Rosemary Hill

The Birthday Party

It is Stanley's birthday, but the party he is given is not quite what he expects. [A BBC production broadcast on the Theatre Night series.]

Paying Guests (Part 2)

Miss Howard's exhibition of water-colours at the Green Salon falters but then takes off. The season at 'Wentworth' is now drawing to a close, peoples' plans for the winter unfold. Florence, for the first time in her life, refuses to go off with her selfish old father. Miss Howard has some momentous news, and the Colonel must make a very brisk about-turn.

Paying Guests (Part 1)

Spend some time in the company of the guests at 'Wentworth' - all taking the waters except for the Colonel and Miss Howard, who has some leisure for the beginnings of a late romance. Gossip, bicycle rides, rounds of golf, bridge in the evenings and preparations for the charity concert all make time pass most pleasantly - don't they?

The Dumb Waiter

In the kitchen, two assassins await the arrival of their victim. But someone keeps sending them messages via the dumb waiter.

The Unknown Soldier

The soldier in the spinal carriage can neither move nor speak. Who is he? His fellow wounded and officers are intent on finding out.

Moving on the Edge

A woman in a state of personal crisis finds it hard to communicate with her husband and family.

The Last Term

Devon 1940. The boys of the local public school are alerted after a German parachute drop and as members of the Local Defence Volunteers they prepare to put their youthful enthusiasm for war into practice.

A Song At Twilight

Enormously successful writer Sir Hugo Latymer has a tryst with the past not altogether to his liking. This bittersweet comedy is the story of a cosmopolitan author caught in his declining years between two women, one being his wife of convenience for twenty years, the other, one of his former lovers.

Come Into The Garden Maud

A rich cornhusker and his social climbing wife find themselves in the company of royalty. While the wife is entertaining a high and mighty prince downstairs, the husband is entertaining a threadbare princess upstairs. It doesn't take long for the husband to realize he has more in common with royalty than his wife does.

Passing Through

Is Richard the pub bore, or is he someone very intriguing? Arthur is a man of habit - four pints a night and home by 7.0, but tonight it's past 11.0 before he leaves the pub.

Lunch

Two women meet for lunch every two weeks to swap news. But this week is different

By George

An anthropologist observed by one of his erstwhile victims - a sophisticated comedy.

A Shilling Life

An ex-West End playwright, interviewed by a hack-journalist for a railway station biography. How can this turn into a love story?

Preview

Four television critics gather in a Wardour Street preview theatre to see a documentary and get the surprise of their lives.

Aubrey

A biographical portrait of pen-and-ink artist, Aubrey Beardsley.

The Grudge Fight

As they go by lorry to start their apprenticeship as Royal Naval Artificers, Pike and Brooks take a tacit dislike to one another. It's going to end in a fight.

Last Summer's Child

Young Col is not enjoying his Cornish holiday and wishes his father would not join the family. Events make him grow up rather fast.

Standing in for Henry

At an advertising agency in Nottingham, young graphic designer Graham is recruited as a temporary replacement for the iconic Henry. The agency are desperate to be part of the Swinging Sixties but not without Henry. Can Graham replace him?

The Happy Autumn Fields

Time is playing tricks on Mary. Around her the walls are crumbling- all the houses are being pulled down. Why does she insist on staying, caught in a dream about a family, years ago, out walking in the fields after the harvest? And who was Sarah, that beautiful young girl, whose sister couldn't bear that she was in love?

An Ordered Life

Colin Jeavons is the German composer Anton Webern who survives Naziism only to be shot by an American GI in the closing days of WW2. Daniel Gerroll plays his son Stephen who, against his father's wishes, joined the Wehrmacht and was killed in a railway accident in 1943.

Hallelujah, Mary Plum

A talented, independent artist lives by the sea with her daughter. As summer approaches, she faces two threats to her way of life: the local doctor who is in love with her and her unhappy sister who comes to stay.

