Wasp's Nest (Christie TV play)
Encyclopedia
BBC television drama
BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom...
broadcast on the BBC Television Service
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on 18 June 1937. It was adapted from the short story of the same name by crime writer Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
which had first appeared in the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
on 20 November 1928 and first appeared in book form in the US collection Double Sin and Other Stories
Double Sin and Other Stories
Double Sin and Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1961 and retailed for $3.50...
in 1961. It first appeared in a UK collection in Poirot's Early Cases
Poirot's Early Cases
Poirot's Early Cases is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club in September 1974. The book retailed at £2.25...
in 1974.
The play is unique in that it is the only instance of Christie adapting one of her works for television, a medium she later came to dislike. It was broadcast live
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
from Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is a building in North London, England. It stands in Alexandra Park, in an area between Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green...
as part of the programme Theatre Parade
Theatre Parade
Theatre Parade was a British television programme, one of the world's very first regular shows, running on the BBC Television Service from its inception in 1936 until 1938...
. The broadcast took place at 3.35pm and lasted for twenty-five minutes. It was then repeated the same evening at 9.40pm and lasted for twenty minutes. Theatre Parade usually showcased successful stage shows of the time but in this instance presented an original work.
The play was only broadcast in the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
area as this was the only part of the UK that could receive television transmissions at this time. Neither transmissions were recorded for future viewing as television recording equipment had not been invented at this point in time.
The play is notable for starring Francis L. Sullivan
Francis L. Sullivan
Francis Loftus Sullivan was an English film and stage actor. He attended Stonyhurst, the Jesuit public school in Lancashire, England whose alumni include Charles Laughton and Arthur Conan Doyle.A heavily built man with a striking double-chin and a deep voice, Sullivan made his acting debut at the...
in the part of Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
, reprising his portrayal of the character following his success in the stage play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
Black Coffee
Black Coffee (play)
Black Coffee is a play by the British crime-fiction author Agatha Christie which was produced initially in 1930. The first piece that Christie wrote for the stage, it launched a successful second career for her as a playwright....
in 1930.
A three-line review in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
of 20 June 1937 by "E.H.R" stated that the first performance was "excellently done".
Director/Producer: George More O'Ferrall
Cast:
- Francis L Sullivan
- Wallace Douglas
- D.A. Clarke-Smith
- Antoinette Cellier