Latest / The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa
#127 Gertrude Jennings' Five Birds in a Cage - The BBC's First Comedy Drama
The BBC's first:
in-house drama for adults
non-Shakespeare drama
comedy drama
studio production of a modern stage play
drama to be reviewed on air
writer to be on two channels at once
...however you phrase it, Gertrude Jennings' Five Birds in a Cage deserves far more attention than it's had for the past century and a bit.
In our moment-by-moment British broadcasting timeline it's 29 November 1923 when the BBC set the template for the modern radioplay with this adaptation of Jennings' satirical stageplay about five Tube passengers trapped in a lift. Will they get out? Will they throttle each…
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