George Bernard Shaw’s anti-romantic military comedy receives a new live television staging from the BBC.
During the Serbo-Bulgarian War, the young and idealistic Raina (Rosemary Scott) finds her romantic notions of heroism confronted by reality when Captain Bluntschli (André Morell), a pragmatic Swiss mercenary, seeks refuge in her bedroom. While her fiancé, Major Sergius Saranoff (Francis James), is fêted for a glorious but reckless cavalry charge, Bluntschli dismisses such heroics as unprofessional foolishness. He reveals he carries chocolates instead of extra ammunition, earning him the nickname “my chocolate cream soldier” and forcing Raina to reconsider her theatrical ideals about love and war.
This production illustrates the repertory nature of early BBC television drama. As broadcasts were transmitted live and were ephemeral events, popular plays were frequently restaged with new casts and directors, rather than repeated. This version of Shaw’s comedy, appearing just two years after a previous BBC staging, was an entirely fresh production mounted by Harold Clayton. The performance would have been captured by static electronic cameras, framing the action in a style that owed everything to the theatre. For the home audience, it represented another opportunity to experience a classic play, interpreted by a different company of actors.
Broadcast: BBC, 2 Performances, Wednesday 22 December & Friday 24 December 1954
Written by: George Bernard Shaw
Director: Harold Clayton
Main Cast: Rosemary Scott (Raina), Netta Westcott (Catherine), Barbara Lott (Louka), André Morell (Bluntschli), Leo de Pokorny (Nicola), Cameron Hall (Major Petkoff), Francis James (Major Sergius Saranoff), Patrick Macnee (An Officer)
