Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Frederic Morena, charity founder, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre, having been led to believe the theatre was a TV studio where he was due to make a telerecording.

Frederic, who worked for a solicitor, later became an actor, having had a long-held interest in Shakespeare. He had some success, appearing at London's Old Vic Theatre until the outbreak of war meant work was scarce. He became a language teacher, but at the age of forty-two, he was suddenly struck by polio and paralysed.

In 1939, he co-founded, with Patricia Carey, the Infantile Paralysis Fellowship, which became known as the British Polio Fellowship, the first support organisation for polio-disabled people. Through campaigning, Frederic encouraged a growing nationwide network of branches, bringing friendship to hundreds of lonely people affected by polio.

programme details...

• Edition No: 119
• Subject No: 119
• Broadcast live: Mon 18 Jan 1960
• Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
• Venue: BBC Television Theatre
• Series: 5
• Edition: 21

on the guest list...

• Malcolm Keen
• William Thie
• Eileen Greer
• Sister Buddug Rendell
• Mimi - wife
• Thomas Rowley
• Lalage Dawson-Jones
• Michael MacDonald
• Monica Young
• Patricia Carey
Filmed tribute:
• Carmen Hobson - sister

production team...

• Researcher: Ronald Vivian
• Writer: Ronald Vivian
• Director: unknown
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

• with thanks to the British Polio Fellowship for their contributions to this page

A Charitable Life

the unsung heroes

Photographs of Frederic Morena This Is Your Life