Rodney Bennett

Following his service in World War II, Doctor Finlay returns to the practice at Arden House. This is at a time when the National Health Service is about to be instituted.

Open details →

Two sisters who set up a London fashion house for society of the early 1920s.

Open details →

The daily lives of a group of soldiers in 'B' Company, 1st Battalion The King's Fusiliers.

Open details →

An idyllic picture of 1950's rural England as seen through the lives of the Larkins, a farm family living in Kent. The show revolves around Pa Larkin, a man of a kind and mischievous nature with a penchant for getting into scrapes and talking his way out of them with equal equanimity; and his daughters, as they deal with growing up and discovering the joys and sorrows of young love.

Open details →

The story of a group of Cambridge students and their lives in the ten years following their graduation.

Open details →

The life of a successful student couple at Cambridge University.

Open details →

Sir Alec Guiness stars with Leo McKern in the story of a friendship between a Catholic priest and a Communist Mayor. Together they travel from their remote village to Madrid and back exploring their friendship, the demands of belief and constancy of faith. This lavish production filmed entirely on location captures the wit, warmth, and vitality that make the original novel by Graham Greene a unique work of literature.

Open details →

An anthology of six standalone plays presented relationships either beginning or ending in love – but the outcome was not always marriage (or happiness). A second series of five episodes aired in 1986.

Open details →

Touching comedy about a high court judge, now retired to his English countryside home, who resolves to end years of suspicion about his wife's fidelity and the true paternity of their son.

Open details →

Dombey and Son is a television mini-series produced by the BBC in 1983. It was based on the book Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens. It was adapted by James Andrew Hall and directed by Rodney Bennett.

Open details →

Patrick and Judith have everything prepared for the arrival of their first child but when he is born, they are quite unprepared for the crisis they must face.

Open details →

Stalky & Co. is a faithful adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's book of the same name (less one chapter and the afterstory chapter). Kipling was telling tales based on his own public school experiences as a boy (he is 'Beetle' in the book), and he did an excellent job of capturing the tenor of life in 'the Coll,' a school that catered to boys who would go on to govern and defend the British Empire in the Civil Service, Foreign Service and the military.

Open details →

It is the autumn of 1981 and in Southern Ireland Canon Moran's wife has just died. Three of his daughters come to the funeral, but his youngest and favourite daughter Deirdre stays away ...

Open details →

A story of two sisters attempting to find happiness in the tightly structured society of 18th century England. Elinor, disciplined, restrained and very conscious of the manners of the day, represents sense. Outspoken, impetuous, emotional Marianne represents sensibility.

Open details →

Hamlet comes home from university to find his uncle married to his mother, and his father's ghost haunting the battlements and scaring the watch. Then his father's ghost directs him to seek revenge.

Open details →

An Edwardian house party given by a Fabian woman, her business-man husband and assorted guests from politics and the Arts - including a young man prone to disturbing premonitions.

Open details →

Dark Ages wizard Merlin, weary of the barbarism around him, creates a new order of enlightenment and justice with a youthful Arthur at its head. Merlin gifts Arthur with the magic legendary sword Excalibur to help him defeat the nobles who oppose his rule. But Arthur must also beware his half-sister Morgan, a sorceress who has sworn to kill him to avenge her father's death. As Morgan intensifies her plans for revenge, she uses magic to draw Lancelot and Guinevere into a passionate affair. However, it is the still more traitorous Mordred who will ultimately determine the fate of Arthur's rule.

Open details →

A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.

Open details →

The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusively to the dramatic works of Shakespeare. After encountering numerous problems trying to produce the series, Messina eventually pitched the idea to the BBC’s departmental heads and the series was greenlighted. The series as a whole received generally negative reviews from critics.

Open details →

The story of J.M. Barrie and his relationship with the Llewelyn-Davies family. Barrie writes PETER PAN for the five boys, and later adopts George, Jack, Peter, Michael, and Nicholas.

Open details →

The story of J.M. Barrie and his relationship with the Llewelyn-Davies family. Barrie writes PETER PAN for the five boys, and later adopts George, Jack, Peter, Michael, and Nicholas.

Open details →

'The man knew what he wanted. A relationship that was loving, but not possessive. In other words, he wanted to maintain his sanity.'

Open details →

10-year-old Rebecca Randall moves from her impoverished family's farm to live with her two maiden aunts—Miranda and Jane—in the small town of Riverboro, Maine. Her imagination and spirit wins over the community as she comes of age, leading to personal growth, friendship and eventual success.

Open details →

An anthology of plays and novels adapted into feature length TV movies, broadcast on BBC2 from September 1977 to April 1979.

Open details →

An alien intelligence hitches a ride onboard the TARDIS to 15th century Italy, where a deranged astrologer attempts to harness its power.

Open details →

Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.

Open details →

Serialisation of the novel by Mrs Gaskell.

Open details →

In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences.

Open details →

Sontaran Field Major Styre is conducting experiments on the survivors of future Earth in preparation of a full-scale Sontaran invasion of the planet. Can the Doctor defeat Styre and save the world?

Open details →

In the distant future, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry find a space station preserving the future of mankind. But the insect Wirrn have got there first...

Open details →

Reconstruction of the 19th century trial involving child prostitution. Eliza Armstrong age 13 is sold by her mother Elizabeth for £5 to a brothel.

Open details →

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Open details →

Just before copywriter Victor Dean fell to his death, he wrote to his supervisors at Pym's Publicity Ltd., hinting at improprieties within the agency. Concerned, the company's top brass hires Lord Peter Wimsey (Ian Carmichael) to work undercover and investigate. Was Victor's death an accident or murder? Also starring Peter Bowles and Bridget Armstrong, this BBC miniseries is based on the novel by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Open details →

Dead of Night is a British television anthology of supernatural fiction, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in 1972. It ran for a single series; of its seven 50-minute episodes, only three—'The Exorcism', 'Return Flight', and 'A Woman Sobbing'—are known to survive in the Archives. Another programme made by the same production team under Innes Lloyd, 'The Stone Tape', intended to be the eighth episode, does survive in the Archives but was not broadcast under the Dead of Night banner.

Open details →

The story of Elizabeth, known as Bess of Hardwick, a wealthy and influential figure in Elizabethan England.

Open details →

The Regiment is a 1972 BBC One television drama series starring Christopher Cazenove and follows the story of a British Army regiment from the view of two families.

Open details →

Reconstruction of the 19th century trial involving child prostitution. Eliza Armstrong age 13 is sold by her mother Elizabeth for £5 to a brothel.

Open details →

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Open details →