Armchair Theatre

Armchair Theatre
Format	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

Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 until 1968 in its original form, and was resurrected intermittently during the 1970s. It was produced initially by Associated British Corporation, and during the 1970s by ABC's successor company Thames Television, which had been created when ABC merged with Rediffusion Television during 1968. The shows were produced initially at ABC's northern studios in Didsbury, Manchester, with a switch to facilities at Teddington during 1959.

Plays typically lasted an hour—fifty minutes, plus advertisements. 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 period of Armchair Theatre is generally regarded as being from 1958 to 1962 when the series was overseen by Canadian producer Sydney Newman, who was ABC's Head of Drama. Newman, who personally produced more than forty episodes, had a passion for socially-relevant, challenging drama that addressed sensitive issues, and converted Armchair Theatre into a vehicle for the generation of 'Angry Young Men' such as Clive Exton who were beginning to be known during 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.

One particularly notable play was Underground, a science-fiction story transmitted on 28 November 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.

After the 1968 ITV franchise changes 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.

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.

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.

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 destroyed.

It was satirised on the BBC Radio comedy series Round the Horne as Armpit Theatre.^[1]

See also

• Comedy Playhouse
• Theatre 625
• The Wednesday Play
• ITV Playhouse
• Play for Today
• The Afternoon Play (BBC1)

References

External links

• Armchair Theatre at the BFI's Screenonline
• Armchair Theatre at TV.com
• Page on the series at the Television Heaven website
• Armchair Theatre at the Internet Movie Database