SOURCE: Wansell, Geoffrey. “A One-Hit Wonder?” In Terence Rattigan, pp. 120-31. London: Fourth Estate, 1995.

In the following essay, Wansell chronicles the successful staging of Rattigan's second British hit, Flare Path.

Me—who am as a nerve o'er which do creep

The else unfelt oppressions of this earth.

—Shelley, A Lament

The Lord Chamberlain's reader's report on ‘Flare Path, also known as Next of Kin’, observed that the play was ‘Mr Rattigan in a more serious mood’, and added, ‘I do not suppose there is anything secret in this play, but it should be vetted by the Air Ministry before a licence is granted.’ By the end of April both the Air Adviser to the Ministry of Information and the Lord Chamberlain had agreed that the play could be produced, and asked for only minor changes. The Air Ministry wanted Margate changed to ‘say, Littlehampton’ and did not want...