Series synopsis
Sunday Night Theatre is a British drama television series that premiered on BBC One on January 1, 1950. It stars Oliver MacGreevy, Yvonne Mitchell, Hilda Fenemore and Keith Davis.
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 ...
Premise
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.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
- Oliver MacGreevy
- Yvonne Mitchell as Julia Dixon
- Hilda Fenemore as Mrs. Parsons
- Keith Davis as Parsons Boy
- Wilfrid Brambell as Old Man / Thin Prisoner
- Sydney Bromley as Waiter
- André Morell as O'Brien
- Campbell Gray as Parsons
Supporting cast
- Pamela Grant as Parsons Girl
- Janet Barrow as Woman Supervisor
- Leonard Sachs as Mr. Charrington
- Jill Balcon as Ann Harlow
- John Laurie as Allen Campbell
- Clement McCallin as King Henry V
- Marius Goring as Chorus
- Patrick Troughton as Cardinal Wolsey
- Jeanette Sterke as Anne Boleyn
- Lucie Mannheim as Queen Charlotte
- Annette Carell as Princess Caroline of Brunswick
- Nicholas Amer as Sebastian
Guest cast
- Yvonne Mitchell as Julia Dixon
- Hilda Fenemore as Mrs. Parsons
- Keith Davis as Parsons Boy
- Wilfrid Brambell as Old Man / Thin Prisoner
- Sydney Bromley as Waiter
- André Morell as O'Brien
- Campbell Gray as Parsons
- Pamela Grant as Parsons Girl
- Janet Barrow as Woman Supervisor
- Leonard Sachs as Mr. Charrington
- Jill Balcon as Ann Harlow
- John Laurie as Allen Campbell
Episodes
This series spans 10 seasons with 141 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 20 | January 1, 1950 | December 3, 1950 |
| Season 2 | 15 | January 7, 1951 | October 28, 1951 |
| Season 3 | 13 | November 23, 1952 | |
| Season 4 | 15 | November 29, 1953 | |
| Season 5 | 17 | January 3, 1954 | December 19, 1954 |
| Season 6 | 18 | December 18, 1955 | |
| Season 7 | 14 | December 30, 1956 | |
| Season 8 | 10 | December 15, 1957 | |
| Season 9 | 10 | December 14, 1958 | |
| Season 10 | 9 | January 4, 1959 | December 13, 1959 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hindle Wakes | January 1, 1950 |
| 2 |
Rope 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. |
January 8, 1950 |
| 3 |
Twelfth Night 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. |
January 15, 1950 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Phoenix Too Frequent | January 7, 1951 |
| 2 |
The Scarlet Pimpernel 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. |
January 14, 1951 |
| 3 | David Garrick | January 21, 1951 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | The Prisoner | February 10, 1952 |
| 8 | The Wanderer | February 24, 1952 |
| 9 |
The Wild Duck A loving family's world is shattered by an old friend's arrival, carrying a dark secret. |
March 2, 1952 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 5 |
Number Three A group of nuclear scientists face a moral dilemma when they discover that as well as making electricity, their government also wants to make nuclear bombs with their products. |
February 1, 1953 |
| 6 | Our Marie | February 8, 1953 |
| 7 | The Hero | February 15, 1953 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Gift | January 3, 1954 |
| 10 | Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure | March 7, 1954 |
| 16 | It Never Rains | April 18, 1954 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 5 |
The Creature 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. |
January 30, 1955 |
| 8 |
Candida The idealist Reverend Morell tries to unite Socialism and Christianity. |
February 20, 1955 |
| 11 |
The Merchant of Venice 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. |
March 13, 1955 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | The Weeping Madonna | January 8, 1956 |
| 6 |
The White Falcon An examination of the fatal romance between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. |
February 5, 1956 |
| 11 |
The Mayerling Affair The Austro-Hungarian empire is rocked by scandal when Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress Mare Vetsera are found dead at the Mayerling hunting lodge. |
March 11, 1956 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Myself a Stranger | January 27, 1957 |
| 10 |
Twelfth Night 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. |
March 10, 1957 |
| 13 |
Requiem for a Heavyweight 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. |
March 31, 1957 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | Irving Berlin | May 11, 1958 |
| 21 | The Great Adventure | May 25, 1958 |
| 26 | View Friendship and Marriage | June 29, 1958 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Stone Ship | January 4, 1959 |
| 19 | The Fortrose Incident | May 10, 1959 |
| 21 | When in Rome | May 4, 1959 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | BBC One |
|---|---|
| First aired | January 1, 1950 |
| Last aired | July 26, 1959 |
| Status | continue |
| Schedule | Sunday at 20:30:00 |