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Armchair Theatre is an anthology series of one-off plays that aired on the ITV network between 1956 and 1974. A total of 426 episodes were produced over 19 series. The series was initially produced by ABC Weekend TV until 1968, and subsequently by Thames Television from 1969 onwards. The programme also had several spin-off series including Armchair Mystery Theatre, Out of This World, Armchair Cinema and Armchair Thriller. Archival status Due to the archival policies of television at the time, a total of 258 episodes are missing from the archives. Although the first series has no surviving episodes to date, the survival rate of episodes increases from Series 2 onwards. A total of 104 monochrome episodes survive as 16mm telerecordings, 18 episodes exist as 405-line 2-inch videotape conversions and a further episode "Exit Joe - Running" exists in incomplete form. From Series 15 onwards when the show started colour production, all episodes exist in the archives. Series overview ABC era (1956-1968) Series 1 (1956-7) The first series was produced by Dennis Vance, who had a preference for using classical material from plays and novels written by the likes of Dorothy Brandon, Guy de Maupassant, Edgar Allan Poe and Henry James respectively. The series was transmitted live from ABC's Manchester studios in Didsbury. Currently none of the episodes from this series are known to survive in the archives. The series was aired on Sundays, which would continue to be the standard until the end of Series 10 in 1966. Series 2 (1957-8) Currently the earliest series with surviving episodes that are extant in the archives. This series was the first to be produced by Sydney Newman, who took over as Head of Drama at ABC midway during the series from Vance, whom was promoted to a senior position in the company. Due to the live format of the series at the time, several episodes were pulled from transmission owing to technical failure or problems with the cast and crew. The broadcast of "The Shining Hour" was delayed by a week due to a faulty camera crane which could not be repaired in time, and the planned transmission of "Trial By Candlelight" was cancelled owing to the untimely illness of actress Freda Jackson, the production was subsequently remounted and tele-recorded for later transmission. The final episode that would have concluded the series "The House of Bernarda Alba" had to be pulled from transmission, after director Ted Kotcheff fell ill immediately prior to the live broadcast. Series 3 (1958-9) The first full series to be produced by Newman, whom pushed for more original material, that led to commissioning teleplays from the likes of Malcolm Hulke, Tad Mosel, Mordecai Richler and John Glennon respectively. This in turn helped boost the series popularity, and by June 1959 when the current series ended, it was consistently in the top ten of audience ratings, with figures regularly exceeding 12 million viewers for 32 out of the 37 weeks the series was broadcast. As the programme was still broadcast live, production issues continued to occur; notably during the live broadcast of "Underground" on 30 November 1958, when actor Gareth Jones collapsed and died from a heart attack in between his two scenes. Newman instructed director Ted Kotcheff to continue the play and instruct the actors to improvise, as a way of avoiding the missing character from being noticed by the audience. This series also happens to have the highest number of episodes, with 52 editions broadcast between September 1958 - September 1959. Series 4 (1959-60) Production of the series moved Teddington Studios during the summer of 1959, which allowed production to be pre-recorded on videotape. With the emergence of the Angry Young Men movement at the time, Newman sought to capitalise on this and commission original plays from writers within the group, including Clive Exton, Harold Pinter and Alun Owen. The series shifted its focus to showing more realist material that focussed on the lives of the working classes, in contrast to the adaptions of high-brow classical material of earlier series. Two further episodes were pulled from transmission. "Three on a Gas Ring", a drama about a single mother who shows no remorse for her situation was banned by the ITA due to its subject matter, whilst "Two on a Tightrope" which was originally recorded in 1958, was scheduled for transmission on three different occasions, including the 22/6/1958, 3/1/1960 and 22/5/1960 before being dropped from the transmission schedule permanently. Series 5 (1960-1) This series had the longest run of any season, running for 15 months in total, although some episodes later on in the run were broadcast in fortnightly intervals, as opposed to its traditional weekly format. One of the notable plays of the series was "Lena, O My Lena" by Alun Owen, which concluded the trilogy of plays about working class life in Northern England that he began in the previous series, "No Trains to Lime Street" and "After the Funeral". The three plays were critically acclaimed, and subsequently Owen won the Directors Merit Award. Series 6 (1962) Following a hiatus of four months, the series returned to transmission in May 1962, with the episodes initially broadcast weekly, while the last three episode were broadcast fortnightly, there was also a brief mid-season break during August. At 11 episodes long, this was the shortest run during Newman's tenure, although a further episode "The Trial of Dr. Fancy" was taped but pulled from transmission by the ITA as they feared the play would cause offence, it was subsequently transmitted at the start of Series 8 in 1964. Robert Muller contributed two plays that series, including "Night Conspirators" and "Afternoon of a Nymph". The later being a stinging exposé of the underbelly of the entertainment industry. Muller would go onto write five more plays for the programme during the course of the decade. The kitchen sink element was gradually dropped from the series, after Newman announced "no more plays about 'kitchen sinks', unless they are brilliant", although realist plays continued to be commissioned, they became more infrequent. Series 7 (1962-3) This series was the last for Newman as producer, who would depart from ABC when his contract expired in December 1962 to take on the position of Head of Drama at the BBC. He was succeeded by Leonard White who took over as producer mid-way during the series run starting with "Into the Dark", White had acted in a couple of plays in earlier series, and had produced the spin-off shows including Out of This World and Armchair Mystery Theatre, along with the first two series of The Avengers. He would go onto to have the longest run as producer, staying on until Series 14 in 1969. Series 8 (1963-4) The first full series with Leonard White as producer, although his work as producer is often overlooked by his predecessor Newman's legacy, he continued to com.... Discover the Iain Duguid Matthew Harmon popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Iain Duguid Matthew Harmon books.