The Disorderly Room

The Disorderly Room was a very early British television comedy production, written by Eric Blore and starring Tommy Handley. Blore was also an actor who played roles such as butlers in various Hollywood films, while Handley later found greater fame in the BBC radio comedy show It's That Man Again.

The Disorderly Room was first performed on stage at the Victoria Palace Theatre, in 1919 and starred Blore, Stanley Holloway, Tom Walls, Leslie Henson and Jack Buchanan. The show was a one-off piece which consisted of a single sketch, wherein army disciplinary proceedings were put to the tunes of various popular songs of the day. It was first performed live on the BBC Television Service on Saturday 17 April 1937, in a fifteen-minute form at 3.45pm. Such was its popularity, however, that the production was re-staged on various occasions before the suspension of the flegdling television service for the duration of the Second World War in September 1939.

The later performances on 30 August 1937; 23 December 1937; 15 August 1939 and finally on 20 August 1939. None of these has survived because the technology to record them did not exist at the time of their broadcasting; the sole surviving remnants are still photographs.