Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series, which ran from 1965 to 1983 featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays (or adaptations) which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted regularly from October 1965 to May 1979, before returning for the summer seasons of 1982 and 1983. The producer most associated with the Play of the Month series was Cedric Messina. Thirteen productions were also shown previously or subsequently on BBC2 in the period 1971-73 under Stage 2. Productions were broadcast in colour from November 1969.
Of the 128 productions, 40 are missing from the archives (except for short sequences in several cases), having been junked in the 1960s and 1970s. One colour production exists only as a black & white telerecording.
4/9 episodes from series one are archived, only the first episode from series two is archived, 2/11 from series three are archived, with one lost transmission surviving in partial footage, 4/9 from series four are archived, 4/8 from series five are fully archived, with one lost broadcast having partial footage, 5/9 from series six are archived, 8/11 from series seven are archived, with one episode ("The Cherry Orchard"), originally transmitted on 19 December 1971 and filmed in colour only surviving as a black and white recording, 7/10 from series eight are archived, and one lost episode having partial footage, 7/9 exist from series nine, with one lost episode having partial footage, 8/9 from series ten are archived, and every episode made from series eleven onwards is archived.
The earliest episode not in the BBC archives is series one episode three, "The Joel Brand Story", originally transmitted on 14 December 1965, and the latest episode not available in the archives is series ten episode eight "The Shadow of a Gunman", originally transmitted on 20 April 1975.
Productions
Sourced according to the BBC Genome archive of Radio Times magazines, with archival status from TV Brain.[1][2] Legend: AS/A = Archive status/Availability Abbreviations: tr =Telerecording; seq = sequence(s)
John Gielgud, Michael Craig, Maurice Denham, Derek Godfrey, Joan Greenwood, Felicity Hain, Barbara Jefford, Corin Redgrave, Joyce Redman, Athene Seyler, Elisabeth Bergner
Ian Holm, Francesca Annis Ronald Hines, Ronald Fraser, Donal McCann, Angela Pleasence, Cyril Luckham, Geoffrey Bayldon, Vickery Turner, Daphne Heard, Jay Neill
Anthony Hopkins, Neville Phillips Sara Kestelman, Adrienne Corri, Barrie Ingham, Robert Stephens, Frank Middlemass, Cherie Lunghi, Hugh Walters, George Tovey, Harry Fielder
Up Pompeii! is a British television comedy series set in ancient Pompeii and broadcast between 1969 and 1970, starring Frankie Howerd. The first series was written by Talbot Rothwell, a scriptwriter for the Carry On films, and the second series by Rothwell and Sid Colin. Two later specials were transmitted in 1975 and 1991 and a film adaptation was released in 1971.
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and white from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974 in colour. The lead roles were played by Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. The theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 poll by the BBC to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It was remade in the United States as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert, in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon, in Portugal as Camilo & Filho, and in South Africa as Snetherswaite and Son. Two film adaptations of the series were released in cinemas, Steptoe and Son (1972) and Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973).
Quatermass and the Pit is a British television science-fiction serial transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959. It was the third and last of the BBC's Quatermass serials, although the chief character, Professor Bernard Quatermass, reappeared in a 1979 ITV production called Quatermass. Like its predecessors, Quatermass and the Pit was written by Nigel Kneale.
Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist, responsible for investigating and combating various environmental and technological dangers.
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the 1949 novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed subversive nature and horrific content. It starred Peter Cushing, Yvonne Mitchell, Donald Pleasence and André Morell.
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey, subsequently became television series in their own right.
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968.
Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.
The Grove Family is a British television series soap opera, generally regarded as the first of its kind broadcast in the UK, made and broadcast by the BBC Television Service from 1954 to 1957. The series concerned the life of the family of the title, who were named after the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, where the programme was made.
No Trams to Lime Street is a 1959 British television play, written by the Welsh playwright Alun Owen for the Armchair Theatre anthology series. Produced by ABC Weekend TV for transmission on the ITV network, the play was broadcast on 18 October 1959. The original version no longer exists.
The Morecambe & Wise Show is a comedy sketch show originally broadcast by BBC Television and the third TV series by English comedy double-act Morecambe and Wise. It began airing in 1968 on BBC2, specifically because it was then the only channel broadcasting in colour, following the duo's move to the BBC from ATV, where they had made Two of a Kind since 1961.
This is a list of British television related events from 1966.
The Forsyte Saga is a 1967 BBC television adaptation of John Galsworthy's series of The Forsyte Saga novels, and its sequel trilogy A Modern Comedy. The series follows the fortunes of the upper middle class Forsyte family, and stars Eric Porter as Soames, Kenneth More as Young Jolyon and Nyree Dawn Porter as Irene.
Paul Temple is a British-German television series which originally aired on BBC1 between 1969 and 1971. 52 episodes were made over four series, each episode having a running time of around 50 minutes.
Thirty-Minute Theatre was a British anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known. It was produced initially by Harry Moore, later by Graeme MacDonald, George Spenton-Foster, Innes Lloyd and others. Thirty-Minute Theatre began on BBC2 in 1965 with an adaptation of the black comedy Parson's Pleasure. Dennis Potter contributed Emergency – Ward 9 (1966), which he partially recycled in the much later The Singing Detective (1986). In 1967 BBC2 launched the UK's first colour service, with the consequence that Thirty-Minute Theatre became the first drama series in the country to be shown in colour.
Theatre Night is the umbrella title under which adaptations of classic and contemporary stage plays were usually broadcast on BBC 2 between 15 September 1985 and 21 July 1990.
Armchair Mystery Theatre is a 60-minute UK television anthology mystery series. Thirty-four episodes aired from 1960–1965. It was hosted by Donald Pleasence and produced by Leonard White. It was a spin-off from the successful Armchair Theatre series.
Variety in Sepia is a television Variety special that was filmed live on 7 October 1947 at the RadiOlympia Theatre, Alexandra Palace, London, and was aired on BBC TV.
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