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.
Sunday Night Theatre (Season 1)
Hindle Wakes (Episode 1)
Air date: 1950-01-01
Rope (Episode 2)
Air date: 1950-01-08
Overview: 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 (Episode 3)
Air date: 1950-01-15
Overview: 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 (Episode 4)
Air date: 1950-01-22
Trespass (Episode 5)
Air date: 1950-01-29
The Scarlet Pimpernel (Episode 6)
Air date: 1950-02-05
Overview: A noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.
The Indifferent Shepherd (Episode 7)
Writer: Peter Ustinov
Air date: 1950-02-12
The Seagull (Episode 8)
Air date: 1950-03-05
Overview: 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 (Episode 9)
Air date: 1950-03-12
Promise of Tomorrow (Episode 10)
Air date: 1950-04-16
Overview: 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 (Episode 11)
Air date: 1950-04-23
The Title (Episode 12)
Air date: 1950-05-21
The Insect Play (Episode 13)
Air date: 1950-05-28
The Admirable Crichton (Episode 14)
Writer: J.M. Barrie
Air date: 1950-06-11
Overview: A group of people are shipwrecked when their yacht runs around on a South Pacific island. The usable hierarchy in a upper-class British family breaks down quickly when it becomes apparent that only the servant Crichton is capable of surviving on his own and he becomes the communities leader.
Dark Tribute (Episode 15)
Adventure Story (Episode 16)
Air date: 1950-07-30
Overview: The story of Alexander the Great, a compulsive conqueror.
The History of Mr. Polly (Episode 17)
Air date: 1950-08-13
Vanity Fair (Episode 18)
Air date: 1950-09-03
Party Manners (Episode 19)
Air date: 1950-10-01
The Secret Sharer (Episode 20)
Air date: 1950-11-26
Overview: A ship's captain must conceal a stowaway from his crew.
An Enemy of the People (Episode 21)
Air date: 1950-12-03
Overview: A scientist stands against an entire town when he discovers their medicinal spa is polluted.
