Premiering on Sunday 29 December 1957, with a production of The Life of Henry V, this ambitious BBC series – known in the first series as Television World Theatre – presented studio-bound plays from Shakespeare, Euripides, Pirandello, Federico García Lorca, Bertolt Brecht, Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O’Neill, Nikolai Gogol, John Galsworthy and others.
This was the first time the BBC had produced a series of stage play adaptations under an umbrella title with a regular timeslot in the schedule, and plays were chosen to represent international playwrights rather than necessarily represent the greatest plays of all time.
The Sunday evening series aired weekly, attracting audiences of 4½ million to 9½ million during the fourteen episodes.
Viewers could prepare in advance to watch the plays by sending one shilling for a special brochure (illustrated by Feliks Topolski) providing information about the productions. Details of each play were also set out within a box (designed like a theatrical programme) in the Radio Times.
The series returned with nine new plays in 1959, beginning with Julius Caesar on 5 May. Now broadcast on Tuesday evenings with the title shortened to simply World Theatre, the plays were seen on a fortnightly basis.
As the first anthology series on British television dedicated to the classic play, (Television) World Theatre was an instrumental production in establishing a form of broadcast drama that continued on the BBC via subsequent anthology series over the following 40 years.
Actors in the plays included Bernard Hepton, Michael Bates, Sir Donald Wolfit, Dame Edith Evans, Edward Woodward, Patrick McGoohan, Patrick Wymark, Denholm Elliott, David McCallum, Eric Porter, Michael Gough, Patrick Troughton, Peter Sallis, Diane Cilento, Geoffrey Bayldon, Joan Plowright, Hermione Baddeley, Bernard Kay, Wilfrid Brambell, Tony Britton, Googie Withers, Erik Chitty, William Mervyn, Flora Robson, Fulton Mackay, Rosalie Crutchley, Prunella Scales, Charles Lloyd Pack, Glyn Houston, Richard O’Sullivan, Tony Hancock, Melvyn Hayes, Peter Wyngarde and Colin Jeavons.
Episodes
The Life of Henry V || The Cherry Orchard | Women of Troy | The Captain of Koepenick | The Dark Is Light Enough | Heartbreak House | The Government Inspector | The Judge | The Master Builder | Amphitryon 38 | The Circle of Chalk | The Clandestine Marriage | Strange Interlude: Part 1 | Strange Interlude: Part 2 || Julius Caesar | Danton’s Death | Blood Wedding | Volpone | Mother Courage and her Children | Henry IV | The School for Scandal | Brand | The Silver Box
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This was the first time the BBC had produced a series of stage play adaptations under an umbrella title with a regular timeslot in the schedule, and plays were chosen to represent international playwrights rather than necessarily represent the greatest plays of all time.
