The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa podcast

#127 Gertrude Jennings' Five Birds in a Cage - The BBC's First Comedy Drama

15/09/2026

The British Broadcasting Century with Paul Kerensa

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The BBC's first:

  • in-house drama for adults
  • non-Shakespeare drama 
  • comedy drama
  • studio production of a modern stage play
  • drama to be reviewed on air
  • writer to be on two channels at once

...however you phrase it, Gertrude Jennings' Five Birds in a Cage deserves far more attention than it's had for the past century and a bit.

In our moment-by-moment British broadcasting timeline it's 29 November 1923 when the BBC set the template for the modern radioplay with this adaptation of Jennings' satirical stageplay about five Tube passengers trapped in a lift. Will they get out? Will they throttle each other first? What does it have in common with Blackadder Goes Forth?

The BBC had broadcast a drama aimed at children (The Truth about Father Christmas by Phyllis Twigg - see episode 72 of this podcast), some Shakespeare plays (see episode 55 of this podcast), an excerpt of GK Chesterton and the occasional on-location panto. But the in-house modern radio drama was a new idea.

Although Richard Hughes' A Comedy of Danger from 1924 is credited as the first original radio play for adults, Five Birds in a Cage was an impressive adaptation of Gertrude Jennings' 1915 stage play of the same name - and it was reviewed on air too.

In this episode, three experts bring you everything you never knew you needed to know about Jennings and her work. Professor Tim Crook is Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths University of London, and author of Writing Audio Drama among many other books, as well as the superb blog at kulturapress.com. Nicola Morgan and Dr Caroline Rance host the excellent and vital She Wrote Too podcast, elevating and amplifying under-appreciated female writers from the early twentieth century.

Plus hear that first review of a radio play by Archibald Haddon the first BBC drama critic. We tell of other forgotten radio drama moments, including Howard Rose's recollections of a dramatic broadcast on 2 September 1922, pre-BBC. And you'll hear Peter Eckersley and Rolls Wynn on their Cyrano de Bergerac broadcast from 17 October 1922. Plus the bizarre quirk that makes her the first writer to have two different productions on two different channels at the same time... for five minutes anyway.

Gertrude Jennings wrote quite a play - a social satire, a farce, a character comedy, with sound effects and a point to make. We're delighted to shout about it here - and see our shownotes below for She Wrote Too's podcast about her too, as well as Tim Crook's writing about her and other forgotten female writers.

 

SHOWNOTES:

Next time, Episode 128: Early Muslim and Gaelic voices on the BBC 

More on this broadcasting history project at paulkerensa.com/oldradio

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