An epic television play, staged with lavish spectacle to inaugurate a new studio complex.
Narrated by a mysterious Storyteller (Orson Welles), this fantasy intertwines two classic tales from the Persian court. In the first, the young Nuri (Robert Loggia) falls in love with Anis (Susan Stranks), a beautiful slave girl. The second story follows the troubles of a provincial Governor (Henry Kendall), who must rule his domain while caught between the counsel of his benevolent Grand Wazir, Jafar (Alan Wheatley), and the treacherous advice of the villainous Wazir Al-Muin (Martin Benson). The court of the great Caliph Haroun-Al-Raschid (Joseph O’Conor) and the humble garden of Ibrahim (Stanley Holloway) provide the backdrops for a story of love and palace intrigue.
Associated Rediffusion mounted An Arabian Night as a spectacular statement of intent, designed to inaugurate its new, state-of-the-art studio complex at Wembley. The production was a monumental undertaking for its time: a 75-minute play constructed on a cinematic scale. It employed a cast of over three hundred performers, a menagerie of live animals including an elephant, and a sixty-piece orchestra performing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade Suite. By casting the Hollywood star Orson Welles, flown in from Rome to act as narrator, alongside rising American actor Robert Loggia and British screen veteran Stanley Holloway, the company positioned the broadcast as a major international event. The entire enterprise was an exercise in creating prestige television, using the fantasy of the Persian court as a vehicle for technical ambition and lavish spectacle.
Broadcast: Associated Rediffusion, 1 Episode, 9 June 1960
Written by: Stanley Miller
Director: Mark Lawton
Producer: John McMillan
Music conducted by: Muir Mathieson
Main Cast: Orson Welles (The Storyteller), Stanley Holloway (Ibrahim), Robert Loggia (Nuri), Susan Stranks (Anis), Alan Wheatley (Jafar, the Grand Wazir), Martin Benson (Wazir Al-Muin), Henry Kendall (The Governor), Joseph O’Conor (Caliph Haroun-Al-Raschid)
