Rope (1932 radio play)

Rope is a 1932 British radio play based on the stage play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton.^[1] It aired on the BBC on 18 January^[2] and was performed again two days later.^[3] It starred Ernest Milton reprising his stage performance.

The decision to adapt the play for broadcast was controversial at the time, and was attacked by several newspapers such as the Daily Herald.^[4] The British Empire Union asked the BBC that the play be cancelled otherwise it would encourage "in degenerate minds" a "tendency towards crime".^[5]

Val Gielgud, who directed the production, wrote in his memoirs:

I doubt if any radio play, previous to the famous The Man Born to Be King series, was ever so gratuitously publicised. The Corporation, however, remained curiously unmoved. Rope was produced. And, largely thanks to first-class performance, proved remarkably successful. The listening public showed its usual fundamental commonsense, and declined to be panicked, even when the Morning Post joined boisterously in the witch-hunt. Patrick Hamilton was not unreasonably gratified.^[6]

Rope would go on to be adapted for radio numerous times around the world. The success of the production prompted Patrick Hamilton to begin writing radio plays, such as To the Public Danger and Money with Menaces.^[6]