Submitted by Hazel Bell, Welwyn Hatfield u3a
Langley Radio Theatre
The Langley Radio Theatre of Notting Hill Gate was a recording studio, directed by Neil Fraser, that recorded new plays by unknown authors who hoped by this means to persuade the B.B.C. to listen to their efforts.
My mother, Kay Macaulife, an actress living in Wimbledon, sometimes participated in the recordings. She made these references to Langley Radio in letters written to her daughter.
20th Nov. 1954
I do a bit of recording with another society [Langley Radio Theatre] which is great fun although the sound of my own voice is pretty gruesome, especially as we are expected to read character parts in dialect at sight!
21 May 1955
I had a play done by Neal ... Joan [Langley] thinks I should try to sell it to the B.B.C. I have tried years ago, but at least this was encouraging and very surprising to me. It was a version of Making Tracks called Looking for Romance.
I am doing a bit of recording with Neal next week ...
25 May 1955
I went back to Neal last night to take part in my fourth Irish play running. These are all by a man who Neal appears to think is a second and superior Sean O'Casey. The plays are dreadful ... This time I was a Nun and a young girl who occasionally chatted together, which was fun.
2nd June 1955
Am just off to hear the recording of my last effort for Neal.
From her daughter's diary for 1955:
JULY 20 Went to the Radio Theatre with K — a new 3-act comedy, ‘The Quadrangle’ —not vg.
Hazel Bell