Loading
Loading
1 March 1997 · 5 episodes
1. Company
1 March 1997
A series of five broadcasts of stage musicals and plays starts with Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's acclaimed show Company, which was filmed at London's Donmar Warehouse theatre in February 1996. Directed by Sam Mendes, the musical is an exploration of love, sex and relationships in Manhattan. Songs featured include The Ladies Who Lunch, Barcelona and Being Alive. During the interval, Mendes interviews Sondheim.
15 March 1997
A series of broadcasts of stage musicals and plays continues with writer Kevin Elvot's 1995 Olivier Award-winning comedy. Entirely set among London's gay community in the mid-1980s against the background of the mounting AIDS crisis, My Night with Reg follows the ups and downs of a circle of gay friends over a period of several years. One of the group, the titular Reg, is not a character in the play, but the whole plot revolves around his apparent promiscuity and the chain reaction of deception and betrayal set off by it.
3. Richard II
22 March 1997
Shakespeare's tragedy in which King Richard struggles to hold on to his crown in the face of plot and treachery. A Royal National Theatre production notable for having an actress playing the king. Starring Fiona Shaw, Graham Crowden, Richard Bremmer.
4. Broken Glass
29 March 1997
Brooklyn: 1938. Dr Harry Hyman is called in to treat Sylvia Gellburg, who has been stricken by a mysterious paralysis in her legs. A television film of Arthur Miller's play.
5 April 1997
Shakespeare's tragedy updated to the present day by documentary-maker Penny Woolcock and set on an inner-city council estate. The play, filmed on Birmingham's Ladywood Estate, features local people alongside some of Britain's most promising young actors. Last in the series.