Simon and Laura

Satirising the early days of BBC Television, Simon and Laura focuses on an argumentative theatrical couple called Simon and Laura Foster; they've been together for some 20 years and are given a new lease of life when playing a faux-harmonious version of 'themselves' in a daily soap opera filmed in their own home. Presented by H M Tennent Ltd, the play began a provincial tour at the Opera House Manchester on 30 August 1954, subsequently opening at the Strand Theatre in London's West End on 25 November. Directed by Murray Macdonald, it starred Roland Culver, Coral Browne, Ian Carmichael, Dora Bryan, Ernest Thesiger and Esma Cannon, with settings designed by Alan Tagg.[1]

According to Frances Stephens, editor of Theatre World, "Simon and Laura has as its amusing central theme the guying of television family serials and the author is well served by the very talented cast."[2] "We have often been taken, with sufficiently comic results, behind the scenes in the playhouse and film studio", noted The Stage, "but it has remained for Mr Melville to exploit television, the latest form of entertainment. He does it very well, though most of the characters are absurd rather than human as we know humanity in the auditorium. The dialogue abounds in lines that arouse an involuntary chuckle or laugh; the situations, if occasionally laboured, are ingenious and hilarious." The play's centerpiece – when the filming of the soap's 200th edition goes disastrously wrong – was referred to as a "glorious free-for-all rumpus before the cameras."[3]

Other estimates were less enthusiastic. "The comedy", claimed The Times, "is not, taken as a whole, a particularly good one, but there are a great many quips which will come home to the business and bosoms of [television] viewers."[4] Kenneth Tynan, in The Observer, concluded that "As a mechanical tilt at television, the play is acceptable, though the plot is a rattle of dry bones."[5] Despite these critiques, the play was a success; it moved to the Apollo Theatre on 14 February 1955 and was seen by HM Queen Elizabeth on 24 March.[6] In all it ran for six months, closing on 28 May.

The play went out on tour again in the UK from July. At the same time, husband-and-wife team John McCallum and Googie Withers toured it with great success in Australia, playing it in repertory with the Terence Rattigan drama The Deep Blue Sea.

The film version went into production at Pinewood in the first week of June 1955,[7] immediately after the play's closure at the Apollo. It opened at the Gaumont Haymarket on 24 November (on a bill with On Such a Night), with general release following on 26 December.[8]

Melville's TV satire appeared on Danish television (Simon og Laura) in December 1955, Swedish television (Simon och Laura) in February 1960, and Finnish television (Simon ja Laura) in November 1960. Then, almost ten years to the day since its West End premiere, it made it to British TV, via the recently inaugurated channel BBC2, on 19 November 1964.

The director was Christopher Morahan, the producer Cedric Messina, and the settings were designed by William McCrow. Ian Carmichael was this time cast as the middle-aged Simon rather than the ambitious young BBC producer David Prentice, the role he'd previously played both on stage and film. David was played instead by Richard Briers, with Moira Lister as Laura.

Melville, who appeared in person to introduce the play, made various changes to his original script, including a self-reflexive rewrite for Simon's initial objections to working on TV: "Television? You call that a wonderful job? Three weeks' rehearsal, not enough money to cover your bus fares out to Lime Grove, technical breakdown in your one big scene, and no repeat performance? No, thank you." For BBC2 this became: "Television? You call that a wonderful job? Three weeks’ rehearsal in a draughty drill hall, technical breakdown in your one big scene, and then your play goes out on BBC2? No, thank you."

Noting this, The Stage reported that "The script, with its lemon and sugar contrasts and archly sophisticated laughs, had been brought up to date with contemporary references and fitted happily into its new medium."[16] It was repeated on 6 March 1966 but has not been seen since.

• Roland Culver – Simon Foster
• Coral Browne – Laura Foster
• Ernest Thesiger – Wilson
• Esma Cannon – Jessie
• Ronald Radd – Mr Wolfstein ('Wolfie')
• Ian Carmichael – David Prentice
• Dora Bryan – Janet Honeyman
• Lance Secretan – Timothy [pre-London tour]
• Michael Caridia – Timothy [West End]
• David Morrell – Barney
• Kenneth MacLeod – Joe
• Thomas Elliott – Bert
• Vivienne Drummond – Miss Mills
• Pauline Stroud – Mabel
• Roger Page – Archie
• Carole Shelley – Angela (added to the play mid-run, not in the published script)

• Peter Finch – Simon Foster
• Kay Kendall – Laura Foster
• Muriel Pavlow – Janet Honeyman
• Hubert Gregg – Bertie Burton
• Maurice Denham – Wilson
• Ian Carmichael – David Prentice
• Richard Wattis – Controller of Television Drama
• Thora Hird – Jessie
• Terence Longdon – Barney
• Clive Parritt – Timothy
• Alan Wheatley – Adrian Lee
• Beverley Brooks – Mabel
• Tom Gill – TV producer
• Nicholas Parsons – TV producer
• David Morrell – TV producer
• Joan Hickson – barmaid
• Charles Hawtrey – railway porter
• Cyril Chamberlain – Bert
• Philip Gilbert – Joe
• Julia Arnall – make-up girl (Miss Mills)
• Gilbert Harding – himself
• Isobel Barnett – herself
• Peter Haigh – himself
• George Cansdale – himself

• Ian Carmichael – Simon Foster
• Moira Lister – Laura Foster
• Charles Lloyd-Pack – Wilson
• Molly Urquhart – Jessie
• Philo Hauser – Wolfie
• Richard Briers – David Prentice
• Penny Morrell – Janet Honeyman
• Susan Ashworth – Mabel
• Henry McGee – Bert
• Reg Lever – Archie
• Bruce Wightman – Joe
• David Jackson – Barney
• Paul Holdaway – Timothy
• Lesley Allen – Miss Mills

• Simon and Laura at IMDb
• Simon and Laura at Screenonline