Radio review – Lux – “The Corn is Green” (1950) *** (warning: spoilers)

Years before Billy Elliot, Emlyn Williams had a big hit on stage with his play about a hard-drinking miner from a tough Welsh community whose academic talent is spotted by a spinster teacher - here played by Olivia de Havilland, who isn't that convincing to be honest (her performance is good as ever I think she's just miscast - you never really buy her as a driven spinster). Richard Basehart is effective as the miner and I think that's Nigel Bruce as the squire. This is surprisingly "free market" - de Havilland doesn't really seem to care about any of the other students, only her one smart one (this isn't a big ad for education for all); at the end when a woman comes along claiming Basehart has impregnated her (the third act twist), they arrange it so that de Havilland raises the kid so Basehart doesn't have to. Margaret Thatcher would have been proud!