David Rudkin
The story is set in late 19th century rural corner of South England. The daughter of timber merchant Melbury, Grace, returns to the town after finishing school. Her father now believes she can find a better husband than her childhood sweetheart, woodsman Giles. She marries handsome young doctor Fitzpiers, but soon finds out he's not the man of her dreams and she still loves Giles.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a young servant provokes an independent Irish farm community by her relationship with two brothers. Pregnant, she refuses to reveal the name of the father.
One Christmas, a knight garbed all in green appears in King Arthur's Court and challenges any knight to hew off his head on the proviso that he be allowed to return the axe stroke afterwards. All of King Arthur's other knights being frightened, Sir Gawain takes up the challenge and hacks off the green knight's head. The green knight then gives Gawain a year to find his home and live a little before the cut is returned.
After the breakdown of his marriage Gil struggles to bring up his two daughters, but his care is not enough to ward off the all-pervading power of the White Lady, a symbol of the chemicals used in food production in Britain.
When Martin 's adopted daughter is kidnapped from their English home by a mysterious figure from Ireland, Martin decides to go in pursuit and finds himself across the water exploring his own background as a Protestant in Ulster.
Paranormal novelist Gideon Harlax is drawn into a battle between the forces of good, represented by alien angel Helith, and the forces of evil, represented by Helith's evil brother Asrael. Ranging from Oxford to Denmark, a North Sea ferry to an alien planet, Harlax unwittingly becomes part of an ancient plot that may result in the destruction of Earth...
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.
Through a series of real and imagined encounters with angels, demons, and England's pagan past, a pastor's son begins to question his religion and politics, and comes to terms with his sexuality.
A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One from 1971 to 1978, and later revived in 2005 on BBC Four. With one exception, the original instalments are directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films are all shot on 16 mm colour film. The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story referencing the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas. Each instalment is a separate adaptation of a short story, ranging from 30 to 50 minutes in duration and each featuring well-known British actors such as Clive Swift, Robert Hardy, Peter Vaughan, Edward Petherbridge and Denholm Elliott in the title roles. The first five are adaptations of ghost stories by M. R. James, the sixth is based on a short story by Charles Dickens and the two final instalments are original screenplays by Clive Exton and John Bowen respectively. An earlier black-and-white 1968 Omnibus adaptation of M.R. James's Whistle and I'll Come to You, directed by Jonathan Miller, is often cited as an influence upon the production of the films, and is sometimes included in the canon. The series was revived by BBC Four in 2005 with a new series of annual adaptations.
In the future, the government maintains control of public opinion by outlawing literature and maintaining a group of enforcers, known as “firemen,” to perform the necessary book burnings. Fireman Montag begins to question the morality of his vocation…
Thirty-Minute Theatre is an anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known. It was initially produced by Graeme MacDonald. Thirty-Minute Theatre followed on from a similarly named ITV series, beginning on BBC2 in 1965 with an adaptation of the black comedy Parsons Pleasure. Dennis Potter contributed Emergency – Ward 9, which he partially recycled in the much later The Singing Detective. In 1967 BBC2 launched the UK's first colour service, with the consequence that Thirty-Minute Theatre became the first drama series in the country to be shown in colour. As well as single plays, the series showed several linked collections of plays, including a group of four plays by John Mortimer named after areas of London in 1972, two three-part Inspector Waugh series starring Clive Swift in the title role, and a trilogy of plays by Jean Benedetti, broadcast in 1969, focusing on infamous historical figures such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.
Hypnotist, Joe Keeton, regresses a modern day nurse back beyond her birth to the life of an 18th century maid, Kitty. To this day flowers are left daily on the unconsecrated grave of Kitty. Part of the BBC Leap in the Dark anthology series.
