George R. Foa

Broadcast on 1 February 1956, composer Arthur Benjamin's Mañana was the first opera commissioned by the BBC. "The small Andalusian village comes to life in a sequence of short scenes introducing its inhabitants: a group of gossiping washerwomen, the prying eyes of the old rich widow looking down from her window, the neglected boy playing in the square, the pickpocket at work, the lazy man stretched out snoring in the midday sun, the Wise Man who mends china and writes letters for the poor and is fed in turn by the community. What will happen on the day when his food is given to a boy wrongly imprisoned in the local gaol and the Wise Man goes hungry? His anger is such that he prophesies the end of the world for mañana (tomorrow morning) and the credulous village repents and makes ready to meet its doom." —George R. Foa

A scholarly king and his three companions swear off the society of women for three years, only to have a diplomatic visit from a French princess and her three ladies-in-waiting thwart their intentions.

Maurya, who lives in a village on the coast of Ireland, has lost her husband, father-in-law, and five sons to the sea. With a sense of foreboding, she predicts that by nightfall she will have no living sons remaining.

The 30 minute play, specially written for television by Scottish writer, Duncan Ross, takes place in a pub in Yorkshire. Marius plays Lester Hockley, a man blind from birth. Lester has been secretary to a deceased artist, Paul Stanton, whose character and work are being discussed by the regulars in the pub that night.

Broadcast on 1 February 1956, composer Arthur Benjamin's Mañana was the first opera commissioned by the BBC. "The small Andalusian village comes to life in a sequence of short scenes introducing its inhabitants: a group of gossiping washerwomen, the prying eyes of the old rich widow looking down from her window, the neglected boy playing in the square, the pickpocket at work, the lazy man stretched out snoring in the midday sun, the Wise Man who mends china and writes letters for the poor and is fed in turn by the community. What will happen on the day when his food is given to a boy wrongly imprisoned in the local gaol and the Wise Man goes hungry? His anger is such that he prophesies the end of the world for mañana (tomorrow morning) and the credulous village repents and makes ready to meet its doom." —George R. Foa

Broadcast on 1 February 1956, composer Arthur Benjamin's Mañana was the first opera commissioned by the BBC. "The small Andalusian village comes to life in a sequence of short scenes introducing its inhabitants: a group of gossiping washerwomen, the prying eyes of the old rich widow looking down from her window, the neglected boy playing in the square, the pickpocket at work, the lazy man stretched out snoring in the midday sun, the Wise Man who mends china and writes letters for the poor and is fed in turn by the community. What will happen on the day when his food is given to a boy wrongly imprisoned in the local gaol and the Wise Man goes hungry? His anger is such that he prophesies the end of the world for mañana (tomorrow morning) and the credulous village repents and makes ready to meet its doom." —George R. Foa

A scholarly king and his three companions swear off the society of women for three years, only to have a diplomatic visit from a French princess and her three ladies-in-waiting thwart their intentions.

Maurya, who lives in a village on the coast of Ireland, has lost her husband, father-in-law, and five sons to the sea. With a sense of foreboding, she predicts that by nightfall she will have no living sons remaining.

The 30 minute play, specially written for television by Scottish writer, Duncan Ross, takes place in a pub in Yorkshire. Marius plays Lester Hockley, a man blind from birth. Lester has been secretary to a deceased artist, Paul Stanton, whose character and work are being discussed by the regulars in the pub that night.