John Wyver writes: Today is the 93rd anniversary of the earliest Shakespeare performance on British television that I can identify. In the morning of Thursday 25 February 1932, producer Harold Bradly in the Baird studio in Covent Garden's Long Acre, more
John Wyver writes: The evening of Sunday 5 February 1939 was taken up with a 105-minute version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, with John Abbott as Prospero and actor, writer and poet Stephen Haggard as Ariel. Playing Caliban was more
John Wyver writes: 'ls the 'straight from the theatre' stuff going to be satisfactory?' That was the question Grace Wyndham Goldie posed following the live broadcast of Twelfth Night from the Phoenix Theatre (above) on the evening of 2 more
John Wyver writes: OTD, Monday 29 November 1937, from the BBC's 'high definition' Television service... more Shakespeare. Scenes from Cymbeline, broadcast from 3.39pm to 4.24pm, and then again from 9.31pm to 9.55pm, was a presentation of minimally restaged elements more
John Wyver writes: OTD in early British television, on 27 November 1938, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company made its television debut with its production of The Wooing of Anne Hathaway. The tradition of a major drama production each Sunday evening more
John Wyver writes: to start the new year after the holidays, don't forget my review of the year, and here's another selection of articles, videos and more that engaged or interested me over the past 10 more
John Wyver writes: Although Play for Today events are continuing, with showings on BBC Four and at BFI Southbank, our documentary Drama Out of a Crisis is happily installed on BBC iPlayer more
We are delighted to announce that Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet is released on DVD and Blu-ray on the 25 August. This is our fourth Matthew Bourne dance release and follows Swan Lake, The Car more
With four days of holidays stretching ahead, here are some suggestions of streaming and download treats from Illuminations. New titles are now available including Being Shakespeare, Art of Faith II and Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize-winning speech, Art, Truth & Politics. more
John Wyver writes: the usual weekly dose of writings that have engaged me over the past week, including inevitably some Covid-19 pieces, complemented by one or two video fragments that I have found especially important - starting with... • The secret more