Mrs Dale's Diary (known as The Dales from 1962 to 1969), is the first significant BBC Radio serial drama. It was first broadcast on 5 January 1948 on the BBC Light Programme, later BBC Radio 2, running until 25 April 1969. A new episode was broadcast each weekday afternoon, with a repeat the following morning. The programme revolved around a doctor's wife, the eponymous Mrs Dale, and her life in middle class suburbia with her husband, Dr Dale. The main scriptwriter for many years was Jonquil Antony, and her first collaborator (under a pseudonym) was Ted Willis, later to create Dixon of Dock Green. Mrs Dale was played by Ellis Powell until she left the show in 1963, and was replaced by Jessie Matthews. Popular with audiences, it became "a national institution", and the Queen Mother reportedly said of the programme, "It is the only way of knowing what goes on in a middle-class family."
History An innovative characteristic of the programme was that a brief introductory narrative in each episode was spoken by Mrs Dale as if she were writing her diary. The original harp theme was by Marie Goossens. The programme was broadcast at 4.15 pm. The serial centred on Mrs Mary Dale, a doctor's wife, and her husband Jim, and the comings and goings of a middle class society. The Dales lived at Virginia Lodge in the fictional London Metro-land-style suburb of Parkwood Hill. They had moved there from the real area of Kenton, which straddles the border between the London boroughs of Brent and Harrow. Later in the series, to modernise the programme and its setting, the producers relocated the family to the fictional new town of Exton New Town. Mrs Dale's mother was Mrs Rosemary Freeman, whom Jim always called, rather gravely, "mother-in-law". Dr and Mrs Dale had a daughter, Gwen, and a son, Bob, who worked in the motor trade. He was married to Jenny; they had twins. Gwen was widowed after her husband David was killed in a water-skiing accident in the Bahamas where he was holidaying with his rich mistress. Mary Dale's sister, Sally, (which she always pronounced "Selly") lived in Chelsea and moved in exotic circles. The Dales and their friends (along with Captain, Mrs Freeman's cat, apparently named after the rank of her late husband, who had been killed in the First World War) got along in almost perfect harmony. It was all respectable, comfortable and middle-class.
Treatment of homosexuality The programme is thought to be the first British mainstream drama which depicted a character known to be homosexual sympathetically in a leading part: Richard Fulton (portrayed by David March), Sally's husband. At this time, homosexuality was still illegal in the United Kingdom. However, though he was apparently based on the homosexual writer Patrick White, Richard's history in the serial was heterosexual. He was, in fact, a character who had developed a lot, having been presented in the early days as a monster of petulance.
Changes to the format On 26 February 1962, the serial was renamed The Dales. The linking narratives by Mrs Dale were dropped. The reason was that the BBC was conscious that the series was considered by the media to be twee and hopelessly old fashioned. The changes included a new theme tune composed by Ron Grainer, composer of the theme music for Doctor Who. "Dance in the Twilight" from Eric Coates' Springtime Suite also served as a signature tune for a time. Jessie Matthews' biographer, Michael Thornton, later wrote:
On 19th February, 1963, a plump and embittered fifty-six-year-old character actress called Ellis Powell walked out of Broadcasting House for the last time. She was not a star. In fact she had earned less than £30 a week. But her voice was as well-known in Britain as that of Queen Elizabeth II, for it was heard twice a day by seven million devoted listeners.Miss Powell was Britain's most sacrosanct fictional paragon, Mrs. Dale, in the radio serial 'The Dales'. And now, after fifteen years in the role she had created, the B.B.C. had summarily fired her – partly because of her drinking habits, and partly because it was felt that the role, and also the entire programme, was in need of a facelift. Thornton added:
Three months later, at the age of fifty-seven, she died in the National Temperance Hospital. The official cause of death was a cerebral haemorrhage, but her friends believed that she never recovered from the shock and distress of her summary dismissal by the B.B.C.In the last weeks of her life she worked as a demonstrator at the Ideal Home Exhibition and as a cleaner in an hotel. She left only £15 6s., having carried around in her handbag for weeks a cheque for £600 – her pay-off from the B.B.C. She had never put it into her bank because she feared the money would be swallowed up by her overdraft. On 7 March 1963, the news broke that Matthews would be playing Mrs Dale. The first episode featuring Matthews was recorded on 11 March, and transmitted on 18 March. She appeared in the programme until it ended, although suffered several periods of ill health, resulting in her role being temporarily recast. Matthews was off for six weeks in September and October 1963, during which Mrs Dale was played by former Coronation Street actress Noel Dyson. In October 1966, the BBC announced that Matthews was ill, and would be out of the programme for at least a month. This time, Ruth Dunning replaced her. Dunning also stepped into the role when Matthews was off-air for nine weeks, in an illness-related break which lasted from March to May 1967.
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