"Alice in Wonderland - miscellaneous TV plays"

Film and TV productions across the years

There have been several versions of Lewis Carroll's fantasy presented as television plays, some of them have been preserved, some are sadly gone for ever. This page rounds up the ones we know about which aren't featured elsewhere on the website and where there isn't enough material to give them a page each. Some of the details are sketchy, so any further information would be gratefully received. I'm indebted to Marc Berezin who has researched most of the UK plays mentioned here.

1937: ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS : BBC production : Alice played by URSULA HANRAY : Directed by George More O'Ferrall

Extracted from http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/history7.htm :-
"From 1936 to 1938 the BBC transmitted a series called Theatre Parade, which presented selected scenes from popular London theatre productions of the time, although these were filmed in the BBC's television studios at Alexandra Palace. In 1937 the first production of Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass went before the cameras courtesy of Nancy Price's Little Theatre production and starring Ursula Hanray as Alice. (Pictured left with Andrew Lee on the right as Tweedledum, and Ernest Butcher on the left as Tweedledee)."

1946: ALICE IN WONDERLAND : BBC production : Alice played by VIVIEN PICKLES : Directed by George More O'Ferrall : With: Erik Chitty and Gwyneth Lewis

1960: THE ADVENTURES OF ALICE : BBC production : Alice played by GILLIAN FERGUSON : Writer/Producer Charles Le Faux

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

UK TV PLAY : BBC2 production : first transmitted 25th December 1973, repeated on the 27th December 1974 and on the 25th December 1976

Alice played by SARAH SUTTON

Writer/ Director: James McTaggart : Music : Herbert Chappell : Costume: Mary Woods

Principal cast: Geoffrey Bayldon as The White Knight / Brenda Bruce as The White Queen / Freddie Jones as Humpty Dumpty / Richard Pearson as The White King / Judy Parfitt as The Red Queen / Stanley Lebor as Goat / Carpenter / Jeffrey Segal as Man in White Paper Suit / Jonathan Cecil as Old Father William / Stephen Moore as Haigha / John Scott Martin as The Red King

Alice was played by SARAH SUTTON and, along with some of the cast, is pictured right at one of the film locations, Osterly Park. The video-taped production features sets and costumes based on the original Sir John Tenniel illustrations, and while there is some use of camera magic the focus is entirely on text and characterization. The script is true to Carroll's text in almost every detail. Sarah Sutton would continue in the SF fantasy business by travelling through time and space as a companion of the ever-popular Doctor Who, and there are other connections with Doctor Who in James McTaggart who wrote and directed some episodes, and John Scott Martin who often portrayed monsters in various episodes.

1973: ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS : Thames Television production : Alice played by CAROL HOLLANDS : Producer: Daphne Shadwell

1985 : ALICE IN WONDERLAND : Anglia TV production : Alice played by GISELLE ANDREWS : presented as a weekly series of five 25-minute episodes.

1986: ALICE IN WONDERLAND : BBC production : Writer/Director Barry Letts : Alice played by KATE DORNING : a 4-part series of 30 minute episodes.
Elisabeth Sladen played the Dormouse. Like Sarah Sutton and Deborah Watling, she was a Doctor Who companion, and Barry Letts was also a well-known 'Doctor Who' writer and producer.

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ALICE
Granada TV production : Date and cast unknown

Marc Berezin of NYC writes, "I recently purchased a copy of the excellent book 'Making a Monster: the Creation of Screen Characters' by the Great Makeup Artists by Al Taylor and Sue Roy (NY: Crown Publishers, 1980). In a chapter on Christopher Tucker, there is mention of "The Private Lives of Alice" [which] was a Granada Television production...[Tucker] had about ten or twelve characters to create for this production, which was more or less a takeoff on Alice in Wonderland. Tucker created lizards, dormice, the Queen of Hearts, the Gryphon and the White Rabbit."

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