Davy Jones Goes Hunting
Contributors: Edited by E.R.Wood.
Series: The Second Windmill Book of One-Act Plays
Publisher: Heinemann Press
Published: 1963
Language: eng
First sentence: It is a bright autumn morning.Davy Jones is at the slide window,right,looking out to the platform.
DAVY: Hey fred!...
FRED (from platform): You want me Mr. Jones?...
DAVY : What do you think?Come up here.(He searches pockets for two half crowns)....
Description: A Welsh comedy in one act.The scene is the signal box at Pentremawr,a lonely station on the Beacons between Brecon and Newport.It is the day of the local fox hunt with Fred the Lamps looking forward to helping out on the Hunt once his shift in the 'box is finished.Davy Jones is not so impressed as the fox has not only been helping itself to Davy's prize chickens,but also those belonging to P.C.Prosser,and the pheasant chicks being reared by Morgan the gamekeeper.This sees the usual protagonists forming an uneasy alliance in a plot to do away with the fox.
But Pryce Powell,has issued strict instructions that 'Old Bobtail' (as the old fox has been affectionately named by the Squire) can be hunted but not to be harmed in any way,as the fox provides the Squire and his friends with just the sport they need.
The signalman,the constable and the keeper decide to shoot the fox but then realise the sound of a gun shot might attract too much attention,however Fred the Lamps comes up with an idea to stop up the fox's earth and let nature take its course and seal the fate of the fox.
However the plan fails as the wiley old fox outfoxes Davy Jones,P.C.Prosser and Morgan,much to their chagrin,and much to the delight of Major Pryce Powell.The fox lives to be hunted another day.
Notes: Unlike the other stage plays in the 'Davy Jones' series  (Davy Jones's Locker,Davy Jones's Dinner and Davy Jones's Clock) there seems to be no record of this play having been performed.Nor was it taken up by the British Broadcasting Corporation,as had been the case with the other three plays written by T.C.Thomas.This play may,however,have formed the basis of the fourth programme in the first television series,"The Davy Jones Saga" of 1959.
Heinemann Press provided notes to accompany the play,with a basic description of signal box practice,including:
"Again in this play the background of trains and signals enriches the action,and it is important that the setting should look authentic and that the signalman should appear to know what he is doing"

CAST:

DAVY JONES THE 'BOX-the signalman.
FRED THE LAMPS-the lamp boy.
TOM DAVIES THE RELIEF-the relief signalman.
MORGAN THE KEEPER-the local gamekeeper.
P.C. PROSSER-the police constable.
LIZA HARGEST-a local widow.
MAJOR D.PRYCE-POWELL,O.B.E.,J.P.-the local Squire and magistrate.
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