Mrs Dale's Diary
Encyclopedia
Mrs Dale's Diary was the first significant BBC
radio
serial drama. It was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme
on 5 January 1948, and subsequently transferred to the newly formed Radio 2
in 1967, where it ran until 25 April 1969. A new episode was broadcast each weekday afternoon, with a repeat the following morning.
The main scriptwriter for many years was Jonqil Antony, and her first collaborator (under a pseudonym)
was Ted Willis, later to originate equally well-known characters for Dixon of Dock Green
.
The lead character, Mrs Dale, was played by Ellis Powell until she was sacked in controversial circumstances in 1963 and replaced by Jessie Matthews
. An innovative characteristic of the programme was that a brief introductory narrative in each episode was spoken by Mrs Dale as if she were writing her diary.
's wife, husband Jim, and the comings and goings of a middle-class society. The Dales lived at Virginia Lodge in the fictional London
Metro-land
-style suburb of Parkwood Hill. They moved there from the real area of Kenton
, which straddles the border between the London boroughs of Brent
and Harrow
. Later in the series, to modernise the programme and its setting, the producers relocated the family in the fictional new town
of Exton New Town.
Mrs Dale's mother was Mrs Freeman, whom Jim always called, rather gravely, "mother-in-law". The family had one daughter, Gwen, and a son, Bob. Bob, who worked in the motor
trade, was married to Jenny; they had twins. Gwen was widowed after her husband David was killed in a water-skiing accident in the Bahamas where he was holidaying with his rich mistress. Mary Dale's sister Sally (which she always pronounced "Selly") lived in Chelsea and moved in exotic circles. The Dales and their friends (and Captain, Mrs Freeman's cat, apparently named after her late husband's rank when he fell in the First World War) got along in almost perfect harmony. It was all respectable, comfortable and middle-class, although one of the characters, an artist named Jago Peters (played by a young Derek Nimmo
), once tried to use a neighbour's Scandinavian au pair
as a nude model.
sympathetically in a leading part – Sally's husband. It was a brave move to feature a gay man, especially when homosexuality was still illegal in the United Kingdom. Clearly the programme's makers considered the time was right for the subject to be featured. Richard Fulton, however, was an odd character to use, in several ways. Not least is that (though apparently based on the homosexual writer Patrick White
) Richard's history in the serial was heterosexual. He was in fact a character who had developed a lot, having been presented in the early days as a monster of petulance.
were conscious that the series was considered by the media to be twee and hopelessly old fashioned. The changes included a new theme tune composed by Ron Grainer
(he was behind the futuristic theme tune for Doctor Who
. "Dance in the Twilight" from Eric Coates
' Springtime Suite also served as a signature tune for a time.
The following year, Frank Marcus's play The Killing of Sister George
opened in London, starring - as did the later film - Beryl Reid. The story featured an actress who loses her part in a long-running serial, and clearly has connections with the controversy over Ellis Powell. "Sister George", however, was not replaced - her character was killed off, a far more common situation for an actor.
The new Mrs Dale was Jessie Matthews
. Lord Olivier
, who adored The Dales (he was a fan of British soap opera per se, and expressed a desire to appear in Coronation Street
, a wish never fulfilled) referred to Jessie Matthews being cast as Mrs Dale as "The most wonderful example of mis-casting in the history of the profession".
When it became The Dales, the show did try to copy The Archers
, which was originally a medium to disseminate information to the agricultural community, and to give an insight into rural affairs to the public. Thus medical stories became the order in The Dales. In this manner, The Dales became in the mid 1960s much like the BBC One
soap opera Doctors
, the plots revolving around medical conditions and problems. When the series ran a story about the importance of women having regular cervical
smear tests
and checking their breast
s for lumps
, the junior health minister praised the programme, saying it had encouraged thousands of women to see their doctor.
The serial ran for 5,431 episodes, culminating with the engagement of Mrs Dale's daughter Gwen to a famous TV professor on April 25, 1969. On news of its demise, Liberal MP Peter Bessell
attempted to introduce a reprieve for the series in Parliament. The BBC Sound Archive
hold only five complete episodes of Mrs Dale's Diary, and seven complete episodes of The Dales.
In the same year Charles Simon, who had played Dr Dale in the Jessie Matthews years, did his own continuation of the story, going on tour in At Home With The Dales. This show has its place in theatre history as the first professional venture of Cameron Mackintosh, now renowned for large-scale musicals. The Dales play was written by Charles Henry, who was soon discovered to be the versatile and experienced Charles Simon. It is a workmanlike comedy that takes a few liberties with established characters, but deserved a better fate than to die on the road. Later dates in the tour were cancelled because the audience did not seem to be there. "It would have been different if Jessie had done the tour" Charles Simon remarked to another actor a few months later. But he was the only member of the radio cast to make the transition.
