Performance

(Re-broadcast) Rodney Ackland's black comedy features a cast of major artists and is being shown again as a tribute to the author who died in 1991, shortly after its first transmission. It is the last in this season of studio dramas. Set in a club in Soho, the play is a funny and desolating account of life in bomb-blasted London in the weeks before the 1945 election.

New season of NEW prestigious studio dramas starts with Christopher Hampton's evocation of 1940s Hollywood, featuring a distinguished cast and starring Jeremy Irons. Among the residents of Los Angeles during the 40s were Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Bertolt Brecht and, according to this play, the Austro-Hungarian dramatist Odon Von Horvath, our guide to the sun-soaked boulevards and the bizarre cultural collisions of wartime Hollywood.

This season of studio dramas continues with Henrik Ibsen's classic play directed by David Thacker, artistic director of London's Young Vic. Among a distinguished cast it features Truly Madly Deeply star Juliet Stevenson and Trevor Eve. Nora, tired of being patronised and casually discounted by her husband, rebels against him and by doing so discovers a whole new personality within herself.

The season of studio dramas continues with Arnold Wesker's classic play of the 1950s that passionately extols the value of education. The distinguished cast includes Jane Horrocks, Pam Ferris, Imelda Staunton. Beatie returns to her family home in Norfolk, having been "educated" in cultural and political matters by Ronnie, the boyfriend she lived with in London. Through trying to pass on the things she's learnt to her uninterested family, she discovers her own voice and views - which are no longer just an echo of Ronnie's.

David and Joan's life has been one continuous party, but their marriage is loveless. Suddenly a young girl appears in their world and announces that she's in love with David and wants to change his life for ever. Although critics called it Terence Rattigan's most serious and truthful play, After the Dance has not been seen for 50 years. Tonight's production in the season of studio dramas stars Anton Rodgers, Gemma Jones, Imogen Stubbs

Luigi Pirandello's classic play continues the season of studio dramas. Originally set in a theatre, this new version by Michael Hastings takes place in a film studio in 1950 and is recorded in black and white. The great iron door of the studio swings open. In the light stands a family. The father walks up to the director and says, "Excuse me, we are looking for an author." The family carry with them a great personal tragedy of shame and despair, and have come to the studio to find somebody who can describe their experiences and explain what they've done to each other.