Pioneering, enormously influential and often challenging, Armchair Theatre was ITV's flagship drama anthology series. Bringing high-quality contemporary drama to a wider viewing public, the series easily demonstrated the network's potential to rival the BBC's drama output with diverse and powerful plays by some of Britain's most gifted writers.

This set comprises twelve plays taken from the series' first incarnation, produced by ABC and broadcast in the 1950s and '60s. An astonishing roll-call of writers includes J.B. Priestley, James Mitchell, Fay Weldon and Alun Owen; Patrick McGoohan, Stanley Baker, Billie Whitelaw, Colin Blakely, Judy Cornwell and Hugh Griffith are among the celebrated and accomplished actors appearing in groundbreaking dramas ranging from the playful to the poignant.