Cindy-Ella began life as a BBC television production that was broadcast at Christmas 1957 with the well-known Cinderella story being transplanted into the American Deep South. The success of the broadcast led to a book which in turn was read on BBC by Cleo Laine and Elisabeth Welch and prompted calls for a stage production which duly opened in the West End in 1962. Also appearing in the play (and subsequent cast recording) are Cy Grant and George Browne although the team had little more than two weeks to rehearse. The end result was a remarkable piece of work as the original sleeve notes indicated. Setting the Cinderella story in the Deep South has given it a new and clement climate. It is a summer pantomime. Hallmark.