In drama Face to Face Angel, a young stage performer in a song and dance act falls in love with a rich older businessman and runs away with him, breaking up her stage act and earning the wrath of the businessman’s grown-up children.
This play was performed live and featured Diana Dors as Angel in her first TV role.
There was a short snippet about the production in the week’s Radio Times which stated that author Emery Bonnett (who was a she) had made the author a vital part of the play. The production opens in fact with the author going to his writing desk and remaining in shot throughout – the twist was that every time the author stopped writing the action of the play stopped and as this happened over the course of the drama the people in the drama itself began to realise that they were not actually real. A very J.B. Priestley-esque style conceit although the article suggested it was more akin to Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author.
production details
UK / BBC / 1×80 minute episode / Broadcast Tuesday 30 January 1951 at 8.30pm
Writer: Emery Bonett / Production Design: Barry Learoyd / Producer: Kevin Sheldon
cast
Diana Dors as Angel
Robert Ayres as Craig Brown
John Baker as A doorman
John Gatrell as Vincent Granam
Sarah Lawson as Myrtle Beninger
Thea Holme as Grace Hassett
Sonia Moray as A telegraph girl
Elizabeth Gray as Serena Pentonville
John Benson as Richard Beringer
Claude Bonser as Blake
Julian D’Albie as Arthur Beringer