Home-Movies

A 1979 production from BBC2 Playhouse by Denis Cannan

The Ice House

After his wife leaves him, Paul seeks solace at a sophisticated health spa run by a pair of sinister siblings. Strangely attracted by the scent of a vine that grows on the old ice house in the spa's grounds, Paul is drawn ever deeper into a horrifying mystery.

The Copyist

A fateful day in the life of a great composer. A play with music

For Tea on Sunday

An unexpected force shatters the urbane calm of a Sunday afternoon tea party.

Liza

Lavretsky returns to Russia from Europe and joins the group of admirers of his beautiful young cousin Liza.

Stigma

A young couple move into a remote country house in the middle of a stone circle. They employ workmen who disturb an ancient menhir, unleashing a supernatural force.

Come the Revolution

Comedy about a pub theatre group seen as dramatic revolutionaries by an actress with more than her share of imagination.

The Emperor's New Hat

For 51 years, the Comtesse has bought a new hat to celebrate her wedding anniyear, she invites her granddaughter Sylvie to the ceremony.

The Achurch Letters

1889: young Bernard Shaw falls under the spell of actress Janet Achurch. An important and highly charged relationship develops.

The Signalman

A traveller comes across a signalman stationed by the exit of a railway tunnel in a deep cutting. The traveller becomes familiar with the signalman, and finds that he is troubled by an apparition which appears by the tunnel.

Sea-Change

An elderly man and his only son continue to interact, following the death of the son in World War 2.

A Wily Couple

An elderly couple try to decide if a young woman who has come to visit would make a suitable wife for their son.

Jumping Bean Bag

At an end-of-term school play, Ozzie and his band join in with a hard rock contribution. However, this leads to the unexpected fame of the schoolboy rock group, and they find that there is a darker down-side to fame and being successful music stars.

Three Men in a Boat

One hot June day, three friends decide there is nothing they would like to do more than to get away from London. A boating holiday with lots of fresh air and exercise would be just the very thing, or so their doctors tell them. So, after debating the merits of hotel or camp beds and what to pack, they set off on their voyage - a trip up the Thames from Henley to Oxford - but very quickly find themselves ill-equipped for the trials of riverbank life.

The Ash Tree

Man of leisure Sir Richard receives notification that his Uncle has died, bequeathing him his stately country manor and all its lands. On his return to England he immediately sets about taking stock of all legal matters concerning his new property, but during these dealings Sir Richard seems to be more than a little distracted, he hears strange noises from the ash tree outside his bedroom window.

Caesar and Claretta

'Caesar and Claretta' dramatises the last few hours in the lives of Benito Mussolini (El Duce, played by Robert Hardy) and his mistress Claretta (played by Helen Mirren).

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas

The Reverend Justin Somerton, a scholar of medieval history, and his protégé Lord Peter Dattering are visiting an abbey library. While studying a stained glass window, they uncover clues leading to a treasure hidden by a disgraced abbot.

Lost Hearts

A young orphan, Stephen, is sent to go and live with his strange, much older cousin at his remote country house. Once there, Stephen experiences terrible dreams in which he sees a young girl and boy who are missing their hearts.

The Proposal

In formal attire, Ivan Vassilievich Lomov calls upon his neighbor, the bluff Stefan Stefanovich Chubukov. Chubukov fears that the prolix Lomov has come to borrow money, but is delighted when Lemov finally gets to the point and proposes to marry Chubukov's daughter Natalia. Without telling her why, Chubukov sends Natalia into the drawing room, and Lemov begins an even more roundabout proposal. Before he can make his intentions clear, Natalia takes exception to something he says, and an argument ensues. Lemov works himself into a lather. Will a funeral be required? Perhaps a neutral conversational topic, such as hunting dogs, can ease the couple past their disagreement.

Anastasia

Set 16 years after the execution of the Tsar and his family by the Bolsheviks. Exiles Prince Bounine and his friends come up with a scheme to con money by claiming an imposter to be Princess Anastasia who escaped the shootings. They find a poor woman who is close to suicide and both looks the part and speaks Russian. All they need to do is train her for her role, enough to convince other members of the ex-Royal household and family also in exile.