OTD in early British television: 11 February 1938
John Wyver writes: The range of plays produced at Alexandra Palace between 1936 and 1939 is truly remarkable. Of the 400 or so stagings, many were of popular potboilers, but there were also numerous classics from the tradition of English literature, clutches of Irish and Scottish plays, and a perhaps surprising number of plays from abroad — including on the afternoon of Friday 11 February 1938, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by the Czech writer Karel Čapek.
The 56-minute adaptation of this dystopian tale of rogue robots was taken from a version by the late Nigel Playfair of the text which was first staged in 1921. Recognised as television’s first science fiction tale, AP’s production was mounted by Jan Bussell with Stephen Jack and Cherry Cottrell in the lead roles.
The Times‘s review welcomed the production but was ambivalent about its success:
It is 15 years since this play was produced [by Nigel Playfair], yet the satire is as fresh and biting as ever… The scene is laid on an island where the manufacture of robots – artificial peoplke who can do any sort of work – is carried on…
In spite of… precautions, the robots do combine, they rise against their masters and start to massacre mankind. The robot factory is surrounded, and the handful of human beings within know that there is no quarter to be expected from artificial people…
The production… failed at the decisive moment to give sufficient atmosphere of tension… When the robots did appear at last they were difficult to see, as two pictures were superimposed (a television trick which should be used with caution), which spoilt the effect of both.
In spite of a good deal of condensation, which made the loss of many fine speeches inevitable, the play exerted its old fascination in the new medium… all the players combined to make the production a success.
Derek Johnston has authored a very fine, detailed article about both this 1938 production and a subsequent television staging a decade later in 1948. His careful reading of the Times review of the first presentation, and of another from the Daily Telegraph that I have not been able to locate, sets the critical comments against a broader understanding of early television drama, and is is thoroughly recommended (if you have access to the paywalled journal online): ‘Experimental moments: R.U.R. and the birth of television science fiction’, Science Fiction Film and Television, 2:2 (Autumn 2009), pages 251-68.
As he writes:
The focus of these reviews on appearance – the human look of the robots, the use of close-ups, the intimacy of the television screen – all demonstrate how television was being perceived as a highly visual medium, as does the special effect used to show the ‘robot horde’ as they begin their massacre.
Indeed, a survey of newspaper reviews and articles about television of this period held by the BBC Written Archive Centre shows a constant return to questions of televisual form and style, and issues of technology and the suitability of different types of programming for the medium, over questions of content or quality of performance.
I am not sure I agree that questions of ‘quality of performance’ were not as important to the AP producers as questions of form and style, but I certainly endorse his conclusion that:
The 1938 production of R.U.R. thus serves as an example of the earliest experimental period of television drama. It particularly illustrates the ways in which producers of the time were trying new techniques better to utilise and to test the scope and technology of television production in order to develop an identity for the medium which was different from its theatrical, radio and cinematic forebears.
Derek Johnston’s analysis can also be read as part of his 2009 PhD dissertation, ‘Genre, Taste and the BBC: The Origins of British Television Science Fiction’, which pleasingly is freely downloadable from Academia.edu here.
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