Sunday-Night Play, The

1 9 6 0 – 1 9 6 3 (UK)
181 x 60 minute episodes

This BBC anthology drama series replaced Sunday-Night Theatre and presented a new series of plays specially written for television (premiering with John Whiting’s ‘A Walk in the Desert’ on 25 September 1960).

Other notable plays in the series included Alun Owen’s ‘The Ruffians’ with James Booth and Patrick Magee; John Osborne’s ‘A Subject of Scandal and Concern’ with Richard Burton and Rachel Roberts; Clemence Dane’s ‘Marriage Lines’; and David Mercer’s ‘A Suitable Case for Treatment’ with Ian Hendry (which was subsequently remade as the feature film Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment in 1966).

Actors who appeared in the 181 plays during the series run included Bob Dylan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, Edward Woodward, Rod Steiger, Alastair Sim, Donald Pleasence, Ronnie Barker, Michael Hordern, David McCallum, Sheila Hancock, John Thaw, Stanley Baker, Patrick McGoohan, Joan Sims, Richard Briers, Dinsdale Landen, Marius Goring, Jack Smethurst, Gordon Jackson, Terry Scott, Leonard Sachs, Billie Whitelaw, Peter Wyngarde, Arthur Lowe, Peter Sallis, Patrick Troughton, Melvyn Hayes, Patsy Rowlands, Dandy Nichols, Thora Hird, Bernard Cribbins, Liz Fraser, Wendy Richard, Brian Rix, Wilfred Pickles, William Mervyn, Geoffrey Bayldon, Wendy Craig, Michele Dotrice, Wanda Ventham, Adrienne Corri, John Junkin, Gretchen Franklin, Erik Chitty, Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, Colin Jeavons and Eartha Kitt.