OTD in early British television: 13 September 1938
John Wyver writes: Running at 56 minutes when it was first transmitted on Tuesday 13 September 1938, Felicity’s First Season by Charles Terrot has a claim to being the first full-length play written for television. The script, however, preserved on microfiche in the BBC archives, reveals it as theatrical comedy manqué, taking place in two rooms with just a short filmic bridge to indicate a change of scene to Scotland.
According to one critic, ‘the audience was amused and interested throughout’ by the mildly diverting tale of the rivalry for the hand of debutante between an impecunious journalist and a posh boy with a private plane. George More O’Ferrall was the producer entrusted with this fluff. ‘The result,’ the critic concluded, ‘was something between a stage play and a film – that is to say, good television entertainment.’
[OTD post no. 270; part of a long-running series leading up to the publication on 8 January 2026 of my book Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain, which can now be pre-ordered from Bloomsbury here.]
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