TV
The Cocktail Party (BBC Drama, John Robinson)
When The Cocktail Party, based on the play by T.S. Eliot, begins we are in the London flat of Edward Chamberlayne where the cocktail party of the title is in the process of winding up. As events play out we learn that Edward’s wife Lavinia, who is absent from the party, has in fact left him.
Cast: John Robinson (Edward Chamberlayne), Ralph Michael (Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly), Eileen Peel (Lavinia Chamberlayne), Maxine Audley (Celia Coplestone), Gladys Boot (Julia Shuttlethwaite), Ronald Price (Alexander MacColgie Gibbs), Eric Lander (Peter Quilpe), Moira Redmond (Nurse-Secretary), Henry Livings (Caterer’s Man)
Writer: T. S. Eliot / Producer: Michael Barry
UK / BBC / 1×90 minute episode / Broadcast Thursday 4 April 1957 at 8.30pm