Hay Fever (Classic Radio Theatre)

Noël Coward

Mar 2011 · BBC Digital Audio · Narrated by Full Cast, Peggy Ashcroft, and Tony Britton

About this audiobook

Judith Bliss is a famous actress who, after a string of successful roles, has retired to her country retreat. Missing the adulation of her public, she has has invited a fan over for a weekend of uninterrupted adoration - unaware that the rest of her family has company arriving too. Hoping for a delightful weekend, the four unwitting visitors are subjected to the full force of the Bliss’s theatrical lifestyle... Noël Coward’s sparkling comedy features a stellar cast including Millicent Martin, Maurice Denham and Julia Foster. This recording was first issued on cassette in 1988.

About the author

Noël Coward was born in 1899, and was a professional actor by the age of ten. In 1920, he starred in his own play, I'll Leave it to You. His first major hit was The Vortex (1924) and his success continued throughout the Twenties and Thirties with plays including Hay Fever (1926), Private Lives (1930) and Design for Living (1932). During the Second World War, he wrote the patriotic screenplay In Which We Serve (1942), for which he won an Oscar; as well as scripting the classic film Brief Encounter (1944) and entertaining the nation with the black comedy Blithe Spirit (1941). After the war, Coward added a new string to his bow as a cabaret singer, as well as continuing to write musicals and plays. In all, Coward wrote 40 plays, 300 songs and numerous poems, short stories and films. He was knighted in 1970, and died in Jamaica in 1973.