Matheson Lang

Synopsis: Radio broadcast. Dramatic critic James Agate reviews Matheson Lang’s career on the English stage. The talk is illustrated with extracts from gramophone records featuring Lang as Othello in Act V ii.
Series: Stars in Their Courses
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Radio
Recording date: 1 Mar 1933
Transmission details: 10 Jun 1933 at 09:20 (Channel: BBC National Programme)
Duration: 25 mins

Writer

William Shakespeare

Contributor

James Agate

Cast

Matheson Lang

Production type: Documentary/Educational/News
Plays: Othello
Keywords: actors; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Lang, Matheson (1879-1948)

Notes: Broadcast on the Daventry National Programme.This production is one of the earliest BBC Shakespeare recordings to have survived.
General: Stars in their Courses consisted of a series of talks devised by dramatic critic James Agate (1877-1947) in 1933, in which he talked about the achievements of famous theatrical actors and actresses in London. The programme would be rounded off with actors’ performances of short scenes from their past successes by way of illustration. These performances would either be recorded live or played from gramophone records.
Reviews: Source: Radio Times, The Times, BBC Archive
BBC catalogue reference: 274.
James Agate writes about his conception of the series in ‘Actors, Past and Present’, Radio Times, 31 March 1933, p. 798.

SHAKESPEARE