Â鶹ԼÅÄ

**** This programme was suggested by Gillian Garrett as part of Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4 Extra’s All Request Weekend ****

Looking back over the first decade of her diary, Mrs Dale shares two years of 'despair and happiness' - 1954 and 1955.

In 1948, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Light Programme broadcast the first episode of a radio serial.

It chronicled the lives of the Dale family – doctor Jim, plus children, Bob and Gwen - as recounted from the daily diary of Mrs Mary Dale. They live in Parkwood Hill - a fictional middle-class London suburb.

For the following 21 years, (over 5,500 episodes) more than six million listeners tuned in to hear the everyday affairs of this much-loved family and their friends

Ellis Powell takes the leading role, but the Â鶹ԼÅÄ dismissed her in 1963, and she died a few months later. She was replaced by singer and dancer, Jessie Matthews OBE who played Mrs Dale until the soap opera - renamed ‘The Dales’ - was axed by Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2 in 1969.

Each episode began with Mrs Dale setting the scene as she spoke aloud, writing her daily entry into her diary. She was often to be heard exclaiming: 'I’m rather worried about Jim.'

Starring Ellis Powell as Mrs Dale.

Written by Jonquil Antony

Other characters played by:

Margaret Ward
Dorothy Lane
Leslie Heritage
Aline Waites
Robin Lloyd
Norman Chidgey
Charles Lamb
Robert Webber
Julia Braddock
Jack Shaw
Stuart Nichol
John Graham
John Bryning

Producer Betty Davies

First broadcast on the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Light Programme in January 1958.

**** To nominate a programme from the archive that you would like to hear again, please email radio4extra@bbc.co.uk ****

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