Saturday Night Theatre
Encyclopedia
Saturday Night Theatre was a long-running radio drama strand on BBC Radio 4
. The strand showcased feature-length, middle-brow single plays on Saturday evenings for more than 50 years, having been lanched in April 1943. The plays featured in the strand included stage plays, books adaptations and original dramatisations. For most of its history, programmes ran for 90 minutes and were largely entertainment centred, such as thrillers, comedies and mysteries.
Saturday Night Theatre was noted as the major drama of the week on BBC Radio 4, until it was scrapped as a programme strand in 1996. Shorter plays continued to be broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday evenings from 1996 until the relaunch of the channel's schedule in April 1998 by James Boyle
, when single dramas were removed from the Saturday evening schedule. Since 1998, the main weekly play on the station has been The Saturday Play, a daytime programme that runs for 60–90 minutes.
There have since been campaigns to bring back Saturday Night Theatre, but in the context of BBC budget cuts, that have included the 2010 axing of Radio 4's Friday Play (established in 1998, when Saturday Night Theatre was abolished), any return looks unlikely.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
. The strand showcased feature-length, middle-brow single plays on Saturday evenings for more than 50 years, having been lanched in April 1943. The plays featured in the strand included stage plays, books adaptations and original dramatisations. For most of its history, programmes ran for 90 minutes and were largely entertainment centred, such as thrillers, comedies and mysteries.
Saturday Night Theatre was noted as the major drama of the week on BBC Radio 4, until it was scrapped as a programme strand in 1996. Shorter plays continued to be broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday evenings from 1996 until the relaunch of the channel's schedule in April 1998 by James Boyle
James Boyle (broadcasting)
James Boyle is one of the leading public figures in the British arts world with a long track record in broadcasting in particular. His take-no-prisoners style has earned him numerous plaudits, but also resulted in controversy, most famously at BBC Radio 4....
, when single dramas were removed from the Saturday evening schedule. Since 1998, the main weekly play on the station has been The Saturday Play, a daytime programme that runs for 60–90 minutes.
There have since been campaigns to bring back Saturday Night Theatre, but in the context of BBC budget cuts, that have included the 2010 axing of Radio 4's Friday Play (established in 1998, when Saturday Night Theatre was abolished), any return looks unlikely.