Pioneering, influential and often challenging, Armchair Theatre was ITV's flagship drama anthology series, running from 1956-73. The series was broadcast on Sunday nights and featured original scripts dealing with issues of the day from a number of esteemed contemporary writers. Bringing high-quality contemporary drama to a wide viewing public, the series easily demonstrated the network's potential to rival the BBC's drama output with diverse and powerful plays.

This selection of twelve plays features scripts by, among others, J.B. Priestley, James Mitchell, Fay Weldon and Alun Owen. The actors to appear in the plays, which range from the ranging from the playful to the poignant, include Patrick McGoohan, Stanley Baker, Billie Whitelaw, Colin Blakely, Judy Cornwell and Hugh Griffith.

Contains the plays Now Let Him Go (1957, with Margaret Ashcroft and Hugh Griffith), The Criminals (1958, with Stanley Baker and Raymond Huntley), A Night Out (1960, with Tom Bell, Harold Pinter and Arthur Lowe), Lena, O My Lena (1960, with Billie Whitelaw, Peter McEnery and Colin Blakely), The Man Out There (1961, with Patrick McGoohan), The Omega Mystery (1961, with John Gregson), A Tune On the Old Tax Fiddle (1961, with John Le Mesurier, Raymond Huntley and Norman Rossington), Afternoon of a Nymph (1962, with Janet Munro and Ian Hendry), The Snag (1963, with June Barry and Arthur Lowe), The Living Image (1963, with Harry Baird, Alec Clunes and Alexis Kanner) and Poor Cherry (1967, with Jane Birkin and Judy Cornwell).