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.
No overview available.
15 episodes
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 minViola 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 minA noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.
Runtime: N/A minThis 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 minMarius 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 minThe story of Alexander the Great, a compulsive conqueror.
Runtime: N/A minNo overview available.
13 episodes
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 minSuccessful attorney has his Jewish heritage and poverty-stricken background brought home to him when he learns his wife has been unfaithful.
Runtime: N/A minTwo 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 minThe 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 minThe 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 minIn 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 minIn 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 minA group of Allied prisoners of war use a dummy to cover their attempts to escape a German camp.
Runtime: N/A minNo overview available.
8 episodes
No overview available.
8 episodes
After the overthrowing of Duke Senior by his tyrannical brother, Senior's daughter Rosalind disguises herself as a man and sets out to find her banished father while also counseling her clumsy suitor Orlando in the art of wooing.
Runtime: N/A minAfter the overthrowing of Duke Senior by his tyrannical brother, Senior's daughter Rosalind disguises herself as a man and sets out to find her banished father while also counseling her clumsy suitor Orlando in the art of wooing.
Runtime: N/A minA man is haunted by a murder that he's committed.
Runtime: N/A minNo overview available.
13 episodes
Two identical twins and their two servants (also identical twins) are separated in a ship-wreck. When, years later, they all show up in the same town, mistaken identities abound.
Runtime: N/A minDuring the Trojan War, a Trojan warrior is distraught when his lover takes up with a Greek.
Runtime: N/A minDuring the Trojan War, a Trojan warrior is distraught when his lover takes up with a Greek.
Runtime: N/A minIn a totalitarian future society, Winston Smith, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love.
Runtime: N/A minNo overview available.
16 episodes
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 minThe idealist Reverend Morell tries to unite Socialism and Christianity.
Runtime: N/A minA 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 minA 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 minIn 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 minA noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.
Runtime: N/A minA 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 minA veteran hero of the German army finds himself at odds with the Nazi regime.
Runtime: N/A minNo overview available.
14 episodes
An examination of the fatal romance between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
Runtime: N/A minThe Austro-Hungarian empire is rocked by scandal when Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress Mare Vetsera are found dead at the Mayerling hunting lodge.
Runtime: N/A minCrystof Wolters is German born but working in and owing allegiance to Britain. The play is concerned with how and why he betrays that allegiance, and how, after a tense cat-and mouse-game, he is led to reveal his betrayal.
Runtime: N/A minWhen Hadrian seeks permission to marry, is it for love or for an inheritance?
Runtime: N/A minA portrayal of the life of the eighteenth century soldier and politician, particularly focusing on his victory at the Battle of Plassey.
Runtime: N/A minNo overview available.
5 episodes
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 minAn 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 minThe Prince of Wales, contrary to strict royal protocol, falls in love with a commoner, Maria Fitzherbert, and plans to marry her.
Runtime: N/A minBefore 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 minNo overview available.
2 episodes
In a Russian slum, various residents play out their lives, dreaming of better things or settling for their lot. Among them is a man who pines for a young woman but is stymied by her deceptive family.
Runtime: N/A minNo overview available.
5 episodes
Maigret, that most human of French detectives, sets out to solve the mystery surrounding the brutal murder of a girl whose body has been found in a street near Place Pigalle in the heart of Paris.
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