Radio Drama · Listeners' uploads · Drama

The Rivals

Heard
1968
Episodes
1
Language
English

Dame Flora [1902-1984] was giant of stage, screen and television. BBC Radio 4 Extra is delighted to feature one of her rare radio appearances in a drama not heard for 57 years.

More about it

Originally featured as part of the 1968 Flora Robson Festival, 'The Rivals' is a 'comedy of manners' written by Dublin-born Richard Brinsley Sheridan [1751-1816] which premiered at Covent Garden Theatre in January 1775.

The drama is set in 18th century Bath, where the wealthy and fashionable went 'to take the waters'. In a wonderfully convoluted plot, a cheeky alias is almost the undoing of two young lovers’ plans. Knowing that Lydia Languish is a hopeless romantic her sweetheart, Captain Jack Absolute, has assumed the persona of a poor army officer. Lydia is enthralled with the idea of eloping with him under the nose of her moralistic guardian, Mrs Malaprop, played by Dame Flora. How will Lydia react when she learns that the impoverished object of her desire is actually well-to-do Jack?

Dame Flora is joined by Peter Pratt, Christine Finn, Bernard Brown, William Ingram, Rosalind Shanks, Peter Tuddenham, Denys Hawthorne, Barbara Mitchell, Christopher Bidmead, Ronald Herdman, Alan Dudley, Carol Marsh and LeRoy Lingwood. - https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/proginfo/2025/03/the-rivals

Episodes, in broadcast order

  1. BBC Radio 4

    · 1 h 28 min

Where it comes from 1

The archive items its episodes are played from, best first, with each one’s rights as its archive states them. An episode two sets both hold is played from the first.

  1. The Rivals

    Listeners' uploads · Richard Brinsley Sheridan · 1 episode here · archive.org

    the Internet Archive states no licence or rights for it.

Uploaded to the Internet Archive by the person named, outside its radio collections.

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