14 April 1963 About Religion: The Night Before The Execution (ATV)
Patrick Wymark as Barabbas
"Two thieves were crucified with Christ on the first Good Friday. One of the thieves asked for forgiveness and was told: 'today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.' But which one? A modern dress retelling of that night which was broadcast at 7pm on Sunday evening. Patrick Wymark played Barabbas who, according to the Bible, was freed in place of Jesus.
Bill Owen and Douglas Livingstone
The play was written by Jack Shepherd - not the actor, but a 43-year old Quaker who specialised in dramatic portrayals of historic events. He was lucky enough to have another play The Gate Man screened the same week.
"An imaginative study in modern dress and speech, ('they don't nick people for nothing'..)" the play starred Bill Owen and Douglas Livingstone as the two prisoners with Gordon Gostelow as their warder and Jane Merrow as a girl. With a nearly 20 year career in feature films, Owen would co-star with Sid James in the BBC series Taxi (July-August 1963)and Patrick Wymark in the film Secret of Blood Island (1965) . Douglas Livingstone was an established support actor who would go on to have a parallel career as a writer (Born and Bred, Day Of The Triffids. Antipodean actor Gordon Gostelow had recently appeared with Patrick Wymark in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of As You Like It which was adapted by BBC1 on 22nd March 1963. Both Gostelow and Jane Merrow had starred in separate episodes of the first series of The Plane Makers.
Livingstone, Owen and Gordon Gostelow
Unfortunately, like many 'God Slot' programmes, The Night Before The Execution does not seem to have had any extended reviews, other than a couple of comments that it was better than the usual kind of thing. So we have no idea what happened, or how Barabbas featured in the story.