The play was published, but has seldom been revived. In 1972 it received an amateur production at Rugby Theatre with Bridget Watson as Mrs Dale and Harry Roberts as her husband the doctor. The only professional revival seems to have been in 1997 at the Kenneth More Studio Theatre in Ilford, when Angela Ellis and Roger Braban played the senior Dales.
magazine
Private Eye
. The writers (primarily John Wells
) presented Mrs Wilson as seeing herself as comfortably middle class, in contrast to the working class pretensions as opposed to middle class actuality of her husband, for example the Wincarnis
(a brand of tonic wine) and the worsted
suits with two pairs of trousers (Wilson
was from Huddersfield
, a town famous for the manufacture of worsted cloth).
:
It was also one of the recordings used for torture in the BBC Listening Room, that episode's parody of Room 101
.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
serial drama. It was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme
BBC Light Programme
The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2...
on 5 January 1948, and subsequently transferred to the newly formed Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
in 1967, where it ran until 25 April 1969. A new episode was broadcast each weekday afternoon, with a repeat the following morning.
The main scriptwriter for many years was Jonqil Antony, and her first collaborator (under a pseudonym)
was Ted Willis, later to originate equally well-known characters for Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
.
The lead character, Mrs Dale, was played by Ellis Powell until she was sacked in controversial circumstances in 1963 and replaced by Jessie Matthews
Jessie Matthews
Jessie Matthews, OBE was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period.-Early life:...
. An innovative characteristic of the programme was that a brief introductory narrative in each episode was spoken by Mrs Dale as if she were writing her diary.
Format
The serial centred around Mrs Mary Dale, a doctorGeneral practitioner
A general practitioner is a medical practitioner who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. They have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues and comorbidities...
's wife, husband Jim, and the comings and goings of a middle-class society. The Dales lived at Virginia Lodge in the fictional London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Metro-land
Metro-land
Metro-land is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the 20th century, and were served by the Metropolitan Railway, an independent company until absorbed by the London...
-style suburb of Parkwood Hill. They moved there from the real area of Kenton
Kenton
-Notable people:* Actress Michele Austin, best known as PC Yvonne Hemmingway in ITV's The Bill, attended Claremont High School in Kenton* Cricketer Denis Compton lived in Kenton* TV exercise instructor Mr Motivator lived in Kenton...
, which straddles the border between the London boroughs of Brent
London Borough of Brent
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 2,022. This rose slowly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 5,646 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived the rate of population growth increased...
and Harrow
London Borough of Harrow
The London Borough of Harrow is a London borough of north-west London. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and other London boroughs: Hillingdon to the west, Ealing to the south, Brent to the south-east and Barnet to the east.-History:...
. Later in the series, to modernise the programme and its setting, the producers relocated the family in the fictional new town
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
of Exton New Town.
Mrs Dale's mother was Mrs Freeman, whom Jim always called, rather gravely, "mother-in-law". The family had one daughter, Gwen, and a son, Bob. Bob, who worked in the motor
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
trade, was married to Jenny; they had twins. Gwen was widowed after her husband David was killed in a water-skiing accident in the Bahamas where he was holidaying with his rich mistress. Mary Dale's sister Sally (which she always pronounced "Selly") lived in Chelsea and moved in exotic circles. The Dales and their friends (and Captain, Mrs Freeman's cat, apparently named after her late husband's rank when he fell in the First World War) got along in almost perfect harmony. It was all respectable, comfortable and middle-class, although one of the characters, an artist named Jago Peters (played by a young Derek Nimmo
Derek Nimmo
Derek Robert Nimmo was an English character actor. He was particularly associated with upper-class "silly-ass" roles, and clerical roles.-Career:...
), once tried to use a neighbour's Scandinavian au pair
Au pair
An au pair is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a small monetary allowance for personal use...
as a nude model.
Treatment of homosexuality
The programme is thought to be the first British mainstream drama which depicted a character known to be homosexualHomosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
sympathetically in a leading part – Sally's husband. It was a brave move to feature a gay man, especially when homosexuality was still illegal in the United Kingdom. Clearly the programme's makers considered the time was right for the subject to be featured. Richard Fulton, however, was an odd character to use, in several ways. Not least is that (though apparently based on the homosexual writer Patrick White
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
) Richard's history in the serial was heterosexual. He was in fact a character who had developed a lot, having been presented in the early days as a monster of petulance.
Changes to the format
In February 1962, the serial was renamed The Dales. The linking narratives by Mrs Dale were dropped. The reason was that the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
were conscious that the series was considered by the media to be twee and hopelessly old fashioned. The changes included a new theme tune composed by Ron Grainer
Ron Grainer
Ronald Erle “Ron” Grainer was an Australian-born composer who worked for most of his professional career in the United Kingdom. He is mostly remembered for his film and television music.- Biography :...
