At a rural inn on a Yorkshire moor, three people become involved in a strange confrontation with the hallmarks of déjà vu, and a physicist attempts to prevent a disaster.
Sam and his daughter Sally, proprietors of the Black Bull Inn, are awaiting the arrival of guests when an elderly German professor stops to make enquiries.
Sally is annoyed at the cancellation, but almost immediately they receive another telephone call from Mr and Mrs Ormund, a wealthy couple who book two rooms.
His probing into Mr Ormund's emotional state induces the unhappy man to make a quasi-suicide attempt, fetching a revolver from his car and firing it into the ground.
Upset by Dr Görtler's questions and by his expounding of a doctrine of eternal return to the landlord and guests, Sally and Mr Ormund demand that he leaves.
Dr Görtler returns for his notebook, and explains to them that he was brought here by a precognitive dream: this pair would elope, Mr Ormund would commit suicide, the school would fold, and the lives would be ruined of all concerned.
The first television version was broadcast live by the BBC on May 29, 1949 [1], and starred Gerard Heinz as Dr. Gortler, and Bernard Lee as Walter Ormund.
Radio versions of the play were broadcast by the BBC in October 1938 [4], starring Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson; in 1952 with Marius Goring and Barbara Lott [5]; and in 1984 with Lesley Nicol and Ronald Baddiley [6].
"[11] The production prompted a letter of complaint from Frank Roberts to the Sydney Morning Herald complaining about the ABC's tendency to present photographed stage plays in TV drama.