''Condemned To Be Shot'' was an early BBC television drama, broadcast by the

BBC Television Service BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...

in the United Kingdom on the evening of Saturday 4 March 1939. It is particularly notable for two reasons – firstly, it was one of the first plays to be written especially for

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

, rather than adapted from the

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

or from

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

. Secondly, it was the first television production where the camera was made into one of the 'characters' of the piece – the play revolves around the first-person perspective of the character whose viewpoint the camera represents, and who is not otherwise seen, his voice heard only in voiceover. The play ends with the main character faced with a

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

. The cast consisted of Reginald Brooke, Zoe Davies,

Olga Edwardes Olga Edwardes (born Olga Florence Solomon; 20 May 1915 – 23 July 2008) was a South African-born British actress and artist. Personal life Her father was Joseph Michael Solomon (1883–1920), an architect partner of Herbert Baker, but he comm ...

, Wilfred Fletcher, Neil Porter, Hilary Pritchard, Henry Belling and Ben Soutten. Twenty minutes in length, the play was written by R.E.J. Brooke (presumably the actor Reginald Brooke, who also appeared in the production). It was produced by Jan Bussell and broadcast

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from the BBC's studios at

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Origi ...

. As there was no professional method of recording television programmes at the time, no record survives of the production aside from still photographs.

References

BBC television dramas {{BBC-tv-prog-stub