ITV Television Playhouse

1 9 5 5 – 1 9 6 7 (UK)
387 x 60 minute episodes

This long-running anthology series (often referred to simply as Television Playhouse) was produced by Associated-Rediffusion Television and debuted in September 1955.

Actors who appeared in the 387 plays included Peter Sellers, Donald Pleasence, Edward Woodward, Maggie Smith, Peter Cushing, Alan Bates, Richard Harris, Lionel Jeffries, Denholm Elliott, Tom Courtenay, Trevor Peacock, Petula Clark, Juliet Mills, Michael Redgrave, Susannah York, Susan George, Rachel Roberts, Liz Fraser, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims, Sylvia Syms, Warren Mitchell, Dinsdale Landen, Joan Hickson, Ronnie Barker, Adrienne Corri, Dandy Nichols, Patrick Troughton, Jane Asher, Stratford Johns, Ian Hendry, William Hartnell, Diane Cilento, Sam Kydd, Wilfrid Brambell, David McCallum, John Le Mesurier, Charles Lloyd Pack, Leo McKern, William Franklyn, Arthur Lowe, Richard O’Sullivan, Wanda Ventham, Alfred Burke, Patrick Magee, Peter Wyngarde, Barry Foster, Peter Sallis, Prunella Scales, Carmel McSharry and Bernard Braden.

Some of the featured writers included Charles Dickens, Ray Bradbury, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, JB Priestley, Gore Vidal and Jean-Paul Sartre.

The episode “Before the Sun Goes Down” caused a mild panic when it was broadcast on 20 February 1959. The play – about a mysterious satellite which appears over London – began with a (fictitious) urgent news broadcast reporting the appearance of the satellite and suggesting it may be “an enemy space platform armed with H-bombs aimed at the heart of the City”. The newscaster continued, “The Prime Minister has called an emergency Defence Council meeting . . . the Civil Defence has ordered all traffic and pedestrians off the streets at once.” The issue was later even raised in the House of Commons.