1 9 6 7 – 1 9 8 3 (UK)
254 x 90 minute/60 minute episodes
ITV Playhouse debuted on Monday 25 September 1967 with a production of ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’ by Oscar Wilde.
This anthology series featured rotating contributions from Thames Television, Associated Television (ATV), Granada Television and Yorkshire Television, with occasional contributions from smaller ITV companies. The series began in black and white but was later produced in colour.
The plays included works by Noel Coward, Joe Orton, Dennis Potter, Tom Stoppard, DH Lawrence, George Bernard Shaw, Henry James, W. Somerset Maugham, Anton Chekhov, and Fay Weldon.
A veritable who’s-who of British television and theatre appeared in more than 250 dramas and comedies, including Edward Woodward, Judi Dench, Brian Blessed, Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, Ian McKellen, Anthony Quayle, Susannah York, Derek Jacobi, Maggie Smith, Richard Wilson, George Cole, Michael Elphick, Jimmy Jewel, Leonard Rossiter, Geoffrey Palmer, Maureen Lipman, Alison Steadman, John Thaw, Sheila Hancock, Ian Hendry, Ronald Fraser, Penelope Keith, Hannah Gordon, Sylvia Syms, Miriam Margolyes, Anna Massey, Cliff Richard and Toyah Willcox.