Picture above: Ian Hendry as Morgan Delt and Moira Redmond as Leonie Delt

Ian Hendry – A Suitable Case For Treatment, October 1962 [BBC TV Production]

By all accounts, Ian Hendry’s portrayal of Morgan Delt – in the BBC’s 1962 production of ‘A Suitable Case for Treatment’ – was considered to be exceptional.

Even David Warner, who gained considerable critical acclaim when he played the part in the film version made in 1966, agrees. David mentioned Ian’s performance when he was interviewed in 2009 and stated, humbly, that:

“Ian Hendry was Morgan”

The audio of that interview is included in the article below.

It is almost certain that the BBC wiped the tape of the 1962 version and no 16mm tele recorded copy is known to exist. Another case of a significant archival loss, where we have to search for other surviving material to try and build a picture of this production.

The Radio Times edition from 20th October 1962 is such an example. We now have a clear picture [ well a still at least] of Ian’s portrayal of Morgan, replete with a beard and thick black-rimmed glasses! There appears to be some kind of gadget, perhaps some kind of lens, attached to the left hand side of the spectacles. As yet I have no information as to what it is exactly, but quite possibly part of the eccentric portrayal of Morgan used in the production.

Trivia

“Ian Hendry wears glasses and a thick beard in the title role, which make him closely resemble David Mercer, the play’s author; and the character is, like Mercer, a Marxist writer who drinks too much and has abrasive relationships with women.”

“Moira Redmond appeared alongside Ian Hendry in the The Avengers, Series 1, in very first episode of titled ‘Hot Snow’ [1961].

John Dankworth, who wrote the theme tune for Series 1 of The Avengers, also wrote the music for the BBC’s production of ‘A Suitable Case For Treatment’ [1962].

Cast

Ian Hendry … Morgan Delt
Moira Redmond … Leonie Delt
Jack May … Charles Napier
Anna Wing … Mrs. Delt
Norman Pitt … Mr. Henderson
Helen Goss … Mrs. Henderson
Jane Merrow … Jean Skelton
Harry Brunning … Mr. Delt
David Grahame … Ticket Collector
John Bennett … Policeman
Hugh Evans … Analyst

Writing Credits

David Mercer

Producer

Don Taylor

Picture: Ian Hendry as Morgan Delt and Moira Redmond as Leonie Delt

Picture: Text from the Radio Times entry for ‘A Suitable Case For Treatment’ for the week commencing 20th October 1962.

Picture: Cover of the 20th October 1962 edition of Radio Times, featuring Michael Bentine who was starring in It’s A Square World

David Warner – On Ian Hendry and a Suitable Case For Treatment

In this BBC interview from 2009, David Warner talks about his life and work including his well known role as Morgan in the film version of ‘A Suitable Case For Treatment’ (1966). He discusses the challenges of playing the part – a role which Ian Hendry also took on in the BBC production of 1962.

During this interview [from 8mins 5sec], David refers to this earlier performance and in a few brief but telling words, states that ‘Ian Hendry was Morgan‘.

We appreciate David’s humility, but regardless of comparisons it gives us a glimpse of just how powerful Ian’s performance must have been. Sadly, that BBC productions is missing, presumed wiped – but we live in hope that one day it will be discovered.

David Warner – BBC Radio Interview (2009)

Morgan – A Suitable Case For Treatment [1966]

Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment (also called Morgan!) is a 1966 comedy film made by British Lion. It was directed by Karel Reisz and produced by Leon Clore from a screenplay by David Mercer, based on his BBC television play A Suitable Case for Treatment (1962), the leading role at that time being played by Ian Hendry.

The film stars David Warner, Vanessa Redgrave, and Robert Stephens, with Irene Handland Bernard Bresslaw.

