Time for J.B. Priestley? Sunday evening 14.9.14

[Nick Armstrong]

This evening on R3:

I Have Been Here Before
Duration: 45 minutes
First broadcast: Sunday 14 September 2014 18:45
As Radio 3 dramatizes J.B. Priestley's Time and the Conways this Sunday, Francis Spufford explores the time-haunted world that obsessed Priestley and a host of other writers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04h7lr0

Time and the Conways
Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes
First broadcast: Sunday 14 September 2014 22:00
Harriet Walter stars in a new production of J.B. Priestley's well-known play from 1937 which toys with the idea of time, telling the story of one family in several scenes set over 19 years

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04gwb2q

I've been aware of and intrigued by the 'time plays' for ages, I can recall my dad talking about them when I was small... but for some reason never got around to investigating for myself.

Anyone a fan... a sceptic...?

And anyone going to listen?

And (if you are reading this from tonight onwards), what did you think?

[antongould]

Good spot Rumpole ......I shall certainly been listening. In my far off student days I was a great fan of Priestley and would recommend any of the time plays and also the novel Bright Day.

Didn't Andre Previn and Johnny Mercer write a musical version of The Good Companions

[mercia]

yesterday 4 extra had Dangerous Corner which was enjoyable, and I guess on the same theme. There was also a repeat of the archive hour about JB's wartime broadcasts

........ and today the play I Have Been Here Before

[teamsaint]

A good spot indeed.

Much quicker than actually reading it......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is it a repeat?

[teamsaint]

Is it a repeat?

Incidentally, they go to bed late on R4, dont they?

[Padraig]

Good spot Rumpole ......I shall certainly been listening. In my far off student days I was a great fan of Priestley and would recommend any of the time plays and also the novel Bright Day.

Didn't Andre Previn and Johnny Mercer write a musical version of The Good Companions

Far off student days...... ah where does the time go? There's a play there! I remember J.B.P from then too, and have lost touch since, I'm afraid.
Good opportunity now to catch up. But not tonight as I'm going to a concert celebrating Seamus Heaney down in his own country in South Derry.
So, if an Inspector Calls I shall not be at home.

[Nick Armstrong]

Is it a repeat?

[antongould]

As mercs has spotted R4 Extra is awash with stuff celebrating his 120th anniversary. I have just listened to an Archive hour on his famous Postscripts of which I knew shamefully little. The odd recording remains and they are IMVHO very moving indeed.

[clive heath]

Here is the story of my successful Priestley playlet production !

As a result of taking the Entrance Exam for Selwyn/ St. Cats which was in the spring (not the preceding, autumn) term I was by default the oldest member of my house and became House Captain. Which was OK. However it meant that I was in charge of organising the troops for the dramatic section of the English Competition. The Juniors had to do " Macavity" and the seniors had JBP's "The Rose and Crown". So I was under the bar which extended across the stage pushing up pint glasses as the customers arrived and in most cases started their whingeing "..rissoles... nice they seemed at the time... then my stomach felt.. heavy as lead.." etc. etc. Also convenient for prompting. The outcome was that the production (!) got so many marks from the visiting judge that we went from fourth to first which meant that I had to thank our guest* after accepting the cup or whatever. Which would have been harder if, consequent on our fourth place, I hadn't had a quick pint nearby during the interval and the performances by the other houses. My father described the speech as a series of quick quips. "Get up, Get on, Get off" Did someone say that? The time element is that toward the end of the play the miseries who have been offered the chance to end it all have declined and are invited to listen to themselves, hence a re-run of the earlier whingeing which our lot did in a stilted zombie fashion. I remember reading Dunne's book on Time which I've had to look up and hey presto!

An Experiment with Time is a long essay by the Irish aeronautical engineer J. W. Dunne (1875 — 1949) on the subjects of precognition and the human experience of time. First published in March 1927, it was very widely read, and his ideas promoted by several other authors, in particular by J. B. Priestley.

(Thanks to wiki). I seem to remember writing down my dreams for a while but they were very boring and even if they did come true, so what! It's like the riposte to people who tell you of the most extraordinary coincidence that happened to them. It would be just as amazing if coincidences didn't happen ever. An observation not a put-down.

We have tickets for "Dangerous Corner" at Richmond Theatre later in the month picked up while we were there for "Hay Fever" which I know very well as I saw it every night for a week at Lincoln Theatre Royal. Did anyone see that ghastly creaking staging of "An Inspector Calls" at the NT way back which was nevertheless well performed? Oops, or was it only Benedict Nightingale and me who felt that way about the production?

* He may have been a senior man (Read/Reid) at a BBC Staff Training Facility, maybe at Amersham. This was 1959-ish.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Did anyone see that ghastly creaking staging of "An Inspector Calls" at the NT way back which was nevertheless well performed?

You can't - please! - mean the wonderful version (with Kenneth Cranham as Goole) in which the house collapsed at the denouement? One of the very best evenings at the theatre in my life - completely rejuvenated a play from which I thought I knew what to expect.

[clive heath]

I do.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I do.

[clive heath]

... but the house creaked before the action even started (spoiler alert!?) as though Hytner had no faith in the/his production and if he didn't, why should we?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ah! Perhaps they'd tightened the screws by the time I got to see it - the collapse was totally unexpected and riveted.