"Britannia Mews"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1052, 23 October 1959, Page 19

"Britannia Mews"

RITANNIA MEWS is perhaps the most popular novel by Margery Sharp. It tells the story of Adelaide, who came to the Mews in the 1880s as a young bride, -married against her family’s will to her drawing master, Henry Lambert. The marriage fails, a:id Henry dies in circumstances that leave his widow open to blackmail by a neighbour in the mews. It is not until Gilbert Lauderdale, a down-and-out actor, comes to the mews that Adelaide’s life begins again. He discovers some puppets made by Henry, and learns how to use them. He and Adelaide built up a prosperous puppet theatre, entertaining their neighbours and becoming very wellknown in the process. Then to the mews comes another young girl, a distant relative of Adelaide, who helps her new friend in her struggle for a life of her own. The final episode is set in the Blitz, when Gilbert and Adelaide, then very old, are still running their puppet theatre. This novel has now been serialised by the BBC, and will begin from the ZBs on Sunday, November 1. The part of Adelaide is taken by Peggy Cameron, who has the difficult task of ageing from a young woman to an old one of 80. It is a dramatic test that is also something of a comeback for the actress, whose career on BBC radio and television was interrupted in 1953 when she went with her husband and four children to Hong Kong. There she made her first acquaintance with the part, in a serial reading

she did of this novel. Then on her return to England, the part of Adelaide was her first major engagement. It is not. the first time she has had to age on the air or. for that matter, to appear an age other than her own. In one children’s serial she had to grow from three months to the mid-teens.