Plot Summary

Morgan Delt (David Warner) is a failed artist, who was raised as a communist by his parents. His upper-class wife, Leonie (Vanessa Redgrave), has given up on him and is in the process of getting a divorce in order to marry Charles Napier (Robert Stephens), an art gallery owner of her own social standing. Given the innately rich and personal world of fantasy Morgan has locked himself into, he goes off the deep end. He performs a series of bizarre stunts in a campaign to win back Leonie, including putting a skeleton in her bed and blowing up the bed as her mother sits on it. When these stunts fail, Morgan secures the help of his mother’s wrestler friend Wally “The Gorilla” (Arthur Mullard) to kidnap Leonie, who still nurtures residual feelings of love tinged with pity for Morgan. The plan fails, and Morgan is arrested and imprisoned.

After escaping, he crashes the wedding reception of Leonie and Charles dressed as a gorilla, for which scene Reisz borrows clips from King Kong to illustrate Morgan’s fantasy world. Morgan flees the wedding on a motorcycle with his gorilla suit on fire. He is subsequently committed to an insane asylum. Here, Leonie visits him looking visibly pregnant. With a wink, Leonie tells him he is the child’s father. Morgan returns to tending a flowerbed as the camera pulls out to a longshot of the entire circular flowerbed with the enclosed flowers arranged into a hammer and sickle.

Moira Redmond – A Career Overview

As a young actress, she joined the Windmill Girls (recently evoked in the film Mrs Henderson Presents) who performed non-stop revues and nude tableux at the Windmill Theatre in the West End. Several years later, she married her first husband and emigrated to Australia, but the marriage did not endure so she returned to Britain determined to make her name as an actress. While in Australia, Moira became a successful radio actress. She played in the major radio features, Caltex Theatre and General Motors’ Hour as well as plays for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Her best remembered radio drama was Linday Hardy’s Stranger in Paradise along Guy Doleman, a New Zealand actor who later had a movie career both in the US and Britain.[citation needed]

She made her stage debut as an understudy to Vivien Leigh in Peter Brook’s revival of Titus Andronicus with Laurence Olivier. In July of that year, she made her London debut at the Stoll in the same production.

In 1958, she made her film debut in a thriller, entitled Violent Moment (1958), which was followed by several more roles in the films Doctor in Love (1960), A Shot in the Dark (1964) and several B-film thrillers.

Meanwhile her theatrical career had taken off with roles in Verdict (Strand), in which she played Helen Rollander; Detour After Dark (Fortune Theatre), Horizontal Hold (Comedy Theatre); Patrick Peace Hotel (Queen’s); The Winter’s Tale (Cambridge Theatre) and ‘Flint (Comedy Theatre).

She was also a founder member of the Actors’ Company with Ian McKellen. She played at the Edinburgh Festival as Helen of Troy in The Trojan Women with Flora Robson, and as Hermione in The Winter’s Tale with Laurence Harvey.

Throughout the 1960s she appeared in London and the provinces in the plays of Alan Ayckbourn; she was also Lady Sheerwell in Jonathan Miller’s revival of Sheridan’s The School for Scandal; Maria in Twelfth Night; Mrs Wickstead in Habeas Corpus; Brand’s mother in Brand; and Jocasta in Stephen Spender’s trilogy Oedipus. She later toured South America for the British Council in revivals of Habeas Corpus and Shaw’s Heartbreak House (as Hesione). Television appearances in the 1960s included a role in Hot Snow (the debut episode of the first series of The Avengers) and in Danger Man and The Baron among others.

By the 1970s she was increasingly in demand for television series, her theatrical training earning her roles in some of the best known television dramas of the period, including Edward the Seventh (playing Edward’s mistress Alice Keppel); I, Claudius (in which she played Domitia, Claudius’s mother-in-law); and Boswell’s London Journey. She also appeared in The Alleyn Mysteries; Edgar Wallace Mysteries, Dixon of Dock Green, and The Sweeney.

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Until next time,

Neil Hendry
Editor, Official Tribute To Ian Hendry

Further Reading

A detailed account of the life and work of Ian Hendry in the new biography:

Read: ‘Send in the Clowns – The Yo Yo Life Of Ian Hendry’ by Gabriel Hershman