Sunday Night Theatre

Drama

Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.

Episodes

Cast

Hindle Wakes

1. Hindle Wakes

1st Jan 1950

Rope

2. Rope

8th Jan 1950

Two young men strangle their "inferior" classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the "perfection" of their crime.

Twelfth Night

3. Twelfth Night

15th Jan 1950

Viola and Sebastian are lookalike twins, separated by a shipwreck. Viola lands in Illyria, where she disguises herself like her brother and goes into the service of the Duke Orsino. Orsino sends her to help him woo the Lady Olivia, who doesn't want the Duke, but finds that she likes the new messenger the Duke's sending. Then, of course, Viola's brother shows up, and merry hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, Olivia's uncle and his cohorts are trying to find some way to get back at Olivia's officious majordomo, Malvolio.

Cheapside

4. Cheapside

22nd Jan 1950

Trespass

5. Trespass

29th Jan 1950

The Scarlet Pimpernel

6. The Scarlet Pimpernel

5th Feb 1950

A noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.

The Indifferent Shepherd

7. The Indifferent Shepherd

12th Feb 1950

The Seagull

10. The Seagull

5th Mar 1950

This quintessential Chekhov drama--his first success--is both comic and tragic. A group of friends and relations gather at a country estate to see the first performance of an experimental play written and staged by the young man of the house, Konstantin, an aspiring writer who dreams of bringing new forms to the theatre.

The Lady's Not for Burning

11. The Lady's Not for Burning

12th Mar 1950

Promise of Tomorrow

16. Promise of Tomorrow

16th Apr 1950

Marius Goring stars as Tommy Savidge, a crippled poet who longs to compose verse dramas but is forced to write trashy plays for dingy provincial repertory companies to make a living.

Othello

17. Othello

23rd Apr 1950

Dark Tribute

30. Dark Tribute

Adventure Story

31. Adventure Story

30th Jul 1950

The story of Alexander the Great, a compulsive conqueror.

The History of Mr. Polly

33. The History of Mr. Polly

13th Aug 1950

Vanity Fair

36. Vanity Fair

3rd Sep 1950

Party Manners

40. Party Manners

1st Oct 1950

The Secret Sharer

48. The Secret Sharer

26th Nov 1950

A ship's captain must conceal a stowaway from his crew.

An Enemy of the People

49. An Enemy of the People

3rd Dec 1950

A scientist stands against an entire town when he discovers their medicinal spa is polluted.

First air date

1st Jan 1950

Last air date

26th Jul 1959

Status

Returning Series

Type

Scripted

Original language

en

Networks