Theatre Royal — 1953

The premiere: Orson Welles takes the lead in Pushkin's 'The Queen of Spades,' with Laurence Olivier launching the series from the stage of London's Haymarket Theatre.

A dramatization of Gogol's classic tale 'The Overcoat,' with Laurence Olivier hosting.

Sir Ralph Richardson stars in Joseph Conrad's story of a mariner's tense confession, 'The Tale.'

Sir John Gielgud plays the leading role in Max Beerbohm's fable 'The Happy Hypocrite.'

Robert Donat leads Robert Louis Stevenson's 'The Sire de Maletroit's Door,' in which a young man is trapped in a stranger's house by a scheming uncle.

A Theatre Royal dramatization titled 'The Judgement'; the adapted work is not identified in the surviving log.

Sir Laurence Olivier stars in Balzac's 'The Purse' -- the week he began appearing in each production as well as hosting.

Olivier presents Balzac's 'La Grande Breteche' -- the tale that aired in place of the announced 'Bartleby,' as his own on-air introduction confirms.

Sir Laurence Olivier plays a conscience-stricken killer in Stevenson's Christmas-night murder story 'Markheim.'

A dramatization of 'Zodomirsky's Duel,' a tale of a fatal point of honour attributed to Alexandre Dumas.

A special Christmas broadcast from London: Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol.'

Oscar Wilde's comic ghost story 'The Canterville Ghost,' in which an American family unsettles the spectre who haunts their English house.