BBC Play of the Month

During the early 16th century, idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.

Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.

A dramatisation of the defection of Soviet intelligence officer Vladimir Petrov, who, fueled by disillusionment with the Soviet system and his fear of returning, led to a Royal Commission investigating Soviet espionage in Australia, marking a significant impact on Australian politics.

Set in a future where people peacefully coexist in a sealed bubble, they are divided into four levels — Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and deviants unable to conform. Elizabeth hails from a Beta family and her father seeks to pair her off with Bindon, a civil servant with prospects. Elizabeth, however, is in love with Jon, a modest rocket pad official. When Elizabeth's father decides to have her mind altered to remove feelings for Jon, the lovers flee, discovering fresh air and the beauty and cruelness of nature for the first time.

Concerns the attempts of an English MP to influence the country's policy on nuclear weapons in the 1950s.

Loosely inspired from Gauguin's life, Charles Strickland is a middle-aged stockbroker who abandons his middle-classed life, his family, his duties to start painting, what he has always wanted to do. He is from now on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.

Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love against the wishes of their feuding families. Driven by their passion, the young lovers defy their destiny and elope, only to suffer the ultimate tragedy.

In 15th century France, a teenage peasant leads the army to victories against the English after claiming she has heard the voices of saints.

The Midwestern University trustees have forced three teachers out for being suspected communists. Trustee Ed Keller has also threatened mild-mannered English professor Tommy Turner, because he plans to read a controversial piece of prose in class. Tommy is upset that his wife Ellen also suggested he not read the passage. Meanwhile, Ellen's old boyfriend, football player Joe Ferguson, comes to visit for the Homecoming.

Aging actress Arkidana pays summer visits to her brother Sorin and son Konstantin on a country estate. On one occasion, she brings with her Trigorin, a successful novelist. Meanwhile, Nina, a free and innocent girl on a neighboring estate, falls for Trigorin.

A naive young woman falls for a handsome young man who her emotionally abusive father suspects is a fortune hunter.

Charley and Jack pressure classmate Fancourt to pose as Charley's aunt Donna Lucia. Their purpose is to have a chaperone for their amorous visits with Amy and Kitty, niece and ward of crusty Stephen Spettigue. Complications begin when Fancourt, in drag, becomes the love object of not only old Spettigue but also Jack's grandfather.

Scotland, 11th century. Driven by the twisted prophecy of three witches and the ruthless ambition of his wife, warlord Macbeth, bold and brave, but also weak and hesitant, betrays his good king and his brothers in arms and sinks into the bloody mud of a path with no return, sown with crime and suspicion.

Ross, it seems, is just an ordinary airman in the RAF, albeit more private, more of a loner, than most. But why is he so alarmingly scarred, and who is he, really?

A retired professor has returned to his estate to live with his beautiful young wife, Yelena. The estate originally belonged to his first wife, now deceased; her mother and brother still live there and manage the farm. For many years the brother—Uncle Vanya—has sent the farm's proceeds to the professor, while receiving only a small salary himself.

Mistaken identity, unrequited love, and the supernatural are combined in Shakespeare's classic set in the woods of Greece on a moonlit night.

In early 20th century Russia, a peasant monk exerts great influence upon the superstitious wife of the Russian Tsar.

Orgon is a man of property duped by the false piety of the penniless Tartuffe. Orgon takes him into his house, believing him a paragon of virtue. Orgon orders his daughter to reject her fiancé and marry Tartuffe.

An Indian doctor meets a willful and arrogant heiress stuck in a dull marriage in order to satisfy the conditions of her father's will.

Hedda Gabler is a beautiful woman married to the solid and respectable academic George Tesman. Then an old flame, the dreamer Eilert Lovborg, turns up on the scene with tragic results.

Resolving the riddle of the Sphinx makes Oedipus the king of Thebes, but he also resolves another mystery — and it destroys him.

