The 39 Steps Archives - North West End UK

6Jun

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The 39 Steps – The Alexandra

“What are the 39 Steps?” is the key line on which the entire narrative pivots in Hitchcock’s 1935 adaptation (featuring the engaging Robert Donat) of John Buchan’s 1915 tale of daring-do, high-jinks and military secrets. Mr Memory, of whom the question is asked, happily reveals his answer before meeting a very unhappy end. (Ooops, plot spoiler. Though I think that only happens in that version.) It’s a story riddled with twists, turns and near misses making it ideal fodder for cinema where it’s evolved into no less than four incarnations plus innumerable TV versions and uncountable radio dramatisations. Clearly a hot title which has kept us intrigued for 90 years. I first saw Patrick Barlow’s version (which evasively credits Simon Corble & Nobby Dimon as “From an original concept by” - ...

The 39 Steps – Theatre by the Lake, Keswick

Take a step into an entertaining, exhilarating and comical production of John Buchan's classic thriller The 39 Steps at Theatre by the Lake - and you won't be disappointed, writes Karen Morley-Chesworth. Patrick Barlow's adaptation is an imaginative and brilliant telling of the story of an innocent upper-middle-class, Richard Hannay who finds himself on the run, accused of murder and the only person who can prevent spies from stealing British military secrets. This is a Theatre by the Lake and Stephen Joseph Theatre production, which is based more on the successful movie version of The 39 Steps by Alfred Hitchcock - and look out for the names of other Hitchcock movies littered throughout the performance. For fans of 'The Play That Goes Wrong' you shouldn't miss this production whi...

The 39 Steps – A Radio Drama

As a novel, John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) is famous for being one of the inventors of the man-on-the-run thriller and for being the source of multiple film, TV and theatre versions which are often better regarded as their own work than as adaptations of the book. Most versions agree on the very basic premise: Richard Hannay, currently bored and living in London, comes home to find a strange person in his flat talking about a conspiracy that will have adverse side-effects to both his health and world peace and necessitates him staying with Hannay for a few days. The ultimate consequence of this is a dead body in Hannay's flat, which leaves the police with a few questions for Hannay and the murderers with a few theories as to how much Hannay now knows, forcing him to go on th...