Performance

A series of five broadcasts of stage musicals and plays starts with Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's acclaimed show Company, which was filmed at London's Donmar Warehouse theatre in February 1996. Directed by Sam Mendes, the musical is an exploration of love, sex and relationships in Manhattan. Songs featured include The Ladies Who Lunch, Barcelona and Being Alive. During the interval, Mendes interviews Sondheim.

A series of broadcasts of stage musicals and plays continues with writer Kevin Elvot 's 1995 Olivier Award-winning comedy. Entirely set among London's gay community in the mid-1980s against the background of the mounting AIDS crisis, My Night with Reg follows the ups and downs of a circle of gay friends over a period of several years. One of the group, the Reg mentioned in the title, is not a character in the play but the whole plot revolves around his apparent promiscuity and the chain reaction of deception and betrayal set off by it.

Shakespeare's tragedy in a Royal National Theatre production notable for having an actress playing the king. Starring Fiona Shaw, Graham Crowden, Richard Bremmer King Richard struggles to hold on to his crown in the face of plot and treachery.

Shakespeare's tragedy updated to the present day by documentary-maker Penny Woolcock and set on an inner-city council estate. The play, filmed on Birmingham's Ladywood Estate, features local people alongside some of Britain's most promising young actors. Last in the series.