Classics on TV: Edwardian Drama on the Small Screen

A series of screenings at BFI Southbank, May 2014 in association with Screen Plays: Theatre Plays on British Television

Booking: http://www.bfi.org.uk/Online or 020 7928 3232

The Edwardian era is perennially popular on television, and the texture of the time has frequently been realised through studio productions of plays from those years. Sumptuous settings are part of the appeal, as are performances by the most accomplished actors of the day. But the best of these plays are also complex and challenging reflections of their moment. This season, curated by John Wyver, offers a rare opportunity to see these great plays.

5.50 pm, Thursday 1 May Play of the Month: BBC, 1969. Dir. Rudolph Cartier. A glittering version of ’s comedy, with , , and , 85 mins. + Riders To BBC, 1960. Dir. George R. Foa. J. M. Synge’s mystical tale, with , Sean Connery, 28 mins.

8.40pm, Thursday 8 May : The Devil’s Disciple BBC, 1987. Dir. . Bernard Shaw’s 1897 ‘comic melodrama’ set in Colonial America, with and , 120 mins.

8.45 pm, Thursday 15 May Play of the Month: The Voysey Inheritance BBC, 1979. Dir. Robert Knights. , Brewster Mason, Jeremy Child, Julie Covington in Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 drama, 100 mins.

6.00 pm, Tuesday 20 May Play of the Month: Waste BBC, 1977, Dir. Don Taylor. Harley Granville-Barker’s study of sex and power, with Paul Daneman, Annette Crosby, André Morrell, Hannah Gordon, 120 mins.

6.00 pm, Friday 23 May Theatre Night: BBC, 1988. Dir. Michael Darlow. ’s dissection of a bitter industrial dispute, with Peter Vaughan, Timothy West and Anna Calder-Marshall, 130 mins.

6.10 pm, Tuesday 27 May Performance: The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd BBC, 1995. Dir. Katie Mitchell. With Zoe Wanamaker, Stephen Dillane, Colin Firth in D. H. Lawrence’s drama of working-class life. 90 min.