George Roy Hill directed and Claude Rains provided a narration[5] – a practice borrowed from radio dramas which provided a template for many television dramas of the time.[17] It took a similar approach to the book, lacking dominant characters and switching between a multiplicity of scenes. Rains' narration was used "to bridge the almost limitless number of sequences of life aboard the doomed liner", as a reviewer put it,[18] and closed with his declaration that "never again has Man been so confident. An age had come to an end."[19] The production was a major hit, attracting 28 million viewers, and greatly boosted the book's sales.[5] It was rerun on kinescope on 2 May 1956, five weeks after its first broadcast.[16][20]