The Happiest Days of Your Life (play)

The title of the play alludes to the old saying, dating back to at least the early 19th century, that schooldays are "the happiest days of our lives".[1] The play was first seen on BBC Television in its early post-war days, screened live on 4 February 1947 and again on 6 February.[2] It was staged for a single Sunday-night try-out at the Strand Theatre, London, on 3 November 1947,[3] and opened at the Apollo Theatre, London on 29 March 1948 where it ran for 605 performances,[4] until 10 September 1949.[5]

The play is set in 1947. Dick Tassell is returning as a schoolmaster at Hilary Hall, a boys' school, after five years in the Royal Air Force. Many wartime expedients are still in force, and the staff of the College reconcile themselves to having to share their premises with another school, whose bombed buildings remain in ruins. But by a bureaucratic error, the school to be billeted at Hilary Hall is St Swithins – a girls' school.[7]

After early skirmishing and mutual disdain the Headmaster of Hilary Hall, Godfrey Pond, and the Principal of St Swithins, Miss Whitchurch, try to reach an accommodation to cope with the ensuing problems. Miss Whitchurch establishes an early advantage by getting the men to stop smoking on the premises and to have the dormitories reserved for the girls, with the boys reduced to sleeping in the carpentry room. She is obliged to cooperate with Pond when parents turn up, the girls' expecting netball, the boys', boxing and cricket. It is unthinkable that they should learn that their children are mingling with the opposite sex.[8] By frantic manoeuvring the staff keep the two lots of parents from meeting each other and ensure, by the narrowest of margins and high-speed moves of pupils from one classroom to another, that each set sees what they are expecting to see in the classroom and on the sports field. Matters are further complicated by the relations between the male and female teachers. Tassell and Joyce Harper, one of Miss Whitchurch's younger staff, become increasingly close (ending up together by the end of the play) while Miss Gossage, Miss Whitchurch's hearty deputy, becomes keen on Rupert Billings, Pond's blasé mathematics master, who is aghast at her interest in him.[9]

At the end of Act 2 the deception finally falls apart: both sets of parents, the boys and girls, and the staff of both schools all run into each other. Miss Whitchurch faints into Miss Gossage's arms.[10] In the last act the two head teachers make strenuous attempts to get the bureaucratic blunder resolved, while the parents become increasingly irate. At the end of the play a fleet of coaches arrives bearing the staff and pupils of another displaced school – this one co-educational. As the chaos mounts, Miss Whitchurch blows a piercing blast on a whistle, the action freezes and the play ends.[11]

The play was revived by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre in 1984, with a cast headed by Peggy Mount as Miss Whitchurch and John Cater as Pond, with Paul Greenwood as Dick Tassell and Richard O'Callaghan as Billings.[12] The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester staged a revival in 2004, with Janet Henfrey and Philip Madoc as Miss Whitchurch and Pond.[13]

A month after the run at the Apollo ended, the BBC televised the play for the third time, on 11 October 1949; Hermione Baddeley played Miss Whitchurch and Denys Blakelock played Pond. Other cast members included Digby Wolfe (Tassell), Alan Wheatley (Billings) and Isabel Dean (Joyce Harper).[14] Radio adaptations were made in 1952 with Winifred Oughton and Cecil Trouncer as Miss Whitchurch and Pond, 1965 with Marjorie Westbury and Carleton Hobbs, and in 1979 with Roger Hammond and Margot Boyd. A television version was broadcast in 1962 with Fabia Drake and Eric Barker.[15]

The play was adapted for the cinema under the same title in 1950 with a plot generally faithful to the original (Dighton being co-author of the screenplay). Rutherford played Miss Whitchurch, Pond was played by Alastair Sim and Joyce Grenfell played Miss Gossage.[16]