Nemov is an honest man serving a term of 10 years for violations of Article 58. Nemov falls in love with Lyuba, who is having sex with the camp doctor Mereshchun, in exchange for better food and living conditions.

An exploration of the relationship between two couples from different social classes: one wealthy and Conservative, one poor and socialist.

Scoundrels are put on notice and women (literally) wear the pants in this uproarious comedy. Recruiting officers travel from port to port wooing men into service at sea, and women into their beds. Two such men, Worthy and Plume, land in Shrewsbury each in love with a woman who lives there.

In 1947 England, in the home of Professor Robert Linden, chair of modern history at the provincial University of Burmanley, rationing and austerity seem to have fostered opportunism, escapism and confrontation within the Linden family, gathered to celebrate Robert's 65th birthday and each of whom is struggling with their own crises.

In the city of Mycenae, a few years after the Trojan War, a bitter struggle for justice is undertaken by Electra and her brother Orestes for the murder of their father Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and their stepfather Aegisthus.

A luncheon party gathers to celebrate a wealthy unmarried man's birthday; his sister hopes he'll marry Sonya, the daughter of a selfish gout-ridden old professor who makes life Hell for his son George and his young wife, Helen.

Pip is a socialist who has seen the squalor of the East End, typified by greasy cafés offering 'chips with everything'. Pip is also the only privately-educated recruit in a draft of other National Service recruits. He's tried to buck the system by not applying for an officer's commission.

In rural 1840s Scotland, Gavin Dishart arrives to become the new 'little minister' of Thrums's Auld Licht church. He meets a mysterious young gypsy girl in the dens and to his horror Babbie draws him into her escape from the soldiers after she incites a Luddite riot. But unknown to Gavin, Babbie is more than she seems, and they must overcome her secret, the villagers' fears of her, and--worst of all--Gavin's devotion to his mother's sensibilities, before they can openly declare their love.

A scholarly king and his three companions swear off the society of women for three years, only to have a diplomatic visit from a French princess and her three ladies-in-waiting thwart their intentions.

A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.

Grace has agreed to marry Sir Harcourt Courtly in return for his financial support of her family. At a house party in her father's place, Harcourt's son Charles also falls in love with Grace. When his father appears on the scene, he has to convince him that there is a case of mistaken identity and he is somebody else.

A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.

A dentist falls in love and a family accidentally meet the father they have never known.

Centres around ambitious independent politician Henry Trebell, his plans for a bill to disestablish the Church of England, and his fall from grace and suicide after his affair with a married woman who dies following a botched abortion.

Ossian Flint is an elderly Anglican vicar whose way of life has long been the cause of scandal. He has had as little respect for the seventh commandment during nearly half a century of married life as he has had faith since his ordination. The winter of his life is transformed by his encounter with Dixie, a simple young Irish hirl, unmarried and pregnant, late of Holloway prison.

The great actor Edmund Kean is involved in a variety of romantic and other entanglements and wonders where acting ends and real life begins.

A portrait of the sordid underbelly of Soviet society during the Russian Civil War.

Edward Voysey's highly principled world upturns when he discovers the family business he's inheriting has been defrauding its clients for years because his father has been illegally speculating with their money. To compound matters, he quickly discovers his large, scandal-fearing family knew of the crime but allowed it to continue rather than face the shame of public disclosure.

Guests at a small hotel are disquieted by the insistence of a mysterious doctor that he has been there before.

Wealthy widow Maria invites long-time dinner companion Richard to spend a month at her house in Scotland. If she still likes him after a month together, they will marry. Mutual friends George, Duke of Bristol and his companion Helen decide to make it a foursome.

Writer Alfred is trapped in a loveless, unfulfilled marriage to wealthy Rita. The death of their disabled son wreaks havoc on their relationship as they struggle to find redemption for their personal failures.

An unexpected suicide prompts much speculation about honesty and theft.

A reformed philanderer attempts to embark on monogamy.

A satire of the hypocrisies of French aristocratic society, but also engages a more serious tone when pointing out the flaws that afflict all humans.