Armchair Theatre

Armchair Theatre
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	452
Production
Producer(s)	ABC Television, later Thames Television
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	1956 – 1974
Chronology
Related shows	Armchair Mystery Theatre Out of This World Armchair Cinema Armchair Thriller

Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation. Its franchise successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968.

The Canadian-born producer Sydney Newman was in charge of Armchair Theatre between September 1958 and December 1962, during what is generally considered to have been its best era, and produced 152 episodes.

Armchair Theatre filled a Sunday-evening slot on ITV, Britain's only commercial network at the time, in which contemporary dramas were the most common form, though this was not immediately apparent.

The series was launched by Howard Thomas, head of ABC at the time, who argued that "Television drama is not so far removed from television journalism, and the plays which will grip the audience are those that face up to the new issues of the day as well as to the problems as old as civilisation."

The original producer of the series was Dennis Vance, who was in charge for the first two years. In its early years the series drew heavily on North American sources. The first play, The Outsider, was a medical drama adapted from a stage play by Dorothy Brandon, which was transmitted live on 8 July 1956 from ABC's northern studios in Didsbury, Manchester. Reportedly Vance had a preference for classical adaptations, though some of these — such as a version of The Emperor Jones (30 March 1958) by the American dramatist Eugene O'Neill — were not conservative choices. Vance was succeeded by Sydney Newman, who was ABC's Head of Drama from April 1958.

The perils of live transmission caught up with the production team on 28 November 1958, early in Newman's tenure. While Underground was being broadcast a key actor suddenly collapsed and died. Such nightmare situations could be handled more easily when Armchair Theatre was able to benefit from prerecording on videotape after production of the series moved from Manchester to the Teddington Studios near London in the summer of 1959.

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