Armchair Theatre
Genre	Drama
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	457
Production
Producer(s)	ABC Television, later Thames Television
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Original run	1956 – 1980
Chronology
Related shows	Armchair Mystery Theatre Out of This World Armchair Cinema Armchair Thriller
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

For the album of the same name, see Armchair Theatre (Jeff Lynne album) Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Associated British Corporation (otherwise known as ABC Television or ABC Weekend TV) was one of a number of commercial television companies set up in the 1950s by cinema chains in an attempt to safeguard their business by getting involved in television which was taking away their cinema audiences. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... ITV1 is the name, in England, Wales and the Scottish borders, for a terrestrial, free-to-air television channel, broadcast in the United Kingdom by the ITV network. ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Out of This World was a British science fiction anthology television series made by ABC Television and broadcast in 1962. ... Armchair Thriller was a British television program on ITV broadcast in two series in 1978 and 1979. ... Armchair Theatre is a Solo Album by Jeff Lynne Released in 1990. ...

Armchair Theatre was a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 until 1968 in its original form, and was intermittently resurrected at various points during the 1970s. It was produced initially by ABC Television, and in the 1970s by ABC's successor company Thames Television, which had been created when ABC merged with Associated-Rediffusion in 1968. It has been suggested that Channel 3 (UK) be merged into this article or section. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979. ... Associated British Corporation (otherwise known as ABC Television or ABC Weekend TV) was one of a number of commercial television companies set up in the 1950s by cinema chains in an attempt to safeguard their business by getting involved in television which was taking away their cinema audiences. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British Independent Television (commercial television) contractor for London, on weekdays between 1954 (transmissions started on September 22, 1955) and July 29, 1968. ...

Plays typically lasted an hour—fifty minutes, plus adverts. Many different subjects would be covered and plays could be set in a variety of locations, although contemporary dramas were the most common. The most successful era of Armchair Theatre is generally regarded as being that overseen by the Canadian producer Sydney Newman, who was ABC's Head of Drama from 1958 to 1962, and who personally produced over forty episodes of the programme during this period. Newman had a passion for socially-relevant, challenging drama that tackled sensitive issues, and turned Armchair Theatre into a vehicle for the generation of 'Angry Young Men' such as Clive Exton who were coming to prominence in the late 1950s and early 60s. The programme was networked nationally on ITV on Sunday evenings, and often drew large audiences. Among the best-known plays to have been screened were No Trams to Lime Street (1959) by Alun Owen and A Night Out (1960) by Harold Pinter. Sydney Cecil Newman OC (April 1, 1917—October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, best remembered for the pioneering work he undertook in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... Angry Young Men (or Angries for short) is a journalistic catchphrase applied to a number of British playwrights and novelists from the mid-1950s. ... clive exton was a big fat ugly basterd that lived on the street eating garbage. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... It has been suggested that Channel 3 (UK) be merged into this article or section. ... No Trams to Lime Street is a 1959 British television play, written by the Welsh playwright Alun Owen for the Armchair Theatre anthology strand. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Alun Owen (November 24, 1925 – December 6, 1994) was a British screenwriter, predominantly active in television but best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles debut feature film A Hard Days Night in 1964. ... A play written by Harold Pinter in 1959. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (born 10 October 1930) is an English playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor, director, author, and political activist, best known for his plays The Birthday Party (1957), The Caretaker (1959), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), and also for his screenplay adaptations of novels by others, such as...

