A series of vintage mockumentaries about fictional experimental composer Hilda Tablet

Written by poet Henry Reed and first broadcast on the Third Programme between 1953 and 1959, these spoof radio plays follow his alter ego, fictional biographer Herbert Reeve, as he goes in search of the truth about his hero, the equally fictional novelist Richard Shewin. But he is led down the garden path by Shewin’s friends and relatives, who would much rather talk about themselves than the great man. And when Reeve’s scholarly research leads him to the gifted avant-garde composeress Hilda Tablet, he finds himself inescapably enmeshed in her world of wild eccentricity...

A Very Great Man Indeed sees Reeve trying to extract information about the late Richard Shewin from a variety of oddball interviewees, including Shewin’s brother, Stephen; fellow author T. H. Powers and the formidable Miss Tablet.

In The Private Life of Hilda Tablet, he is persuaded to write the biography of the ‘lady music writer’, renowned for her groundbreaking ‘musique concrète renforcée' (or ‘music for reinforced concrete’). Luckily, it need not be lengthy – ‘not more than twelve volumes’.

Emily Butter recalls the Covent Garden premiere of Hilda Tablet’s opera, an all-female parody of Billy Budd set in a department store.

A Hedge, Backwards centres around the posthumous production of Richard Shewin's only play.

In The Primal Scene, as it were…, Hilda and her companions are transported (on a millionaire’s yacht) to the isles of Greece; and General Gland establishes himself as a major figure in her entourage.

Not a Drum Was Heard finds the General recounting his war memoirs to the BBC – and inadvertently revealing his less-than-heroic record.

Finally, Musique Discrète is a request programme of music by Dame Hilda Tablet, celebrating her appearance in the Honours List and revolving around her long and celebrated career.

Starring Hugh Burden as Herbert Reeve, Mary O’Farrell as Hilda Tablet, Carleton Hobbs as Stephen Shewin and Deryck Guyler as General Gland, this sparkling seven-part saga features a host of well-known actors including Marjorie Westbury, Gwen Cherrell, Norman Shelley and Dennis Quilley, and music composed by Donald Swann.

NB: Due to their age, these recordings contain some dated attitudes and language.

Production credits
Written by Henry Reed
Produced by Douglas Cleverdon
Music by Donald Swann

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