(he was behind the futuristic theme tune for Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. "Dance in the Twilight" from Eric Coates
Eric Coates
Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire to William Harrison Coates , a surgeon, and his wife, Mary Jane Gwynne, hailing from Usk in Monmouthshire...
' Springtime Suite also served as a signature tune for a time.
Scandal
In 1963 Ellis Powell was dropped from the role of Mary Dale. She was bitter and said a lot to the press. The state of her health probably affected the situation as she died soon afterwards.The following year, Frank Marcus's play The Killing of Sister George
The Killing of Sister George
The Killing of Sister George is a 1964 play by Frank Marcus that was adapted as a 1968 film directed by Robert Aldrich.- Stage version :Sister George is a beloved character in the popular radio series Applehurst, a nurse who ministers to the medical needs and personal problems of the local villagers...
opened in London, starring - as did the later film - Beryl Reid. The story featured an actress who loses her part in a long-running serial, and clearly has connections with the controversy over Ellis Powell. "Sister George", however, was not replaced - her character was killed off, a far more common situation for an actor.
The new Mrs Dale was Jessie Matthews
Jessie Matthews
Jessie Matthews, OBE was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period.-Early life:...
. Lord Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
, who adored The Dales (he was a fan of British soap opera per se, and expressed a desire to appear in Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
, a wish never fulfilled) referred to Jessie Matthews being cast as Mrs Dale as "The most wonderful example of mis-casting in the history of the profession".
The Dales
In its last years, The Dales became more sensational. Mrs Dale became a councillor, a position she had to relinquish when she caused a man's death by careless driving. A heart attack forced Dr Dale to retire from practice. Perhaps the most famous storyline was Jenny getting measles; listeners wrote in thousands complaining that she had already had measles in 1949.When it became The Dales, the show did try to copy The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
, which was originally a medium to disseminate information to the agricultural community, and to give an insight into rural affairs to the public. Thus medical stories became the order in The Dales. In this manner, The Dales became in the mid 1960s much like the BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
soap opera Doctors
Doctors (BBC Soap Opera)
Doctors is a British daytime television soap opera, set in the fictional Midland town of Letherbridge, defined as being close to the City of Birmingham. It was created by Chris Murray; Mal Young drove its development, and Carson Black was the original producer. The first episode was broadcast on...
, the plots revolving around medical conditions and problems. When the series ran a story about the importance of women having regular cervical
Cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri or cervical area. One of the most common symptoms is abnormal vaginal bleeding, but in some cases there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer is in its advanced stages...
smear tests
Pap smear
The Papanicolaou test is a screening test used in to detect pre-cancerous and cancerous processes in the endocervical canal of the female reproductive system. Changes can be treated, thus preventing cervical cancer...
and checking their breast
Breast
The breast is the upper ventral region of the torso of a primate, in left and right sides, which in a female contains the mammary gland that secretes milk used to feed infants.Both men and women develop breasts from the same embryological tissues...
s for lumps
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
, the junior health minister praised the programme, saying it had encouraged thousands of women to see their doctor.
The serial ran for 5,431 episodes, culminating with the engagement of Mrs Dale's daughter Gwen to a famous TV professor on April 25, 1969. On news of its demise, Liberal MP Peter Bessell
Peter Bessell
Peter Joseph Bessell was a British Liberal Party politician, and Member of Parliament for Bodmin in Cornwall from 1964 to 1970....
attempted to introduce a reprieve for the series in Parliament. The BBC Sound Archive
BBC Sound Archive
The BBC Sound Archive is a collection of audio recordings maintained by the BBC and founded in 1936. Its recordings date back to the late 19th century and include many rare items including contemporary speeches by public and political figures, folk music, British dialects and sound...
hold only five complete episodes of Mrs Dale's Diary, and seven complete episodes of The Dales.
Spin-offs
Over the years it ran there were a number of books written around the characters, several authored in whole or part by Jonquil Antony, the most important scriptwriter at the beginning and for many years. In 1970, the year after the programme finished, she took back her former characters after a fashion, publishing Dear Dr Dale, a novel set after the end of the serial.In the same year Charles Simon, who had played Dr Dale in the Jessie Matthews years, did his own continuation of the story, going on tour in At Home With The Dales. This show has its place in theatre history as the first professional venture of Cameron Mackintosh, now renowned for large-scale musicals. The Dales play was written by Charles Henry, who was soon discovered to be the versatile and experienced Charles Simon. It is a workmanlike comedy that takes a few liberties with established characters, but deserved a better fate than to die on the road. Later dates in the tour were cancelled because the audience did not seem to be there. "It would have been different if Jessie had done the tour" Charles Simon remarked to another actor a few months later. But he was the only member of the radio cast to make the transition.
