The Final Test

Jack Warner - Sam Palmer
Robert Morley - Alexander Whitehead
George Relph - Syd Thompson
Adrianne Allen - Aunt Ethel
Brenda Bruce - Cora
Ray Jackson - Reggie Palmer
Stanley Maxted - Senator
Joan Swinstead - Miss Fanshawe
Richard Bebb - Frank Weller
Len Hutton - Frank Jarvis
Denis Compton - Cricket Player

Terence Rattigan wrote the script for The Final Test, it tells the story of an ageing legendary Cricket player Sam Palmer (Jack Warner). Palmer is preparing to play his final Test Match of an illustrious career against the Australians at the Oval, it will be his swan song in the game. His son Reggie, who is a budding poet, must make a difficult decision. On the one hand, he really wants to attend his father's final game, but on the other, he has also been invited to the home of eccentric poet-playwright Alexander Whitehead. It is Whitehead who solves the boy's dilemma, when Reggie visits the poet he finds him too interested in watching the match on television to be bothered to come out and see his youthful visitor. When Whitehead discovers who the boy is he is furious, the boy has a ticket to the match so they speed off to see his father’s final appearance. Actual Cricket players Len Hutton and Denis Compton appear in the film.
Excerpt© 'Puffin Asquith' by R.J. Minney.