The Adventures of Alice

The Adventures of Alice
Genre	Drama, Family
Created by	Lewis Carroll
Based on	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Written by	Lewis Carroll, Charles Lefeaux
Directed by	Charles Lefeaux
Starring	Sonia Dresdel Marian Spencer Ernest Milton Peter Sallis Gillian Ferguson Gordon Davies Cyril Shaps
Composer	Antony Hopkins
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Producer	Charles Lefeaux
Editor	John Nash
Running time	55 Minutes
Production company	BBC
Original release
Network	BBC Television
Release	23 December 1960 (1960-12-23)

The Adventures of Alice is a 1960 TV play starring Sonia Dresdel as the evil Red Queen. It was made by BBC Television and screened on 23 December 1960.

Plot

The play is based on the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. ^{[1] [2]}

Cast

• Sonia Dresdel as Red Queen
• Marian Spencer as White Queen
• Ernest Milton as The Mad Hatter
• Peter Sallis as Tweedledee
• Gillian Ferguson as Alice
• Gordon Davies as Lewis Carroll
• Cyril Shaps as The March Hare
• Carla Challoner as The Dormouse
• Arthur Ridley as The Gryphon, The Unicorn
• Eric Shilling as The Mock Turtle
• Erik Chitty as The Caterpillar, The Lion
• Barrie Cookson as Tweedledum
• Frederick Treves as Red King
• Vivienne Chatterton as The Sheep
• David March as Humpty Dumpty
• Philip Ray as White King
• Geoffrey Bayldon as White Knight
• John Murray Scott as The Creature with a Long Beak

Production

Following the success of Antony Hopkins's opera Hands Across the Sky, the BBC commissioned him and Charles Lefeaux to write the opera The Adventures of Alice based on the stories by Lewis Carroll. ^[3]

Reception

Mary Crosier wrote in The Guardian about "the dreamlike fantasy" but called the production "curiously uneven". ^[4] The film received praise from critics and audiences when it was released on 23 December 1960, so much so that it was shown again on television on 7 August 1961. The film is now in the BBC Archives. ^[5]

References

1. "The Adventures of Alice (1960)". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 23 December 1960. Archived from the original on May 25, 2024.
2. "The Adventures of Alice (1960)". gawby.com.
3. "TV & Radio The Adventures of Alice" – via British Newspaper Archive.
4. "Television - by Mary Crosier". The Guardian. 1960-12-24. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-06-28.
5. "The Adventures of Alice (1960)". tvbrain.info.

External links

• The Adventures of Alice at IMDb
• The Adventures of Alice at BBC Genome Project
• The Adventures of Alice at The A.V. Club