About this season
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.
Episodes (17)
1. The Gift
Aired 3 January 1954
10. Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure
Aired 7 March 1954
16. It Never Rains
Aired 18 April 1954
20. The Comedy of Errors
Aired 16 May 1954
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.
26. Three Sisters
Aired 27 June 1954
In a small Russian town at the turn of the century, three sisters (Olga, Irina, and Masha) and their brother Andrei live but dream daily of their return to their former home in Moscow, where life is charming and stimulating meaningful. But for now they exist in a malaise of dissatisfaction. Soldiers from the local military post provide them some companionship and society, but nothing can suffice to replace Moscow in their hopes. Andrei marries a provincial girl, Natasha, and begins to settle into a life of much less meaning than he had hoped. Natasha begins to run the family her way. Masha, though married, yearns for the sophisticated life and begins a dalliance with Vershinin, an army officer with a sick and suicidal wife. Even Irina, the freshest, most optimistic of the sisters, begins to waver in her dreams until, finally, tragedy strikes.
28. The Promised Years #3: The Small Victory
Aired 11 July 1954
32. Captain Banner
Aired 8 August 1954
37. The Moon in the Yellow River
Aired 12 September 1954
38. Troilus and Cressida
Aired 19 September 1954
During the Trojan War, a Trojan warrior is distraught when his lover takes up with a Greek.
39. Troilus and Cressida/II
Aired 23 September 1954
During the Trojan War, a Trojan warrior is distraught when his lover takes up with a Greek.
40. The Last of the De Mullins
Aired 3 October 1954
42. Ninety Sail
Aired 17 October 1954
45. The Silent People
Aired 7 November 1954
46. Waiting for Gillian
Aired 14 November 1954
The carefully-controlled marriage of James Manning begins to collapse when he realizes his wife is having an affair with a wealthy man.
49. The Whiteoak Chronicles #1: Young Renny
Aired 5 December 1954
50. Nineteen Eighty-Four
Aired 12 December 1954 • 113 min
In a totalitarian future society, Winston Smith, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love. [The broadcast caused controversy, with many viewer complaints and questions in Parliament over its supposed subversive nature and horrific content. With time and hindsight, it was ranked 73rd of "The 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th Century" in an industry poll by the BFI in 2000.]
51. Stand Still Time
Aired 19 December 1954