Raymond Montgomery Raikes (13 September 1910 – 18th March 1999) was a British theatre producer, director and broadcaster. He was particularly known for his productions of classic dramas for
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...
's "World Theatre" and "National Theatre of the Air" series, which pioneered the use of
stereophonic sound
Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...
in radio drama broadcasts. He received two
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international television, radio-broadcasting and web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with th ...
awards in 1965 for his stereophonic productions of ''The Foundling'' by
A. R. Gurney and ''
The Anger of Achilles'' by
Robert Graves
Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...
.
Early life and education
Raikes was born at
Putney
Putney () is an affluent district in southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
History
Putney is an ...
, London, son of Charles Stanley Montgomery Raikes (1879–1945), of Northlands, College Road,
West Norwood
West Norwood is a largely residential area of south London within the London Borough of Lambeth, located 5.4 miles (8.7 km) south south-east of Charing Cross. The centre of West Norwood sits in a bowl surrounded by hillsides on its east, ...
and Katherine Alice (died 1959), daughter of William Charles Nigel Jones,
JP, of Nass, Gloucestershire, from a landed gentry family. Charles Raikes was of independent means and landed gentry background, a descendant of the newspaper proprietor
Robert Raikes the Elder and a cousin of
Alice Elgar (née Roberts), wife of the composer
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
. His cousin was Lieutenant Commander
Dick Raikes DSO of ''
The Cockleshell Heroes'' fame.
He was educated at
Lambrook,
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils 13–18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. ...
and
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university.
The college was founde ...
.
[ Tydeman, John (8 October 1998)]
"Obituary: Raymond Raikes"
''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
Career
After leaving
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
, he began his career as a film and stage actor, appearing with the
Birmingham Rep and the
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre as well as in the
West End play
While Parents Sleep. His film appearances included
The Poisoned Diamond (1931), directed by
W.P. Kellino, ''
The Water Gipsies'' (1932), directed by
Maurice Elvey
Maurice Elvey (11 November 1887 – 28 August 1967) was one of the most prolific film directors in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year. He a ...
, ''
The Return of Bulldog Drummond'' (1934), directed by
Walter Summers and ''
It's a Bet'' (1935), directed by
Alexander Esway
Alexander Esway (20 January 1895 – 23 August 1947) was a Hungarian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer.
Life and career
Esway was born Sándor Ezry in Budapest. In the late 1920s and early 1930s he worked as a director and screenwri ...
. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he worked as an announcer for the
BBC Forces Programme
The BBC Forces Programme was a national radio station which operated from 7 January 1940 until 26 February 1944, when it was replaced by the BBC General Forces Programme.
History Development
Upon the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1 ...
for two years and then joined the
Royal Signal Corps, with whom he served in North Africa, Italy, and London.
After the war, he joined the BBC drama department, initially working on the production of the soap opera ''The Robinson Family'' and then producing and directing the ''
Dick Barton - Special Agent'' series which regularly obtained 20,000,000 listeners daily. He went on to become a producer and director for the
BBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...
, where his output included 17
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
plays, the ''
Oresteia
The ''Oresteia'' () is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BC, concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end of the curse on the House ...
'' trilogy by
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...
; ''
The Wasps
''The Wasps'' () is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, during Athens' short-lived respite from the Peloponnesian War and shortly before the death o ...
'' and ''
Lysistrata
''Lysistrata'' ( or ; Attic Greek: , ''Lysistrátē'', ) is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's mission to end the Peloponnesian War between Greek city ...
'' by
Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...
; and ''
The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; , ''Bakkhai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumou ...
'', ''
Medea
In Greek mythology, Medea (; ; ) is the daughter of Aeëtes, King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress, an accomplished "wiktionary:φαρμακεία, pharmakeía" (medicinal magic), and is often depicted as a high- ...
'' and ''
Hippolytus'' by
Euripides
Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...
. Raikes also produced the first radio production of
Menander's Dyskolos
''Dyskolos'' (, , translated as ''The Grouch'', ''The Misanthrope'', ''The Curmudgeon'', ''The Bad-tempered Man'' or ''Old Cantankerous'') is an Ancient Greek comedy by Menander, the only one of his plays, and of the whole New Comedy, that has ...
, several year after a complete manuscript of the play was discovered in Egypt in 1952. He also introduced British radio audiences to less frequently performed
Elizabethan and Jacobean dramas,
Restoration comedies, and works by 20th century authors such as
Robert Graves
Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...
and
Jean Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; ; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist and screenwriter whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ...
. For many of the plays he directed, he would adapt the archaic English for modern audiences and he also adapted existing English translations of foreign works.
Many of the productions had incidental music written by the composer
Stephen Dodgson, with whom he had a long and genial collaboration.
At the 1965
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international television, radio-broadcasting and web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with th ...
, Raikes won the RAI Prize for literary or dramatic programmes with ''The Anger of Achilles'' by
Robert Graves
Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...
and the
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international television, radio-broadcasting and web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with th ...
for stereophonic musical and dramatic programmes with
A. R. Gurney's ''The Foundling'' (music by
Humphrey Searle
Humphrey Searle (26 August 1915 – 12 May 1982) was an English composer and writer on music. His music combines aspects of late Romanticism and modernist serialism, particularly reminiscent of his primary influences, Franz Liszt, Arnold Sch ...
).
Raikes' last production for the BBC was his own translation of Euripides' ''
Iphigeneia in Aulis'' in 1975. Following his retirement, he studied Egyptian
hieroglyphics
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...
and Russian as hobbies. He had a large personal library and for many years also served as chairman on the library committee of the
Garrick Club. Raikes died in his sleep at his home in
Bromley, Kent at the age of 88. He was survived by his widow.
Raikes' papers, including scripts, production papers and correspondence, were acquired by the BBC Written Archives Centre in 2003.
The National Archives (United Kingdom)
The National Archives (TNA; ) is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Its parent department is the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the United Kingdom, United K ...
BBC Written Archives Centre: 2003 Accessions
Retrieved 29 April 2013. He was buried at
West Norwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery.
One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of ...
where his headstone which he shares with his father and grandfather features closing theatrical curtains.
Personal life
Raikes married Wendy Howard in 1939; they had one daughter.
and two grandchildren one of whom is a senior film executive as of 2025
References
Further reading
*Lentz, Harris M. (1998). "Raikes, Raymond", ''Obituaries in the Performing Arts'', p. 186. McFarland & Company
External links
"Raymond Raikes and Stereo Sound" summary by Nigel Deacon/The Diversity Website of an article by Gillian Strickland, originally published in the ''
Radio Times
''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...
'', September 1973
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raikes, Raymond
British theatre directors
British theatre managers and producers
BBC radio producers
British radio directors
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
People educated at Uppingham School
1910 births
1998 deaths
Burials at West Norwood Cemetery
British Army personnel of World War II
Royal Corps of Signals soldiers
Military personnel from the London Borough of Wandsworth
People from Putney