The play was published, but has seldom been revived. In 1972 it received an amateur production at Rugby Theatre with Bridget Watson as Mrs Dale and Harry Roberts as her husband the doctor. The only professional revival seems to have been in 1997 at the Kenneth More Studio Theatre in Ilford, when Angela Ellis and Roger Braban played the senior Dales.
Catchphrase
The phrase seized on by caricaturists as typical of Mrs Dale's narrative was "I'm rather worried about Jim..." Indeed, the phrase was a staple of many comedy programmes, radio and television, in the early Sixties aiming to poke fun at safe, staid and undemanding middle-class lifestyles. The last line of the last episode was "I shall always worry about Jim..."Mrs Wilson's Diary
Mrs Dale's Diary was the basis of Mrs Wilson's Diary in the fortnightly satiricalSatire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
. The writers (primarily John Wells
John Wells (satirist)
John Wells was an English actor, writer and satirist, educated at Eastbourne College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford...
) presented Mrs Wilson as seeing herself as comfortably middle class, in contrast to the working class pretensions as opposed to middle class actuality of her husband, for example the Wincarnis
Wincarnis
Wincarnis is a brand name of a British tonic wine, popular in Jamaica and some other former British colonies. It is a fortified wine now made to a secret recipe of grape juice, malt extracts, herbs and spices, but it no longer contains meat...
(a brand of tonic wine) and the worsted
Worsted
Worsted , is the name of a yarn, the cloth made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from the village of Worstead in the English county of Norfolk...
suits with two pairs of trousers (Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
was from Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
, a town famous for the manufacture of worsted cloth).
Goon Show
The show was mentioned in the following episodes of The Goon ShowThe Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
:
- Nineteen Eighty-Five, (s05 ep15- January 5, 1955), in which mention is made of Mrs Dale's Real Diary:
- Seagoon: I want to read it. What's it called?
- Bluebottle: It's called Mrs Dale's Real Diary.
- Seagoon: Mrs Dale's...?? Heavens -- would the BBC stop at nothing? So this was how they kept the masses from thinking.
- Bluebottle: Eheehee! Look at this page! Eheehee! It's a Three-D picture of Mrs Dale in her nightshirt being chased by Richard DimblebyRichard DimblebyRichard Dimbleby CBE was an English journalist and broadcaster widely acknowledged as one of the greatest figures in British broadcasting history.-Early life:...
... Eheehee! Eheeheehee! Eheeheeoooooughhhh... pauses to wipe drool off chin.
It was also one of the recordings used for torture in the BBC Listening Room, that episode's parody of Room 101
Room 101
Room 101 is a place introduced in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. It is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia....
.
- The History of Pliny the Elder (s07 ep25- March 28, 1957):
- Seagoon: Fear not! We shall fight them up hill and down Mrs Dale!
- In The Man Who Tried To Destroy London's Monuments, (s04 ep02- October 9, 1953), Eccles regains consciousness and is told he is in Mrs Dale's Diary.
Round The Horne
- The programme was often a 'target' (albeit an affectionate one) on the BBC Radio comedy Round The HorneRound the HorneRound the Horne was a BBC Radio comedy programme, transmitted in four series of weekly episodes from 1965 until 1968. The series was created by Barry Took and Marty Feldman - with others contributing to later series after Feldman returned to performing — and starred Kenneth Horne, with Kenneth...
, referred to as "Mrs Dire's Dreary" with the part of Mrs Dire being played by Kenneth WilliamsKenneth WilliamsKenneth Charles Williams was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.-Life and career:Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February...
External links
Published References Include
- Mrs Dale's Diary: Gwen's Love Story (No writer given) Pub:Chambers, 1951
- BBC Year Book For 1952 Pub: British Broadcasting Corporation 1951
- Mrs Dale At Home Jonquil Antony Pub: Macdonald, London, 1952
- Mrs Dale Jonquil Antony & Robert Turley Pub: The World's Work 1958
- The Dales of Parkwood Hill Jonquil Antony & Robert Turley Pub: The World's Work 1959
- Mrs Dale's Friendship Book Jonquil Antony Pub: Arlington Books 1961
- The Dales Rex Edwards Pub: British Broadcasting Corporation 1969
- Dear Dr Dale Jonquil Antony Pub: Corgi 1970
- Pulling Faces For A Living James Dale Pub: Victor Gollancz 1970
- At Home With The Dales Charles Simon Pub: Samuel French 1971
- Evening All: Fifty Years Over A Hot Typewriter Ted Willis Pub: Macmillan 1991
- Broadcasting It Keith Howes Pub: Cassell 1993