare), Patrick Cargill (Mad Hatter), Violet Gould (Queen of Hearts), Miles Malleson (Mock Turtle), Peter Hawkins (Cat), Raymond Rollett (King of Hearts), John Franklyn (Gryphon), Patrick Newell (Frog Footman)
