The Sunday Night Play - "20 new plays presented by BBC Television" (1960-61)

[Billy Smart]

This is an impressive ongoing investigation that will be worth keeping track of over the coming weeks. John Wyver has hooked on to a forgotten, prestigious, 1960-61 season of twenty new original plays for BBC Television, and is blogging about each play in turn.

Introduction: '20 new plays', BBC, 1960-61 https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/20-new-plays/

And the first two plays -
A Walk in the Desert by John Whiting https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/20 ... sert-1960/
The Unplayed Part by Leopold Louth https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/20 ... part-1960/

John Whiting is still a known quantity, but finding out who on earth Leopold Louth was is a heroic feat of research!

[stearn]

I don't mean any disrespect here, but was it really a heroic feat of research to find out about Louth?

Typing in Leopold Louth into the British Newspaper Archive came up with results immediately. The first result I got was from the Daily Mirror dated 3 Oct 1960:

http://www.sarnold.co.uk/mc/LouthMirror.jpg

"The Unplayed Part," a sensitive first play by novelist Leopold Louth."

The Herald Express (under the Torbay Express and South Devon Echo entry on BNA) dated 1 Oct 1960

http://www.sarnold.co.uk/mc/HeraldExpress.jpg

goes further "The Unplayed Part," to be seen to-morrow on television is by Leopold Louth, who has had four novels published."

Reviews of at least one of the novels appear (Old Men Have Grey Beards, The Tatler 16 Jun 1954) and the Portsmouth Evening News dated 4 Feb 1955 has a humorous piece written by him:

http://www.sarnold.co.uk/mc/Louth01.jpg

http://www.sarnold.co.uk/mc/Louth02.jpg

Granted, not everyone has access to the British Newspaper Archive (although it is a modest cost for a private individual even if their academic institution doesn't subscribe) and I would expect academics to be consulting all the digital resources they could, especially when Caversham, the best source of information, is off-limits.

[Billy Smart]

None of those sources tell you what his real name was or about his life after 1960, though.

[stearn]

My apologies, I thought it was that he was a published novelist. As a pen name, it is certainly a good one to be found with searches! That'll teach me to read the whole article before I go off down my own rabbit hole searching - RT listings, newspapers etc.!

[Mark]

Looks like an excellent series of articles, another good read then.

[Billy Smart]

The next two plays in the season, both lost:

The Ruffians by Alun Owen - https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/20 ... ians-1960/
Pay Day by Roderick Barry - https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/20 ... -day-1960/

An intriguing, sad, story behind the autobiographical Pay Day.

[Billy Smart]

This series of articles hops out of chronological sequence to tell us about the BBC Television Christmas night drama for 1960. This one survives in the BBC Archives!:

Tuppence in the Gods by Michael Voysey - https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/20 ... gods-1960/

[Simon Coward]

None of those sources tell you what his real name was or about his life after 1960, though.

No, Google does that, which is even worse, really. At that's not meant to knock the pieces themselves, just that that aspect seems to be the easiest bit to do and so the least worthy of praise for the enterprise as a whole.