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Sunday Night Theatre
1950 - 1959 3.5 (2 votes) 10 Seasons
Official Website
Genres
Drama
Networks
BBC One

Sunday Night Theatre

Overview

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.

Top Cast

Seasons

Season 1 (1950)

No overview available.

15 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: Hindle Wakes
1950-01-01

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 2: Rope
1950-01-08

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.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 3: Twelfth Night
1950-01-15

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.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 4: Cheapside
1950-01-22

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 5: Trespass
1950-01-29

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 6: The Scarlet Pimpernel
1950-02-05

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

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 7: The Indifferent Shepherd
1950-02-12

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 10: The Seagull
1950-03-05

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.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 11: The Lady's Not for Burning
1950-03-12

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 16: Promise of Tomorrow
1950-04-16

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.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 17: Othello
1950-04-23

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 30: Dark Tribute

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 31: Adventure Story
1950-07-30

The story of Alexander the Great, a compulsive conqueror.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 36: Vanity Fair
1950-09-03

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 40: Party Manners
1950-10-01

Runtime: N/A min
Season 2 (1951)

No overview available.

13 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: A Phoenix Too Frequent
1951-01-07

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 2: The Scarlet Pimpernel
1951-01-14

During the French Revolution, a mysterious English nobleman known only as The Scarlet Pimpernel (a humble wayside flower), snatches French aristos from the jaws of the guillotine, while posing as the foppish Sir Percy Blakeney in society. Percy falls for and marries the beautiful actress Marguerite St. Just, but she is involved with Chauvelin and Robespierre, and Percy's marriage to her may endanger the Pimpernel's plans to save the little Dauphin.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 3: David Garrick
1951-01-21

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 4: Release
1951-01-28

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 5: Counsellor at Law
1951-02-04

Successful attorney has his Jewish heritage and poverty-stricken background brought home to him when he learns his wife has been unfaithful.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 6: The Skin Game
1951-02-03

Two forces battle over the future of an English village. On one side, a factory owner wants to move out the locals and turn it into a factory town. On the other, a member of the community wants to preserve the village as it is.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 8: Julius Caesar
1951-02-25

The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 9: Julius Caesar/II
1951-03-01

The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 13: The Voysey Inheritance
1951-04-01

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 16: The Life of King Henry V (Part One)
1951-04-22

In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 17: The Life of Henry V (Part Two)
1951-04-29

In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 31: The Silent Village
1951-08-05

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 32: Albert
1951-08-12

A group of Allied prisoners of war use a dummy to cover their attempts to escape a German camp.

Runtime: N/A min
Season 6 ()

No overview available.

16 episodes

Episodes
Episode 5: The Creature
1955-01-30

A scientist searches for the Yeti in a Himalayan fastness, and is soon at odds with an adventurer who wants to find the Creature for less exalted reasons.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 8: Candida
1955-02-20

The idealist Reverend Morell tries to unite Socialism and Christianity.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 11: The Merchant of Venice
1955-03-13

A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 12: The Merchant of Venice/II
1955-03-17

A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 16: Midsummer Fire
1955-04-17

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 18: It Could Happen Only in Paris
1955-05-01

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 21: Romeo and Juliet
1955-05-22

In Shakespeare's classic play, the Montagues and Capulets, two families of Renaissance Italy, have hated each other for years, but the son of one family and the daughter of the other fall desperately in love and secretly marry.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 23: The Legend of Pepito
1955-06-05

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 24: Holiday for Simon
1955-06-12

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 35: A Life in the Sun
1955-08-28

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 38: The Scarlet Pimpernel
1955-09-18

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

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 43: The Makepeace Story #2: A New Generation
1955-10-23

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 44: The Makepeace Story #3: Family Business
1955-10-30

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 47: Idiot's Delight
1955-11-20

A group of disparate travelers are caught are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 50: The Devil Came from Dublin
1955-12-11

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 51: The Devil's General
1955-12-18

A veteran hero of the German army finds himself at odds with the Nazi regime.

Runtime: N/A min
Season 7 ()

No overview available.

14 episodes

Season 8 ()

No overview available.

5 episodes

Episodes
Episode 10: Twelfth Night
1957-03-10

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.

Runtime: 90 min
Episode 13: Requiem for a Heavyweight
1957-03-31

An over-the-hill heavyweight boxing champion who suffers from the ravages of years of head trauma is exploited by his manager, despite the efforts of a compassionate young woman who tries to help him recover his self-respect.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 23: The Lass of Richmond Hill
1957-06-09

The Prince of Wales, contrary to strict royal protocol, falls in love with a commoner, Maria Fitzherbert, and plans to marry her.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 26: Abe Lincoln in Illinois
1957-06-30

Before becoming one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln had a long career as a businessman, lawyer, government official and elected representative for the state of Illinois. This film looks at the rise of this self-educated statesman, including his famous series of public debates with rival Stephen Douglas. A glimpse is also shown of some of the more personal aspects of his Lincoln's life, including the early romance and heartbreak he experienced with Ann Rutledge.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 28: The Magnificent Egotist
1957-07-14

Runtime: N/A min

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