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, who 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, who 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 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 9 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 22 episodes were transmitted, two further episodes "The Bandstand" and "The Blood Knot" were also produced but dropped from transmission due to scheduling issues, although the latter play's subject matter about
apartheid may have been a factor towards its cancellation. White continued to his predecessor's work, by commissioning plays from upcoming writers, including
John Hopkins,
Andrew Sinclair and
Len Deighton respectively
Series 9 (1964-5) This series continued its shift away from the social realist themes of earlier seasons, with plots focussing more on fantasy and horror, such as "The Trial of Dr. Fancy" by Clive Exton which is a surrealist satirical courtroom drama about a Doctor (John Lee) who is accused of performing bizarre medical procedures Notably, this story, along with "The Man Who Came to Die" by
Reginald Marsh, marked a rare instance where the writer of the episode, also played a principal role within the cast. This series was met with stiff competition from the BBC's
The Wednesday Play which began transmission in October 1964, which was produced by White's predecessor Sydney Newman, and would go onto have a greater impact than Newman's former show. Two further episodes were produced but pulled from transmission, "Unexpected Summer" and "Old Man's Fancy" were cancelled due to scheduling issues.
Series 10 (1965-6) This series broadcast into two blocks with a mid-series break between January - March 1966. The series continued to explore a variety of themes, including "The Gong Game" by Michael Herald, which casts
Leslie Phillips as Clive Breeze, an ex-RAF veteran who faces a prison sentence after stealing money to help fund his daughter's school tuition fees. White continued to commission plays from upcoming writers including
Jack Rosenthal who contributed the story "The Night Before the Morning After" which deals with the self doubts of a prospective Bride and Groom on the night before their wedding. This series also has the highest archival rate for the show during the ABC Era, with only 4 episodes out of a total of 14, that are missing from the archives. This was also the last series to be transmitted on Sundays.
Series 11 (1966-7) Like the previous series, this series was also split into two blocks with a mid series break occurring between October 1966 - January 1967. The series was also notable for featuring the pilots for two successful series
Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width and
Callan, the latter was initially titled as "A Magnum for Schneider". The plot for the episode was later reworked into the
feature film version, along with writer James Mitchell's novelisation of the story. The transmission day for this series was switched to Saturdays, and would continue until Series 13 when ABC lost their weekend franchise following the ITV franchise review.
Series 12 (1967) This series continued attract writers of calibre to produce noteworthy plays including
Terrence Frisby,
Emanuel Litvinoff,
Fay Weldon and
Richard Harris respectively. "Poor Cherry" by Weldon, was unusual for the series as it was written by a female writer, the story focusses on Cherry (
Dilys Laye) whose troubled marriage to Brian (
John Wood) is further strained when she has an affair with Philip Rick (
Peter Arne) a candidate at a by-election campaign, in which she's involved in. Shortly before the first episode of this series aired, it was announced following the ITV franchise review in June 1967, ABC would lose their weekend franchise and be forced to merge and form a joint company with
Rediffusion, which would be called Thames Television, that would begin transmissions the following year.
Series 13 (1968) The final series to air before ABC merged with Rediffusion to form Thames Television on the 30th July 1968, it was also the last series to be shown on Saturdays since the weekend franchise would soon by taken over by
London Weekend Television. This series was notable for a number of plays, including "Mrs. Capper's Birthday" which was adapted from a play by
Noël Coward, and "The Ballad of Artificial Mash" which aired during ABC Television's final weekend before its handover to Thames. A large number of episodes from this series are missing, with only 4 episodes known to exist in the archives. == Thames era (1969-1974) ==