T S Eliot's verse-drama was first performed in 1935 in Canterbury Cathedral, the very place where Thomas Becket was brutally killed in 1170. Using the medieval morality play as a model, Eliot creates a tense study of Becket's journey from spiritual doubt to certainty as he prepares for martyrdom, and considers the effect that this will have on the people of Canterbury. This historic 1953 recording of Murder in the Cathedral, directed by Robert Helpmann, is a record of a great actor - Robert Donat - in one of his finest roles.