"The Telescope"

The new vicar or Canbury, John Mayfield, intended to be a new broom, but his valiant efforts were thwarted by the apathy of all but a small select group of his parishioners. Then comes trouble in the shape of Joe Palmer, who gets himself into bother with the law, but from this trouble emerged the means of getting closer to his uncaring parishioners. Then just as he is within an ace of reforming Joe through the medium of his telescope and achieving his prime object, disaster strikes once more when Joe, obsessed with the idea of owning his own telescope, steals one and is again in trouble with the police. And on this note the play ends.
That, in a nutshell, is the story of R. C. Sherriff's play, "The Telescope", produced by Barbara Campbell and presented by the Nelson Repertory Society to Nelson audiences last month. The cast (above) was: Sergeant Wallis (Jack Robinson), housekeeper Miss Brown (Margaret Craigie), Ben Brooks (Bob Rodwell), Joe' s mother (Eve Barrett), John Mayfield (Hamish Campbell), his wife (Mary Le Cren), Joe Palmer (Michael Rodwell), Miss Fortescue (Joan Whiting), retiring vicar (J. Halkett Millar).