No Trams to Lime Street
| Industry | Television production |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | United Kingdom , United Kingdom |
| Products | Television dramas |
No Trams to Lime Street is a British television drama from 1959, written by the Welsh dramatist Alun Owen. It was produced by ABC Weekend TV for the ITV channel and first broadcast on 18 October 1959. Unfortunately, the original recording is no longer available.
The narrative is set in Liverpool, the city where Owen spent his childhood. The cast featured Alfred Lynch, Billie Whitelaw, Jack Hedley, and Tom Bell. Direction and production were handled by Canadians Ted Kotcheff and Sydney Newman, who was then serving as Head of Drama at ABC. The plot centers on three sailors enjoying shore leave in Liverpool.
The authentic portrayal of Liverpool captured the attention of The Beatles, which resulted in Owen being commissioned to write the screenplay for their debut feature film, A Hard Day's Night (1964). This work earned him an Academy Award nomination in 1965.
In 1965, the BBC created a remake of No Trams to Lime Street as part of the Theatre 625 series on BBC2. This episode was broadcast on 21 March as the second installment in a trilogy of Owen’s plays, following Progress to the Park and preceding A Little Winter Love. The cast included Mike Pratt, Tom Bell, and Anthony Hall. Like the original, this version is also considered lost.
A further BBC adaptation was aired in 1970 within the Wednesday Play slot on BBC1. Directed by Piers Haggard, it featured performances by Rosemary Nicols, Glyn Owen, among others, and incorporated music composed by Marty Wilde and songwriter Ronnie Scott. Although this edition was produced in colour, only a black-and-white telerecording has survived.