OTD in early British television: 30 July 1939
John Wyver writes: Radio Times‘s ‘The Scanner’ was enthusiastic ahead of a presentation of Lionel Brown’s new play Fox in the Morning which was shown on Sunday 30 July 1939. Brown penned moderately successful comedies that were staples of the rep circuit, and his Square Pegs had been adapted for television back in February.
Like Square Pegs, Fox in the Morning was to be produced by Fred O’Donovan, who had assembled a strong cast including Helen Haye and Jessica Tandy, Felix Aylmer and D.A. Clarke-Smith. I have not been able to track down a copy of the script, nor any reviews of the show, but perhaps all we need to know is that the setting is ‘the morning-room at “Condover”, the country house of the Brunell family.’
What excited ‘The Scanner’, however, was that although intended for the West End, Fox in the Morning was to have effectively a ‘try out’ on television before going to the stage. As the journalist wrote,
This is, I believe, an innovation—never before has a West-End playwright released a full-length play to Alexandra Palace before its stage premiere. It will have a run of four weeks in the provinces and then, all being well, be put on in the West End.
As far as I can see from a look through the newspaper archives, however, although Fox in the Morning was played on radio during August, the play never went before a live audience, the plan presumably scuppered by the imminent war.
[OTD post no. 225; 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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