Picture of Autumn - N.C. Hunter - BBC RADIO DRAMA

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SNT - A Picture of Autumn by N.C. Hunter AGB17's own note: In the 1950s Hunter was a hugely successful writer of well-crafted - near- Chekovian - dramas of the post-war anxious middle classes, until being denounced for "vacuity" by the critic Ken Tynan in favour of the Angry Young Men then storming the crumbling ramparts. But as the critic Terry Teachout noted (in reviewing a recent revival of this play), both its themes and its craft have come back into perhaps not "fashion" but intelligent interest. The Denhams of "Picture of Autumn" are impoverished minor aristocrats struggling to keep up their decrepit country pile. Moreover, the elder ones are in declining physical and mental health, and their future care is a puzzle to their "different generation" children. As Teachout says, some of these themes resonate better now than those of, say, John Osbourne, who threw them over. Cast (Bob129): Lady Denum - Sybil Thorndike Sir Charles - Lewis Casson Harry- Phillip Ray Elizabeth - Rachel Gurney Robert - Haydn Jones Frank - Nigel Stock And Godfrey Kenton Tracy Rogers Theres also a 25 Feb 1956 BBC Home Service version starring Martin Lewis/Gladys Boot/Bryan Powley. File Information: First broadcast: BBC Home Service - Saturday Night Theatre 09 Sep 1961, repeated BBC Afternoon Theatre 11 June 1962 Duration: 1 hour 28 minutes