The Little Match Girl is a short story by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story is about a dying child's hopes and dreams, and was first published in 1845. This adaptation was made for Harlech TV and broadcast on 28th December 1986 and starred Twiggy and Roger Daltrey, and features the song 'Mistletoe and Wine' which became a Christmas number one for Cliff Richard in 1988, the biggest selling record of that year.
Produced in 1976 for BBC's Play For Today. Banned for 11 years, and finally broadcast on August 25th, 1987. It was remade, with Denholm Elliot returning to the cast, in 1982.
Frank Windsor plays the titular head of a school with an increasingly tenuous grip on his position. Intriguingly, given that that it was made 40 years ago, Headnaster shows how little has changed in teaching, given its focus on the conflict between old and modern teaching methods, as well as the eternal jockeying for position amongst teaching staff.
Arthur takes early retirement, and with his wife Marion, moves into a bungalow by the sea, bought by their son. However, disillusionment sets in after a year when the plans he had do not work out and life is not what they expected or hoped.
Based on the novel by L. P. Hartley, The Hireling is a dissection of antiquated but hardly dormant British class distinctions as a lonely socialite and her chauffeur become more than friends.
Are Maggie and Tony using each other as a means of communicating with Dr Leafer? Or are they using Dr Leafer as a means of communicating with each other?
Ingmar Bergman play looking at the cool and brittle relationship between a successful architect (Frank Finlay) and his academic wife (Gemma Jones). Commissioned by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation on behalf of European members participating in ‘The Largest Theatre in the World’. This, the Radio Times explained, was ‘a project which enabled a play to be broadcast simultaneously in several languages across Europe.’ This UK Play For Today version was directed by Alan Bridges, whilst an American version was put out on CBS, directed by Alex Segal
