About this season
A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.
Episodes (11)
1. A Midsummer Night's Dream
Aired 26 September 1971
Mistaken identity, unrequited love, and the supernatural are combined in Shakespeare's classic set in the woods of Greece on a moonlit night.
2. Rasputin
Aired 24 October 1971 • 115 min
In early 20th century Russia, a peasant monk exerts great influence upon the superstitious wife of the Russian Tsar.
3. Tartuffe
Aired 28 November 1971
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.
4. The Cherry Orchard
Aired 19 December 1971
Madamr Ranevskaya is a spoiled, aging aristocrat who returns from Paris to face the loss of her magnificent cherry orchard estate after a default on the mortgage. In denial, she continues living in the past, deluding herself and her family, while the beautiful cherry trees are being axed down by the repossessor Lopakhin, her former serf, who has his own agenda.
5. Summer and Smoke
Aired 23 January 1972
A plain, repressed spinster falls for a dashing young medical student, but he prefers the wilder life, until it's too late.
6. Stephen D
Aired 20 February 1972
Stephen Dedalus comes of age in a Dublin changing radically as the 20th century nears.
7. The Merchant of Venice
Aired 16 April 1972
Antonio's friend Bassanio is in love and needs money to go courting. Using Antonio as his collateral, he borrows money from Shylock. But when the debt comes due, Shylock demands repayment in the form of a pound of Antonio's flesh.
8. Lady Windermere's Fan
Aired 14 May 1972
Lady Windermere suspects that her husband is having an affair with another woman; she confronts him with it.
9. The Playboy of the Western World
Aired 11 June 1972
10. She Stoops to Conquer
Aired 23 July 1972
11. Trelawny of the "Wells"
Aired 13 August 1972
A theatrical troupe from the west end of London loses its leading lady when she elopes with a wealthy young man from the other side of town.