One particularly notable play was Underground, a science-fiction story transmitted on November 28, 1958. A little over halfway through the live broadcast, actor Gareth Jones complained of feeling unwell while off-set in make-up between two of his scenes, and then suddenly collapsed and died. Sydney Newman ordered director William Kotcheff to carry on with the play and "shoot it like a football match", meaning to follow the characters around as they improvised a way of coping with the missing cast member. While Kotcheff hurriedly re-structured the story to be able to bring the play to an end without the missing character, production assistant Verity Lambert took over control of directing the cameras. Live transmission of Armchair Theatre plays ceased soon after this incident, and pre-recording on videotape began to be employed. November 28 is the 332nd day (333rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gareth Jones (June 6, 1925 – November 28, 1958) was a British actor, chiefly remembered for his death. ... Ted Kotcheff (sometimes credited as William Kotcheff or William T. Kotcheff; born April 7, 1931 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Bulgarian-Canadian film and television director, who is well known for his work on several high-profile British television productions and as a director of films such as First... Verity Lambert (born November 27, 1935 in London, England, UK) is a British television and film producer, best known for producing the science-fiction series Doctor Who for the BBC for its first two years, from 1963 to 1965. ... Bottom view of VHS videotape cassette with magnetic tape exposed Videotape is a means of recording images and sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. ...

After the 1968 ITV franchise overhauls and ABC's metamorphosis into Thames, the programme was dropped until 1974, when a new version was produced under the title Armchair Cinema, effectively a series of short TV movies. In 1976 the Thames series Plays For Britain, although not officially part of the Armchair franchise, was avowedly inspired by Sydney Newman's work, its aim being to reflect social circumstances and conditions in the UK in much the same way as Armchair Theatre had done in the late 50s and early 60s. In 1978 a final version, Armchair Thriller was produced, and this ran for two years until 1980, when the programme ended for good. It has been suggested that Channel 3 (UK) be merged into this article or section. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the 1976 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... Armchair Thriller was a British television program on ITV broadcast in two series in 1978 and 1979. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ...

The programme occasionally spun-off ideas into full-blown series such as Armchair Mystery Theatre, hosted by Donald Pleasance, which specialised in crime and mystery thrillers. A 1962 adaptation of the John Wyndham short story Dumb Martian, scripted by Clive Exton, was a deliberate showcase for the spin-off science fiction anthology Out of This World. A 1967 episode, A Magnum For Schneider, became the pilot for the hugely popular crime series Callan. One of Thames' 1974 Armchair Cinema entries, a one-off detective drama entitled Regan by Ian Kennedy Martin, successfully spun-off into the immensely popular series The Sweeney. Donald Pleasence (October 5, 1919 - February 2, 1995) was a British actor. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... John Wyndham (July 10, 1903 – March 11, 1969) was the pen name used by the often post-apocalyptic British science fiction writer John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Out of This World was a British science fiction anthology television series made by ABC Television and broadcast in 1962. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Callan was the title of a British action-adventure television series that aired on ITV broadcasters over four seasons spread out between 1967 and 1972. ... Ian Kennedy Martin (born May 23, 1936) is a British television scriptwriter. ... The Sweeney is a British television police drama focusing on two crime-fighting members of the Flying Squad, an elite branch of the British police force specialising in armed robbery and violent crime. ...

Hugely popular at its peak, with audiences occasionally touching an astounding twenty million, Armchair Theatre was an important influence over later similar programmes such as the BBC's The Wednesday Play (1964-1970). This latter programme was initiated by Sydney Newman as a deliberate attempt to echo the success of Armchair Theatre after he had moved to the BBC in 1963. The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... The Wednesday Play was a British television drama anthology series, which ran on BBC ONE from 1964 to 1970. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Sydney Cecil Newman OC (April 1, 1917—October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, best remembered for the pioneering work he undertook in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. ... Year 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Overall, 457 plays were made and broadcast under the Armchair... banner from 1956 to 1980. As with much early British television, not all of the plays from the original ABC series survive in the archives, due either to live plays not being recorded, or recordings being wiped and re-used. Live television refers to television broadcasts of events or performances on a delay of between zero and fifteen seconds, rather than from video recordings or film. ... Wiping or junking is an economic move by radio and television companies in which old audiotapes, videotapes and telerecordings are wiped (deleted) and reused or destroyed. ...

It was satirised on Round the Horne as Armpit Theatre Round the Horne was one of the most influential BBC Radio comedy programmes, comparable to The Goon Show in its influence on other comedy programmes. ...

External links

• Page on the series at the Television Heaven website
• Armchair Theatre at the Internet Movie Database