The other week I delivered a short piece to Radio Times about a 1956 production of David Copperfield. It was for my regular On This Day bits and there was no question in my mind that this was a worthy entry because according to the RT of the day, this 13-part serial was the first time the BBC had devoted so much time to one story. <\/p>\n
Or something, I can’t remember if that was qualified, whether it was the first 13-part classic serial. But it was something, and it was written by Vincent Tilsley, whose name leaps out at me because he wrote for The Prisoner.<\/p>\n
Only… tonight a fine, fine woman who is really smart at spotting problems a thousand miles off at Radio Times did some of that there spotting. David Copperfield, by Vincent Tilsley, was not broadcast in September 1956, it was in January 1966.<\/p>\n
I am not above making colossal mistakes, of course, and I was pale-faced aware of how calamitously late this spot was, how impossible it would be to fix before that page had to go to press.<\/p>\n
I’m the laziest man you’ll ever meet but I blurred tonight. And the reason I’m able to talk to you now is solely that I own a copy of the Kaleidoscope Television Drama Research Guides<\/a>. And it showed me the truth: Vincent Tilsley wrote two David Copperfield serials, one in 1956 and one in 1966.<\/p>\n Both were for BBC, both were 13-parts long (though the former was 13x30minutes, the latter 13×25) and there was no other connection between the two. So do you think he just got to dust off his 1956 scripts, crop five pages out and hand it over?<\/p>\n Either way, he wrote considerably more than I did on the topic: my On This Day was about ninety words. Nonetheless, I expect his work then required whisky as much as mine did today.<\/p>\n William<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The other week I delivered a short piece to Radio Times about a 1956 production of David Copperfield. It was … Continue reading